The Ghost Specialist

Sam was stupid. He had been a moron, and he hated that.

What kind of trainer runs deeper into a cave they were unprepared for? What kind of trainer willingly chases a Ghost Type without any prior thought?

Oh, yeah. Me.

Now that the reality of the situation had fully sunken in, Sam recognized he had made several critical errors in his decision-making process. Choosing to catch a Sableye was impulsive. Entering the cave without experience was a novice’s mistake. Actually chasing the Sableye?

He wanted to be a Ghost Type specialist, but what Ghost Type specialist would fall for an obvious trick?

“I think the worst part about this is that I don’t even know if I’m supposed to stay in one place or search for a way out. Do we try to find an exit, or are we supposed to not move and wait for a rescue party? Or, wait, is that only for if you’re lost in a forest?”

As someone who had lived in a small, island city for most of his life, Sam lacked any applicable survival skills. At most, he only took short trips into the nearby forest, and that only happened once every few years. He knew that he was supposed to swim parallel to the shore when caught in a riptide, but that had absolutely nothing to do with being lost in the cave. What hurt him the most about this situation was that he hadn’t just hurt himself. He had hurt Cyndaquil, too.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, leaning back and sliding down a wall. “I should have never come here. I shouldn’t have gotten us lost like this.”

Cyndaquil walked over, illuminated by the flashlight Sam let hit the ground. She stopped a foot away from his legs, and then she continued forward. Cyndaquil pressed herself against his side and affectionately rubbed against him.

Things would be alright, she was saying. They just needed to trust one another.

“I know.” A small chuckle left Sam’s lips. “I shouldn’t give up so soon.”

Looking at his Pokémon and closest friend, Cyndaquil was forcing herself to not shake. Her fur was standing on its ends, but she was standing as tall as she could to appear brave. There was something about how she was pushing past her own fear to comfort Sam that made him feel better. Her support caused a smile to grow on his face, and he shook his while taking out the Potion he had bought. Cyndaquil had a red line on her side after being hit with Sableye’s Scratch.

“Alright, let’s think of a plan,” he said, spraying Cyndaquil’s side and watching the minor wound fade away. “I have no clue how long we were asleep, so I have no clue how long it’ll take for someone to realize we’re gone. Mom is probably busy working the store, so she won’t get worried until late tonight. As for food—”

His stomach rumbled.

It was definitely after lunch.

“Okay, so I don’t have any food on me, which is probably a big problem. We could still wait it out anyway, or we can take escape into our own hands.”

He looked down at Cyndaquil, who was staring up at him with the best determined look she could muster.

Sam nodded once.

“Take it into our own hands. Got it.”

Rather than immediately get up to search, Sam moved to take out the book. He hoped the New Pokédex would contain information useful in this situation.

Unfortunately, there was nothing inside about survival tips, but it did help in another way. The New Pokédex was oddly specific about where Pokémon could be found, so by paging through most of the early entries, Sam was able to figure out what species were native to Granite Cave.

“Zubat, Machop, and Geodude,” Sam started. “There’s also Abra, Aron, Sableye—obviously—and Mawile. There’s also... Huh. Makuhita, too. I wonder if Buck caught his here.”

Sam shook his head. Now was not the time to think about that.

“Alright, let’s consider it. Which of these species can we deal with?”

Abra were famously cowards; they always teleported away rather than participate in a fight. Zubat were similar in that they flew away unless encountered in a swarm. Even then, he could avoid the bat Pokémon by staying quiet and keeping his distance. And, based on what he had seen earlier, he doubted any Mawile would show up again. The species hadn’t seemed too aggressive.

“I’m hoping that your flames can scare away any Fighting Type that tries to challenge us, as I doubt wild Pokémon like them would want to risk a burn,” Sam said. “Geodude are mostly passive as long as I don’t step on one, but I am worried about fighting any wild Rock Types. Aron are sturdy enough to pose a problem, and Geodude have a Type advantage, regardless of what I said. Added to all of this, we also have Sableye, who...”

Obviously enough, the species was troublesome.

“Ugh. There’s so much to worry about. I don’t know how Pokémon trainers do this. Well, I mean, most of them are a lot stronger than us. What sucks is that even if we stay in one place, we’re still at risk of wild Pokémon ambushing us.”

Sam knew they had to move forward. After all, if they were likely to be caught up in a battle no matter what they did, he’d prefer to have the chance of actually finding an exit at the same time. He took one look at Cyndaquil and saw that she was back to being nervous. He did his best to give her a confident smile.

“No point in waiting. If we keep a positive attitude, I’m sure we can do it!”

He held his fist out in front of him, and Cyndaquil only hesitated for a short moment before bumping his fist right back.

“Alright! Let’s head out. And...” He licked his lips. “Again, I’m really sorry about all of this, Cyndaquil. I promise I won’t let something like this happen again.”

