We were surrounded.

  Dark figures lurked in the trees, and long claws dragged grooves into the bark. Thin layers of surface-level snow fell in waves. Red eyes gleamed within the shadows, and even Liepard wasn’t able to hide. Every Pokémon species had a special ability innate to it, and the group that surrounded us had an especially Keen Eye.

  Valiant brought up their polearm, readying their stance with weapon in hand. Rotom let the inside of his washing machine churn, building pressure he could release in an instant. His location discovered, Liepard was at my side with an arched back. There was no sense for him to continue to stalk about as our preliminary scout—it was better to be prepared for this fight together.

  A sound echoed around us; the attacking swarm snickered. The wild Pokémon’s shared gaze did not leave the items we carried.

  Valiant’s crystal weapon. My enormous backpack. And Rotom’s...

  Well, Rotom’s everything.

  This was an entire group of unevolved Pokémon—and that was not a good thing. Despite their individual weakness, their continued presence in the Giant Chasm spoke of their skill in mass combat. They were all the same species, and they all shared the same types: Ice and Dark. They resisted the freezing temperature that defined the air, and as Dark-types, they naturally excelled at the more “sneaky” acts.

  Their goal was clear: to take our stuff. We were “visitors” to this crater, and that meant we were nothing more than a delivery of items that the Pokémon here wouldn’t normally find. This wasn’t just an attack to defend their territory; this was an attack to take everything we had.

  These Sneasel would not allow us to leave without some kind of “repayment” for this fight.

  “Rotom,” I said quietly. “I’ll need you to protect Liepard.”

  He understood what I meant immediately, but the Sneasel weren’t willing to give me time to say any more commands. The second my sentence ended, the dark-furred Pokémon leapt from the trees. Red feathers on their head vibrated from the force of the wind, and I only had a second to duck close to Valiant’s legs while Rotom rushed to place himself before Liepard and protect that feline from the attack.

  “GLEAM!” I shouted.

  Only one Pokémon and one Pokémon alone on my team was capable of using any such attack.

  Valiant was by far the fastest Pokémon here, and they stabbed their weapon straight up over their head. I pulled my coat up to protect myself, and Rotom braced himself for this damage. As so many Sneasel sailed through the air, claws shining, a slight gleam appeared at the edge of Valiant's weapon.

  Then, that gleam grew until it became a full-on blast.

  The Dazzling Gleam consumed this small area beneath the trees of the Giant Chasm’s forests. Its pink light seared into the bodies of the Sneasel, dealing super effective Fairy-type damage to the swarm of Dark types. Several of the Sneasel hit the ground, unable to keep battling, but their healthy allies jumped in just to drag them away. Some, the more determined ones, kept moving, and there were still plenty of other Sneasel that hadn’t been caught in the blast.

  Thus, we fought.

  “Hydro Pump, sweep it around!” I shouted to Rotom, who was shaking off the damage he had taken on Liepard’s behalf. “Liepard, Slash anything that stands out! And Valiant—”

  A blast of water was already tearing around us. Despite taking Valiant’s Dazzling Gleam up close to protect Liepard, Rotom pushed through that pain to open his washing machine door and have its roaring water tear through the trees.

  “Valiant,” I continued, standing up and retrieving my baton from inside my coat. “We’re not holding back. Go ahead and use Electric Terrain.”

  Cries and hisses from the Sneasel echoed out from around us; Rotom and Liepard’s combined assault was working. However, there were too many Sneasel, and my Pokémon wouldn’t be able to fight forever. Hydro Pump only had so many uses before Rotom had to close his washing machine and let all of the water build back up. Liepard, meanwhile, only truly excelled at fighting one Pokémon at a time—which he was doing by carving through any Sneasel that strayed too close in its attacks.

  Valiant had bought time for their assault by using his Dazzling Gleam, and now, everyone was buying time for Valiant in return.

  We needed to do something big if we wanted to end this fight fast.

  Just like how the Sneasel had trained their Keen Eye as an ability, Valiant was an Iron Valiant, a Pokémon that belonged to a special classification of rare Pokémon. Their ability was not unique, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t powerful. Due to an Iron Valiant’s robotic nature, they had an engine in their chest—an engine that constantly ran and fueled all of their movements.

  Specifically, an engine capable of bringing them to the next level if properly supercharged.

  Once again stabbing their blade into the air, the edge of Valiant’s weapon crackled with yellow electricity. Bolts broke off to hit the trees, but Valiant used both hands to grab their weapon’s haft and stab it into the forest floor, sending that lightning spreading out in all directions.

