Our goal had changed; we were no longer trying to catch any possible Pokémon. Now, we had a specific Pokémon in mind that we sought to add to our team. While I wasn’t insane—if we ran into an Excadrill or another strong Steel type, I’d still try to catch it—my entire focus and energy was spent searching for that one Metang. In a way, doing so was a form of training in and of itself.

  Every day, we’d pay the “toll” needed for an easy passage through the Tangela’s territory, dipping into the funds we’d earned by battling the previous night. From there, we’d search the crater, braving the cold forest to hunt down all potential signs of this Metang. And we did find some signs. It just took effort.

  Rotom was unable to help—the magnetic fields threw off his internal compass. While it wasn’t an issue for him to follow along, he’d often struggle to identify previously used paths. Valiant, meanwhile, was our stalwart defender against any would-be attackers. Therefore, it was Liepard who took the lead and guided our search.

  He was not a hound, so he did not have a nose trained for following scents. However, Liepard was a big cat, a feline, a predator that all but stood at the top of the pack. His instincts and senses were primed for searching out prey. And, sure, his prey this time around might have been a big chunk of floating metal, but he was adept at locating and pointing out the equivalent of tracks.

  Paths of broken branches. Trees with grooves carved into them by rending claws. Shadows cast into the ground where floating Pokémon hovered by, the rare gleam of blue metal serving as a hint toward the magnetic field’s most frequently used routes.

  Because of Liepard, the uncommon Beldum became common. I supposed I could have caught one of those, but that specific Metang never left my mind.

  We did happen upon other Pokémon in this crater, as expected, but any battle always ended up in our win—or our calculated retreat. However, there was at least one surprise; we ended up finding that same group of Sneasel from the other day. Creeping about, Liepard accidentally led us to the base of an ancient, evergreen tree while following familiar claw marks. When we emerged into the space beneath the tree’s branches, countless red eyes surrounded by dark fur stared down at us all at once.

  Faced with this gang of Sneasel, we were prepared to go on a fighting retreat, but any potential violence was put on hold as a pudgy, pink Pokémon all but stomped our way.

  “Alright, alright!” I shouted quickly as its tiny fists uselessly battered my side. “We’ll go! Sorry!”

  Because of that Pokémon’s influence, no battle was entertained.

  This group of Sneasel used that towering tree’s heavy branches as their base, and they had retreated here after getting injured in a completely unrelated fight. This pink Pokémon had arrived to assist with that recovery, completely unbothered by the Sneasel’s mischievous nature.

  When my team and I walked away, I could already see that Pokémon’s hands begin to glow for the start of a Heal Pulse. Audino were naturally kind Pokémon, wild or not, and the species’s willingness to heal any injury was likely why they had become so widespread in Unova.

  In truth, no wild Pokémon ever wanted to prevent an Audino from entering its territory. They were instinctual healers, and they represented easy access to quick recovery. The healing provided by roaming Audino was the number one explanation for why Unova’s wild Pokémon were tougher than wild Pokémon found elsewhere. And, that level of “easy” healing was another reason why the Pokémon in the Giant Chasm were so willing to fight.

  However, as we left the Sneasel’s tree, a certain detail about what we saw stuck out to me.

  “That Metang was already injured when it attacked us,” I said quietly to my team. “Except, an Audino should have been able to heal it. There’s no reason for it to have entered a fight so damaged, unless...”

  I frowned, remembering just how Valiant and I used to take things back when I was still adapting to this world.

  “Unless it’s so focused on battling, the Metang isn’t caring about its wellbeing,” I said softly, absentmindedly rubbing some faded marks on the back of my hand. “To it, an Audino might just be another species for it to attack.”

  At my side, Valiant uncomfortably rolled their shoulders. The glow in their eyes dimmed at the reminder of our past.

  From there, Liepard continued to guide our group, but his strategy changed somewhat. Instead of hunting for anything that could have been left by that Metang, he looked for familiar details that brought us closer toward active fights.