He could tell Cyndaquil knew he genuinely meant that promise with all of his heart.

There were three potential paths to take behind them. He wanted to assume the middle path was the correct option, but when he gauged his position with the angle of the two other tunnels, he realized it was the least likely to be correct.

Unsure which way to go, he paced for a moment before discussing it with Cyndaquil. In the end, he determined the path forward by relying on simple logic.

If he took the right path, then Sam would be taking the right path.

(This was the equivalent of flipping a coin.)

Sam hadn’t actually chased Sableye for that long, so thinking about it, he doubted he was that far from where he had first traveled down. One idea was to walk down the path he chose for a reasonable amount of time before turning around if he didn’t recognize anything. The flaw with that plan was that he doubted he’d be able to recognize anything in the first place. This was a cave—specifically, a cave worn flat through the effort of Pokémon. Any direction he went would look nearly the same.

Instead, he decided to stick with the single path he chose for as long as possible, keeping Cyndaquil out of her Pokéball and nearby. Except, almost right away, he was reaffirmed that they were lost.

These passages frequently met up with and intersected others.

“Our one saving grace is that there are multiple entrances to these caves. Even if we don’t find where we came from, we might be able to find another exit. The odds are in our favor.”

Cyndaquil squeaked to acknowledge what he said, but Sam didn’t think she sounded very confident about his words at all.

They kept walking and walking and walking down the passage. Very soon, Sam saw their first sign of life:

A curled up, motionless rock. A Geodude kept utterly still, almost indistinguishable from a mundane boulder, napping without realizing either Sam or Cyndaquil were there.

Sam said nothing, but he held a finger to his lips. Cyndaquil got the message and stayed silent. The pair of them snuck past on their tip-toes and didn’t let up their attempts to be quiet.

The next Pokémon Sam encountered after the Geodude was a lone Zubat, but despite Cyndaquil doing her best to jump in front of him, the Pokémon didn’t attack. It merely flew on by, ignoring the pair, and Sam had the bright idea to follow. He had hoped that it was heading back to the surface, but it instead flew into a decently-sized, subterranean cavern. There, he brought his flashlight up to see hundreds of other Zubat roosting on the ceiling.

Obviously, he stepped back and moved away as fast as he could without making any loud noise.

For all his worry about the dangers of the species here, there was a surprising lack of Pokémon. He wasn’t sure if it was that they weren’t present, that they were hiding, or that they could be only found deeper in, but Sam and Cyndaquil did not experience any aggressive wild encounters while wandering through the cave.

In the end, Sam eventually stopped, but it wasn’t because he saw another Pokémon. The light of his flashlight glinted off of something on the ground, and he paused when he recognized what it was.

“That’s some of the powdered quartz! Do you think that Sableye dropped it when it ran?”

He brought his flashlight up again, and a few more grains of the quartz reflected back the light. It went down an alternate, connecting tunnel, forming a followable trail. It was entirely possible this path was created when Sam chased after the Sableye when it scooped up the bait pile and ran, but Sam had his doubts.

“Now, I have to question this. Did Sableye really drop it, or is this just Sableye laying out a trap?”

On one hand, a path of sparkling powder was an easy trail to follow back to the tunnel that led up. On the other hand, Sableye did steal that bottle of powdered quartz, which meant there was the distinct possibility that this was a way the dual Ghost and Dark Type was trying to mess with them.

Sam gave both options even odds.

“What do you think, Cyndaquil? Do we follow or keep exploring?”

She squeaked, unsure.

“Ugh.” Sam groaned. “I think that we need to follow. This is the first clue we’ve seen so far, and I don’t want to miss our chance to leave just because we’re paranoid. Although, I really don’t trust that Sableye. Let’s stay on high alert, just in case.”

Cyndaquil stiffly nodded as if that were obvious.

A path set, the pair of trainer and Pokémon walked forward. Sam made sure to use his flashlight to light up as much of the cave in front of him as possible. The trail wasn’t a perfect line, more like occasional, small spots of powder that shone when illuminated with his flashlight. There were enough gaps in the path that Sam could not tell if it had been left intentionally or not, but then again, that Sableye had seemed maliciously clever.

Why am I considering the possibility that this wild Pokémon is some kind of devious mastermind?

Sam knew why. It was because the Sableye scared him.

Still, he didn’t want to back down, so he continued forward. Though, he was being extraordinarily cautious about it.

It followed a straight line, which added credence that it had been created during the previous chase. Yet, any thoughts that this wasn’t a trap all came to a halt when Sam’s flashlight revealed a sudden, sharp turn.

“There wasn’t a turn like that when running after Sableye,” Sam mumbled.

He could feel Cyndaquil push closer to his leg.

While the trail of dust continued around the corner, Sam was pretty sure this had been intentionally set by Sableye. Still, he was morbidly curious, and he wanted to be aware of Sableye's plan so he could be prepared.

One look wouldn't hurt, right?

