The Ghost Specialist

Granite Cave was located half-an-hour away from the north side of Dewford. There were two alternate routes to get to it: either take stairs up to a path through the island’s interior woods, or take a path along the beach that trainers frequented.

Sam took the forest path, which was longer but lacked the trainer population. He only had Cyndaquil on him, and he hadn’t had enough money to afford anything more than one potion. Engaging in battle was the quickest way to train a Pokémon, but Sam needed her to be in good shape if they were going to explore a cave.

“Here’s the plan: we sneak in so no one stops us, and then we search until we find a Sableye. I’ll use my flashlight to light up the area around us, so you just stay healthy so you can weaken it until I make the catch.”

Cyndaquil made an unsure hum on his shoulder. She was still sitting in his hood. Hearing her hesitance, Sam did his best not to grimace.

“It won’t be like the mansion. We know for a fact that there’s at least one species of Ghost Type that dwells here.”

She hummed again, but for all of her nervousness, she still seemed content with letting Sam continue forward.

They walked in silence as trees loomed around them. No humans were nearby, but occasionally, Sam heard the squawk of the coastal Wingull in the distance.

The peak of a rocky hill soon poked up above the trees. Approaching it, the sound of waves lapping against its side mixed with the sound of cracking rocks. Sam kept himself close to the forest’s edge without making himself known. Looking ahead, the entrance to Granite Cave wasn’t just one opening, but a whole series of holes in that hill with trainers all around.

Each one of them had at least one Pokémon out, and they were either engaged in battle with one another or attacking loose stones. Pokémon like Machop and Machoke punched rocks to practice their attacks. Other species, like Meditite and Medicham, exchanged blows in spar-like battles.

There wasn’t any way to approach without being seen, so Sam waited until most of the trainers had turned away. He kept to the shadows, staying at the base of a curving cliff, walking all the way up to the closest entrance he could see.

Everyone here seemed too busy with their own practice to pay a single, random trainer any mind. Most of the people here were adults, too, but there were a handful of trainers that did seem to be around his age.

Sam blended into the crowd, and no one sought to stop him. Upon reaching his destination, he glanced one last time over his shoulder, then disappeared into the cave’s interior, where he turned on his flashlight.

“Phew,” he sighed. “Easier than I thought.”

Sam went to help Cyndaquil out of his hood. Bracing her on his arm, he went ahead and set her on the ground.

“So, uh, I don’t really know the first thing about cave exploration,” Sam said quietly.

Cyndaquil shrunk in on herself, visibly uncomfortable.

“No, no! Don’t worry! We at least know fire isn’t too common here. If we focus on your Ember, we should be able to scare any wild Pokémon off, right?”

She nodded slowly, obviously unconvinced. Sam did his best to send her a reassuring grin, but it didn’t seem to help.

Everything will be fine.

...Probably.

He couldn’t think of anything else to say, so Sam took a step forward. Cyndaquil followed after him. Then, together, the pair of Pokémon and trainer moved deeper into Granite Cave.

This place was big, but it seemed like that was solely because this room served as the cave’s connected entrance. Other openings from across the cliffside let in light to reveal a massive cavern that stretched out in all directions. Stalactites and stalagmites hung on the ceiling and stood on the floor. Rocks littered the landscape, and a few smaller pathways curved around the upper walls.

Sam could see various tunnels that led deeper down. Moving the beam of his flashlight around, he couldn’t see any wild Pokémon, though.

He figured he needed to head deeper inside.

“I know we ended up not practicing, but be ready to respond to my voice,” Sam whispered. “We can’t afford to freeze up in a place like this. When I say Ember, immediately spit out your move.”

A quiet whine left Cyndaquil’s throat as she nervously agreed. The pitter-patter of her tiny footsteps echoed out, though, Sam’s human-sized footfalls echoed a lot worse.

Water dripped every so often. The air was uncomfortably cold. Sam pulled his jacket tighter as he and Cyndaquil moved to one of the interior entrances. The tunnel sloped down into darkness.

Neither he nor Cyndaquil began their descent right away. After all, the light of Sam's flashlight didn’t reach all the way through.

“I don’t want to get lost,” he mumbled. “We’ll head down and as soon as it levels out, I’ll set up the bait where we know we can find our way out again, alright?”

Another whine from Cyndaquil. He could feel her press against his leg. Not having any further reason to stall, Sam headed down. Cyndaquil kept in pace.