  A Solrock crashed against a half-asleep Lunatone. A Mamoswine led a group of Piloswine in a territory dispute against a Weavile and its Sneasel. A lone Excadrill dug through the earth to slip out and steal some berries from a tree that a few Taillow nested in.

  I almost wanted to catch the Excadrill we saw, but once again, that wild species took one look at us, grunted, and then dove straight back into the earth.

  I’d only ever been so offended one other time in my life.

  Spending days in the Giant Chasm did lead to a noticeable increase in strength. The battles became easier, and the freezing environment became more tolerable. Charges from Mamoswine that Valiant would be forced to avoid became moves that Valiant could now deflect. The Psychic-type attacks of Solrock and Lunatone became less of an overwhelming struggle and more of a technique Rotom could disrupt with Shadow Ball. The straggler species, the lone individuals searching for loose items to take, were dealt with quickly and efficiently by Liepard’s Night Slash. With those improvements came added time in each day. The less energy we spent in battle, the more energy we had to continue our search.

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  And then, days after first finding that Metang, almost two weeks since our initial steps into the crater, we finally found exactly what we were looking for.

  Increasing the radius of his search, Liepard brought us to the very edge of the Giant Chasm. There, we found no battle waiting for us, but a cliff that extended far into the air with an open cave at its base.

  “Shh,” I said, crouching and lowering my voice. “We found it. That Metang. It’s right there.”

  Finally.

  “Except...” I continued, narrowing my eyes. “It’s just... floating? It’s... doing something. I don’t get it. What’s it waiting for?”

  We had found the Metang, but it was just floating in place, and I couldn’t bring myself to approach.

  My curiosity was getting the best of me.

  This Metang looked worse now than it did even just a few days ago—even its magnetic levitation saw it hovering closer to the ground. Scrapes and dents littered what should have been its nearly impervious body. The darkness around its eyes made them seem even more sunken than before. And, on its right arm, one of its metal claws had suffered a noticeable chip.

  But yet, even with all of that building damage, this Pokémon had not given up.

  Creeping around to get a better look at it, I managed to catch a glimpse of the Metang’s expression from where I hid behind the trees. Its species had a metal, almost emotionless face similar to an Iron Valiant’s, but its eyes revealed everything.

  It might have just been floating there, out in the open, but this Metang was staring straight into the depths of that cave with an undeniable determination.

  Then, the Metang vibrated.

  A low shout echoed out from deep inside the Pokémon’s body.

  “It’s calling out its name,” I whispered as the Pokémon’s shout echoed around us. “By the sound of it, it’s like...”

  My eyes widened ever so slightly.

  “It’s challenging something to a fight,” I realized.

  Behind me, Valiant suddenly snapped their hands up to better grip their polearm. At my side, all of Liepard’s fur suddenly stood on its ends.

  Something shifted from within the darkness of that cliffside opening. The earth shook as a brand new Pokémon lumbered out; where Metang was two-limbed and floating, this Pokémon walked with four independent legs. Its body was made out of that same, silvery blue, and a large metal “X” covered its face.

  The newcomer’s red eyes were completely emotionless as it brought its gaze toward the challenger that floated outside its home.

  “A Metagross.” My words were so quiet that they could barely be described as a whisper. “The evolution of Metang. A pseudo-Legendary Pokémon. Finding one is difficult. Evolution is a struggle for even the most experienced of trainers. A Metang was already a rare species, but to see a Metagross that managed to fully evolve in the wild?”

  There was no doubting it; for a trainerless Pokémon, this thing had to be strong.

  To the Metang, however, the Metagross was just another opponent, but calling it “just” another opponent would have been incorrect. Based on the look in the Metang’s eyes, this Metagross was the opponent. It was the challenge that the Metang had been striving for. There was such a dogged determination, such a drive to this mid-stage Pokémon’s stare that it was almost a miracle that it didn’t immediately throw itself forward.