  The world became stained by electricity as this move, Electric Terrain, temporarily changed our forest battlefield. Static became a constant needling feeling under our feet, and the world itself was a battery that could fuel and empower any Electric-type move.

  Or, the world could fuel and empower the engine in Valiant’s chest.

  Liepard had been caught out of place, and three Sneasel jumped in an attempt to strike back now that they had surrounded him. However, those Sneasel never fully realized just how poorly positioned they actually were. Valiant disappeared from the center of our group just to reappear behind the jumping Pokémon’s attacks.

  With a slash, all three Sneasel were hit and sent flying into the woods, and Liepard sent Valiant a thankful nod before returning to his more targeted fights.

  Behind, thanks to the ongoing Electric Terrain, Rotom switched moves to start striking with Thunderbolts, making the most of the charge they had access to while its temporary effects remained.

  Our battlefield became something closer to a blender, as almost every Sneasel attempting to steal our stuff became subject to Valiant’s overpowered onslaught. The thing about their engine, their Quark Drive, was that it enhanced their best attribute, and as skilled and powerful as Valiant’s strikes were, what made Valiant a threat in combat was their speed.

  So, Valiant moved at a doubled pace, using their increased momentum to deliver lightning-fast blows. Though the Sneasel seemed endless, they only seemed endless. These Pokémon were only part of a single swarm, and we were tearing through them—but by we, I truly meant all of us.

  Occasionally, one would get too close, and I would have to knock it far back with a swing of my baton.

  “Just a bit more!” I called out. “ They’ll leave before too long!”

  We were winning. Electric Terrain was our trump card. The static even helped with exhaustion. The constant needles of electricity meant no one could ever fall asleep.

  But this battle didn’t end so easily.

  Finally, this was the moment a certain newcomer arrived.

  “Liepard, get the Sneasel on the left!” I shouted, and when I turned my head to check on everyone else, something blue and metallic crashed through the trees just to slam straight into Valiant’s back.

  This was a being made of metal, a thick, silver-blue disc with two arms that hung off its sides. Claws just as sharp as the Sneasel’s gleamed at the end of those metal limbs, and red eyes sunken into the carapace of this species locked onto Valiant with a focus that screamed its unhidden desire for a challenging fight.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Not expecting this sudden, alien species to arrive, Valiant was sent stumbling forward. For all that the Electric Terrain enhanced them, it did nothing to improve their defense.

  Two Sneasel jumped, carving thin lines across the metal of Valiant’s chest before clanging off the crystal that poked out of their body’s center. Two more claws tore at Valiant’s legs, attempting to hamstring them, but the pair of Sneasel couldn’t get past Valiant’s lightweight metal defenses.

  Valiant took that damage, lines appearing across their body. And, behind them, that newcomer threw itself forward, sliding right through the air once again.

  I thought that this new Pokémon was about to attack Valiant again, but the Sneasel surrounding my friend ended up being subjected to a different kind of highly aggressive attack.

  It was a blend of moves, a flurry of movement. The Pokémon used both its body and its limbs to attack everything around it at once.

  The Sneasel were struck—but so was Valiant.

  “It’s a Metang!” I shouted, Liepard running over to stand at my side. “...This is getting complicated. We can’t brute force this. The Sneasel aren’t backing off, and the Metang looks ready to fight everyone here.”

  This battle had turned from a two-sided match to a three-sided frenzy, and with the Metang laying into both the Sneasel and Valiant, I could already tell my Pokémon were flagging. We were going to win, but this wasn’t our first battle today. We’d need to leave the crater soon, and we needed at least some energy left to enable our climb back out.

  But I couldn’t forget just why we were here, and that thought came with an answer:

  Though battling was an option, there was a different solution I could follow to quickly end this fight.

  “With me, Liepard,” I said. “Protect the backpack. We need to make the Sneasel leave first, and they look just weak enough that I should be able to help, myself."

  Liepard replied with a single nod of his head, but his gaze was slightly off. As Rotom unleashed lightning bolt after lightning bolt to defend us, I could tell that as much as Liepard wanted to continue this battle, he kept sending looks to Valiant.

  The Metang had charged into this area and had completely disrupted our pace. Valiant was supposed to stand at the top of our team, but seeing that strong Pokémon be struck so easily was throwing Liepard off.

  Still, he stayed by my side as I ran toward the trees, charging at the edge of the clearing. Rotom’s joyous cackles bounced through the air, and the wild Metang stuck close to the opposite side, fighting Valiant, the Sneasel, and what felt like the world itself.