It was nerve-wracking to feel how this sloped floor went deeper and deeper into the earth. Sam had been in a basement before, of course, but this was a cave! It was literally something else.

The tunnel continued, and continued, and continued. The stone floor itself was rough but worn down through the efforts of wild Pokémon. Without access to easy healing like Pokémon with trainers, many wild individuals resorted to using their moves on their surroundings for safer practice.

Eventually, though, the path did level out as Sam expected and split off into several different ways. Though, Sam didn’t take any other path. He shined his light down to check on Cyndaquil, saw she was still safe, then he took a specific item out of his pack.

“Sableye eat crystals,” Sam said. “They’re not like other Pokémon since that’s what sustains them. The powdered quartz I bought is usually an additive for Rock Type Pokémon meals, but I think a Sableye would enjoy it, too.”

As Cyndaquil watched, Sam moved to the center of the room and poured out a small pile of the quartz. Surprisingly, the air down here wasn’t perfectly still—there was the slightest of winds—but it wasn’t enough to blow away any of the grains.

“There. That’s a third of the bottle. That’ll lure a Sableye, right?”

Cyndaquil didn’t make any noises to express her thoughts. Sam would have thought she had disappeared, but he still felt her passive heat. Instead, she was trying to stay as quiet as possible just in case, so Sam went quiet to join her efforts. Without having anything else to do but ready himself, Sam moved back up to hide in the entrance tunnel. There, he began to wait.

And wait.

And wait.

Down here, hours passed slowly. Sam had nothing to do and no way to tell the time. Considering the most he ever left the house was just to travel a few blocks away in town, he never had the need to purchase a watch, either.

He could have trained with Cyndaquil, but that was noisy and Sam didn’t want to scare away any potential wild encounters. Although the tunnel downwards was long, they were still close enough to the busy entrance that Pokémon were rare. He hoped that the pile of quartz would be enough.

Time passed, and he and Cyndaquil stared at the pile of quartz without anything to do. He was tempted to pull out the book, but at the same time, he didn’t want to risk it getting damaged.

“The flashlight can last up to twelve hours,” Sam mumbled. “I guess if it starts to flicker, we’ll know it’s time to head out.”

That would mean Sam was gone all day, but if it also meant ensuring a victory against Buck, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make.

As his watch continued, Cyndaquill moved over to paw at him to get him to sit down. There, she hopped into his lap and curled up into a ball. Her Fire Type body meant she was like a heated pillow, and the warmth made Sam’s eyes start to close.

“No! I can’t fall asleep!”

His shout was more like a loud whisper than anything else.

Cyndaquil’s warmth sunk into his bones. His eyelids felt heavy. He continued to watch the pile of quartz dust and watched and watched and watched and watched—

Maybe it won’t be so bad if I close them for just a moment?

Boredom was a powerful motivator to get someone to rest.

In the end, Sam wasn’t sure how long he slept, but his eyes snapped open to an unnatural noise.

Scrtch. Scrtch.

His heart raced in his chest. Cyndaquil practically jumped out of his lap. Sam stumbled but shifted around just enough to let his flashlight illuminate the quartz pile.

Sam blinked.

The wild Pokémon blinked back.

A girlish Mawile—a small, humanoid Steel Type with a massive, extra pair of jaws—stared at Sam in shock while holding a coarse rock in its hand.

The wild Mawile, though a rare Pokémon, was not the species Sam was looking for. It shoved the stone it was carrying into its mouth and scurried off, causing Sam to sigh.

“That wasn’t it. That wasn’t a Sableye. It—”

Scrth. Scrth.

The same scratching noise rang out. A bit of dust fell from the ceiling. Dreading what he was about to see, Sam brought the light of his flashlight up.

Two glints in the darkness stared back.

Sam went stock still when he saw the gemstone eyes of a wild Pokémon staring right at him. A perfectly white row of sharpened teeth stretched out into a cheshire grin. Around it, fur colored the deep purple of the middle of the night helped it blend into the darkness, but stones on its body let the light properly reveal it. The creature hung off the ceiling with sharpened claws.

Sam almost dropped his flashlight. He took a stumbling step back. The wild Pokémon—the very species he had come here to find—dropped down and landed a foot from the pile.

“Sable,” it said, making some sort of chittering noise. “L-eye?”