  The Metang’s body vibrated once again as it let out another cry, and the Metagross didn’t react at all to the repeated challenge. The fully evolved Pokémon’s red gaze simply flicked over the Metang, and the Metang floated slightly higher in expectation.

  But if the Metagross noticed the excitement, it didn’t show it. Rather, the first set of emotions it had displayed across this entire encounter finally crossed its face:

  Annoyance.

  Then, disappointment.

  Turning around in a silent dismissal, the heavy legs of the Metagross once again caused the earth to rumble as it returned to the darkness of its home. Behind it, the Metang started to shake, and I could see how its own eyes shifted to display so many different emotions at once—but, primarily, its stare became filled with rage.

  It happened almost faster than I could process; the Metang flung itself through the air. It used the Giant Chasm’s magnetic field to accelerate to an incredible pace.

  But, even faster than it had moved, the Metang suddenly hit the earth. Blue, telekinetic energy held it down as it struggled to free itself from the Metagross’s distant grip.

  Now properly irritated, the Metagross finally looked back. Perhaps to deal with an ongoing pest, or perhaps just to settle the Metang’s persistent challenges, the blue metal of the fully evolved Pokémon’s lower body creaked open.

  A glow built in the Metagross’s mouth.

  “That’s—”

  Valiant lunged, grabbing me and pulling me away to hide behind a tree. Briefly, this entire space beneath the cliffside became solely defined by heat and light. Churned-up dirt was launched into the air, and I didn’t get to see the attack. Yet, I could tell what it was:

  A Hyper Beam.

  A laser attack.

  The ultimate Normal-type move.

  Given that Metang was a Steel type, it should have resisted this attack. However, the Metagross possessed such an insane level of power that this resisted move had utterly taken the Metang out. From where it had been pinned by Psychic energy, there was now a small crater in the earth. The Metang had been rendered utterly unconscious, half-buried in the dirt.

  But the Metagross was still there.

  Standing outside its cave.

  As I peeked out, its deep red eyes flicked our way, and I felt my breath catch in my throat.

  When it came to obtaining true power, that power could only come from countless moments of personal experience. Here, this Metagross stood at the very peak of what the average wild Pokémon could become. My team and I didn’t just recognize that—we could feel that.

  However, all the Metagross did was flick its eyes over us and then express its disinterest. The moment its gaze fell away, I felt as though I could breathe once more.

  As the Metagross disappeared back into its darkened, stony home, Rotom’s washing machine hit the dirt with a thump as he abandoned it to hide within my watch. Meanwhile, I had never seen Liepard stand with a back so arched or a tail so puffed up. Valiant was my team member most in control, but with how they held their blade, if their knuckles had been flesh, they would have turned stark white by now.

  As we stood, we could only maybe beat that Metagross in a fight. Valiant could likely keep it occupied, but we would also need to heavily rely on Liepard’s tricks. However, following that strategy would just force Liepard to become our weakest link. One well-placed move, and our entire side of the battle would collapse.

  “But it’s pretty neat, right?” I said, a tremor to my voice as I looked around at my team. “To see something that strong and know that you have so much farther to go.”

  Liepard sat down and began to lick a paw, acting casually as if to suggest that he had understood that from the start. Next to me, Valiant had to almost force themself to lower their blade. I had a feeling that their alertness would be at its max for the next several days.

  But, in all honesty, that Metagross didn’t matter. It was a chance encounter at best. No capture attempt aimed at it would ever work, and I could already tell that it didn’t have a personality that’d fit on my team.

  As I collected Rotom’s fallen washing machine, my gaze flicked back over to the newly formed crater in the center of this clearing. There, our target lay unconscious, able to be easily captured, but I didn’t grab one of my spare Ultra Balls.

  No.

  As much as I wanted to catch this Metang, we weren’t here to force it to fight for us. Capturing it now would only go against everything my Pokémon and I stood for. Instead, we would wait. We would fight it properly. We would give it a pitch.

  By the end of the day, this Metang would be a part of our team.

  Pokémon mentioned in this chapter:

  /

  Nick’s Team:

  Iron Valiant

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