  Right now, this fight was three-sided, but as soon as the Sneasel left, the Metang was likely to turn solely toward us.

  That was true for whoever we defeated first, but I had a basic plan at least. To make things easy, I really hoped my idea would “encourage” all of the Sneasel to flee.

  “There!” I shouted, identifying where two healthy-looking Sneasel crouched in a bush. Neither of these two Pokémon seemed intent on joining the fight, solely serving as weaker members of their tribe that’d jump in to drag away any allies that got too hurt.

  Their eyes widened when they realized Liepard and I were charging directly toward them, and both of them cried out to call for help.

  “Liepard, Assist!” I shouted.

  In this case, my shout was more explicit than it seemed.

  Liepard growled, and the sound of his cry caused light to flash around Rotom behind us. That light turned to motes that were drawn into a paw-shaped glow that hovered in front of Liepard’s mouth. Two Sneasel—two Sneasel that weren’t the pair in the bush—leaped down to defend. Liepard let his growl turn into a full-on Snarl, and his glowing paw-shape burst.

  This was a move exclusive to feline species. Assist let him draw in and “borrow” moves from Pokémon he considered his allies.

  Though he didn’t have fine control over what move was used, this case still worked out well. The paw-shape exploded outward into a sphere of darkness, and the Shadow Ball stolen from Rotom escaped Liepard to tear through the defending pair of Sneasel, taking them out.

  “Great! And now—”

  I was right there, facing the two undefended Sneasel, and my baton swung.

  I wasn’t a Pokémon. I was a human. I could only hit with the strength of a moderately trained person. However, my “attack” was the equivalent of an unevolved Pokémon’s Tackle—or, given how a switch let electricity crackle at the end of my baton’s end—it was close to the Thundershock of a weak, untrained, electric rodent.

  Whatever my swing was comparable to, it hit one Sneasel in the side, and a follow-up blow let me jab the other in the chest. Both of them grunted in pain and leaped back. Though not an impressive pair of strikes, my and Liepard’s charge represented a change in the status quo:

  We were no longer on defense. We were now directly attacking the group of Sneasel in return.

  “Three in the tree on the left,” I said, speaking as fast as I could, loud enough so that anything nearby could hear. “One looking down above us. Two more off in that direction. And then there are a few more over there that we might want to—”

  A whistle echoed through the woods.

  We had already been doing well in this fight, but my and Liepard’s push had completely turned it around on this group of Sneasel. They wanted to take our items, but they didn’t want to get taken out, themselves. Some fights just weren’t worth continuing, and with them now on the back foot, the whistle had been a signal for all of the Sneasel to try to escape.

  “Great!” I made sure my smile was as close to a smirk as possible—I wanted to project confidence to ensure the fleeing Sneasel didn’t turn around. “And now, we need to help.”

  With a quick shout of “hurry,” Liepard and I ran back toward the rest of the fight.

  The Sneasel were gone, but so was the Electric Terrain. As a result, Valiant’s Quark Drive no longer provided them with a super-charge. Their speed was back to normal, and they could barely bring up their weapon in time to block each of the Metang’s blows. If it were earlier in the day, they might have had a better chance, but they were flagging and could only focus on defense after everything they’d expended before.

  I had but a single second to finalize my plan, but I did have this chance to take a better look at the Metang. Just like Valiant, it had suffered dozens of scratch marks from all of the weak Sneasel fighting it, but this wild Pokémon had plenty of injuries from beyond just this battle.

  Scuff marks discolored its blue metal, and worn grooves and dents hinted at blows it had taken in the past. When it attacked, it favored one arm over the other, and I wasn’t sure if that was due to a bad habit or a lingering injury. The sharp spike that almost resembled a nose in the center of Metang’s face was chipped at its very end. Likely, at one point or another, a charge from this Pokémon had been blocked, resulting in that damage.

  This Metang was not just a random Pokémon lured in by the noise of a battle; this was a Pokémon that actively sought out and joined fights all the time.

  However, though damaged, all of the Metang’s injuries hinted at the experience it had gathered in this crater. Given its focused gaze, I could tell that taking it out via battle would not be easy—especially given our impending exhaustion.

  But all we needed to do was end this battle, not finish the Metang off. Given my goals in this crater, sometimes the easiest way to achieve something was to take the most direct route.

  “Valiant!” I shouted, tearing my pack off my back to dig through a side pocket. “Overwhelm it! Use Close Combat!”

  With my shout, I bought myself some time, and the Metang wasn’t able to prepare a defense before Valiant was immediately on it.