Though it was generally agreed Pokémon spoke in variations of their species’s name, it always came out more like animalistic sounds. In this case, something about the way Sableye spoke caused shivers to go down Sam’s spine.

“I... I... I...”

He struggled to get any words to leave his mouth.

This was genuinely the first time in his entire life he had personally seen a Ghost Type. Honestly, it was even more terrifying than he thought.

I love it.

Despite the adrenaline coursing through his veins, Sam brought his free hand forward in a point, the same pose he had seen all of the trainers on T.V. make.

“Cyndaquil! Ember!”

She squeaked in surprise and didn’t use the move right away. Still, it only took her a second to act, and the flames on her back burst into full blast as she opened up her mouth and released the called-for attack.

Globs of flaming spittle shot forward in a wide, poorly aimed spray. The Sableye somehow grinned even wider, and it took many, quick steps backwards to completely avoid the attack.

“Again!” Sam shouted, but the wild Sableye was already moving forward.

Cyndaquil took in a breath to unleash another Ember, but the Sableye rapidly tip-toed over and then jumped at her in a pounce.

She cried out in pain; a Scratch tore at her side. She wobbled where she stood, and the Sableye hopped right back. The gremlin Pokémon tilted its head at her. It almost seemed curious about her pain.

“Are you okay, Cyndaquil?”

She whimpered, but she still nodded in reply. Cyndaquil didn’t actually have any serious wounds. Instead, she was just scared, but fighting was in a Pokémon’s blood. She took another step forward and raised her head, doing her best to force through the confidence needed to face this foe.

“Ember!” Sam shouted.

The wild Sableye once again easily avoided the attack.

It ran, Cyndaquil’s Ember following after it, but it still managed to scoop up as much of the powdered quartz as it could and dart down one of the side paths.

“After it!” Sam shouted.

Cyndaquil squeaked in alarm, but Sam was already chasing it deeper down.

Sableye was a rare Pokémon. Going deeper was a risk, but it was one Sam was willing to take. Letting it escape here meant letting his one potential chance at a sure-fire victory slip away. Buck absolutely deserved to taste defeat. Sam wanted the man to feel emotional pain.

With his longer legs, Sam could move faster than Cyndaquil, so he stopped to grab her in one arm. He held the tiny Pokémon like a football, charging forward. At the same time, he made sure his flashlight remained trained on his foe.

“Ember again!” he shouted.

In the crook of his arm, Cyndaquil opened her mouth and unleashed her attack.

More flames chased after the Sableye, but it continued to run, cackling all the way. Sam shouted for Cyndaquil to attack again, and again, and again, but all of the attacks missed. Then, he started to notice a strange smell—smoke.

He looked down. The flames from Cyndaquil’s back had set fire to his jacket’s arm.

“Fire!” he shouted in alarm.

Cyndaquil used Ember again, completely missing the point.

He rushed to set her down, yanked his jacket from over his head, and tossed that exterior layer to the floor. He stomped on it to put out the flames.

Sam was panting, both from running and from the adrenaline of the fight. His arm tingled but was undamaged. That whole act had caused him to drop his flashlight, but he picked it up and pointed it at his jacket on the floor.

A hole had been burned in the arm, but it was still mostly usable. Cyndaquil, however, refused to look him in the eye. She looked as sheepish as she could get.

“Ugh. This is on me,” Sam groaned.

Pointing his flashlight back towards the corridor, the Sableye was already gone. Not just that, he checked his backpack.

It stole the bottle! It snuck up on us and took the rest of the quartz when we were asleep!

Sam wanted to scream. This whole thing had been stupid. The Sableye had completely fooled them, and not just that, they had pointlessly gone deeper into the cave.

Annoyed, Sam scratched at the side of his head. Cyndaquil made a questioning noise.

“I’ll be alright. I just didn’t think Ghost Types were as tricky as that.”

He shined his flashlight towards back where they came, but then Sam immediately froze.

There wasn’t just one tunnel behind him, but a passage of three. Sableye had followed a twisting path deeper into the cave, and now Sam was in an unfamiliar intersection. Each and every entrance was far too similar to tell apart, and that whole moment where he had thrown off his jacket had turned him completely around.

Which... which one did we come out of?

“Is it... that one? Or maybe that one?”

He tried to sniff the air to maybe smell where a previous use of Ember had hit, but the smoke from his jacket polluted the space too much. In other words...

“Cyndaquil,” Sam said, “I think we might be lost.”