  Though Valiant was injured as well, they had complete faith in my command and did not hesitate for even a second. A Metal Claw tore at one of their arms, but they threw their entire body into unleashing this attack. Elbow, fist, and blade were thrown into this Metang. Forsaking all forms of defense, Valiant used their entire body for furious assault.

  The wild Pokémon’s metallic nature limited just how well a physical attack could dig into it, but Valiant’s Close Combat did, in fact, start pushing the Metang back.

  “Now, fall back!” I shouted toward Valiant, who immediately stopped their strikes to jump back and make more room. “Liepard, your turn!”

  This whole time, Liepard had been stalking toward the pair of battlers, and he leaped from where he had positioned himself in a bush. With that surprise strike, he carved through the Metang, utilizing a claw the same color as night.

  Liepard’s Night Slash landed critically. Metang’s red eyes widened in both pain and surprise. A brand new groove was carved into the bottom of its body, and I finally found just what I was looking for in my pack.

  “Now you, Rotom!” I shouted next, drawing back my arm.

  For this, the metal of Metang’s body almost served as a conductor. The Thunderbolt hit it as soon as I let my payload fly.

  The second the lightning stopped, a new projectile hit the center of the Metang’s face.

  The wild Pokémon was dazed after all of the attacks it had just taken, and it wasn’t prepared to suddenly be sucked up and turned into light by the yellow-and-black sphere of an Ultra Ball.

  Metang disappeared. The Ultra Ball closed. As soon as that capture device hit the earth, the ball began to shake.

  “Okay,” I said, breathing in and out, doing my best to gather my breath. “Everyone, reposition. I think I remember Metang having a pretty low catch rate.”

  I expected this Pokémon to break free, but I had three more Ultra Balls on me. However, using this first one had put a pause on the fight and gave us a moment to prepare.

  The difference between Pokéballs in the games and real life was how they explicitly functioned. Classically, it took three shakes for a Pokémon to be captured, but that was just a representation of a Pokémon fighting back. Here, the Metang didn’t fight right away—after all that damage, it needed a second to recover before it could gather enough energy to try to escape. That meant the ball had more time to “secure” this capture, but it didn’t finish before the Metang started to unleash its attacks.

  After several seconds, the initial shake came.

  Seeing that, I breathed in, and Valiant rested slightly while bringing their blade back up.

  Then, the second shake happened, and I breathed out. Nearby, Liepard moved to hide himself in the bushes once again.

  After that, a third shake, and I almost thought that was it, but a fourth shake followed almost immediately after.

  Then, a fifth shake. And then a sixth.

  This Metang did not want to give up, and it was a Pokémon that wanted to continue its fight.

  At least, based on how hard it was fighting, that was how I interpreted it.

  When the Ultra Ball finally broke open, snapping in half and releasing the Metang, each and every member of my team was prepared to continue this battle. However, as the Metang’s metal body vibrated to release the equivalent of a roar—

  The wild Pokémon turned and immediately used the Giant Chasm’s magnetic fields to slide through the air, disappearing into the woods at a lightning-fast pace.

  This space between the trees became silent, and the dozens of Pokémon that had once been present were now all absent. The ever-present muffling of noise in the crater resumed, and the sheer weight of nothing at all almost threatened to make me collapse.

  “Okay. New plan,” I said to my team, allowing myself to fall back and lean against a tree. “We’re leaving this crater. We really need to rest. But, once we’re back here tomorrow, we’ll have a new goal to chase.”

  No matter what, I needed to catch at least a fourth Pokémon, and I had many species on my list. Metang was right at the top of desired potential captures, and this individual hit practically every check mark in the book.

  It was strong. Experienced. And it was capable of taking a hit. It could evolve into a Pokémon so strong that some people even called it a “pseudo-Legendary,” and its species excelled at acting defensively while delivering strong blows.

  Not just that, but the way it had kept up with Valiant—albeit an exhausted Valiant—meant we wouldn’t need to train it anywhere near as much to have it match everyone else.

  But the real reason I wanted to catch that Metang was because of the focus I saw in its eyes. While any Pokémon could train to become a strong battler, very few Pokémon could so wholly throw themselves into a fight.

  “We’re catching that Metang,” I said, breathing out to steady myself. “We’re catching that Metang, and then we’re pushing deeper in. A Pokémon that strong and that willing to battle? Yeah. I want it to join us. After all, there’s no way we encounter a Pokémon as determined as that Metang and then not add them to our team.”

  Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:

  Nick’s Team:

  Iron Valiant

  enormous thank you to everyone reading! Your support keeps this story going.