He glanced at Cyndaquil for confirmation, where she nodded to give him permission to continue forward. With that, Sam inched toward where the tunnel turned. He peeked his head around the corner and immediately froze.

Aron—not just one, but several dozen. The armored, wild Pokémon either idly ambled around or dozed off in piles on the ground. Dark stone in the walls made Sam think this tunnel opened up into some kind of iron deposit-rich room, but more importantly, this was the wild Pokémon’s nest.

And Sableye was right there.

None of the Aron here noticed it, but Sableye had purposely positioned itself at the very back, in a shadow. Its gemstone eyes in the flashlight as it held a claw up towards a dozing, much larger metal mass.

Sam desperately shook his head no.

Sableye shook its head yes.

A claw struck down. A wrenching sound rang out as the move scratched against the metal armor of the wild Pokémon. Sam yanked his head back as Sableye disappeared into a shadow. Several of the wild Aron made noises of alarm while an unhappy rumbling shook the cave.

He took a single look at Cyndaquil.

“Run,” he whispered.

Footsteps. Many of them. The tiny Aron were rushing out of their nest to charge at apparent invaders. That Sableye had perfectly primed this trap. While all Sam wanted to do was be prepared, the wild Pokémon had expected Sam to run away immediately and readied itself accordingly.

“I hate this! I’m sorry! It wasn’t us that disturbed your nest! There was a Sableye! It was the one who attacked!”

Sam shouted at the flood of Steel Type Pokémon rushing into the tunnel behind him. Sam was faster than the herd, but he wasn’t sure how long he would be able to run while holding Cyndaquil.

“Screw it! Cyndaquil, use Ember!”

Her back burst into flame as several globs of flames shot forward at the incoming Pokémon. Aron weren’t especially weak to the Fire Type, but the attack was threatening enough that the stampede did skid to a halt. A sea of blue eyes stared at Sam and Cyndaquil as they stood off, threatening further attacks.

“Good. Now, listen to me,” Sam said, projecting confidence despite the sheer terror coursing through his veins. “We did not attack you. There was a Sableye. It lead us here, and—”

Sam could barely maintain his balance. The cavern around him shook, and Cyndaquil squeaked in alarm. Turning around, he saw a wall collapse downwards as rubble fell to the tunnel floor.

A Lairon crashed through to cut Sam off. It was a four-legged tank of iron armor, and there was the faintest of scuff marks on that armor from where the Sableye had just scratched it.

“L-like I said, there w-was a Sableye. It wasn’t us, we—”

It roared. Cyndaquil’s flames went out as she shrunk from fear. The herd of Aron behind them didn’t charge forward, as now a much stronger member of their evolutionary line was going to take care of their “invader” for them.

“It really wasn’t us,” Sam continued, shakily. “Please. All we want to do is leave the cave.”

The heavy Pokémon remained unconvinced. Angry, it took a step forward. Its blue eyes were as piercing as ever as it glared at Sam and Cyndaquil like the ants they were.

Oh. It’s going to teach us a lesson.

Sam wasn’t sure what that might entail, but he knew that it was nothing good. Wild Pokémon tended to be more violent when their home territory was threatened, and Sam was right next to its nest.

Claws dug into the floor. Another rumble left the Lairon’s throat. This tunnel was too tight to give Sam room to run away. He was pinned between a Rock Type Pokémon and an Aron-filled place.

Yet, despite everything, Cyndaquil stepped forward even knowing the massive difference in strength. She was shaking horribly, but she seemed intent to not go out without a fight.

“This is awful. I’m sorry to have fallen for Sableye’s trap again.”

A squeak from Cyndaquil admonished Sam for talking about the wrong thing. He couldn’t help but to chuckle when he heard that reply.

“Yeah, when you’re right, you’re right,” he said, scratching his head. “We can’t just sit back and let it attack us. No matter what, we still have the energy to battle. Second stage Pokémon or not, that Lairon is going down!”

Sam wouldn’t be able to win. He knew that Cyndaquil was aware of that, too. Yet, after everything they’d been through, neither of them were willing to give up without a fight.

Yet, that expected fight never occurred.

“Thunderbolt!”

Sam was immediately lost in utter confusion when an extremely familiar voice rang out. It was followed by a blinding flash. The Lairon groaned in pain and turned around, sparking slightly from the attack it just took.

He rubbed his eyes.

What he was seeing didn’t change.

Delcatty stood across from the Lairon, boldly declaring herself its opponent and looking more confident than ever.

“Mom?” Sam asked, absolutely bewildered.

Sam’s mother stood in the cave, wearing the same librarian-like outfit and green apron she always had on when managing the bookstore. Except, her hair was tied back, and her shoes had been replaced with heavy boots. A backpack likely full of supplies hung over one shoulder while she looked tired and desperate, yet there was a measure of confidence to her that only experienced trainers tended to have.

“Oh, not to my family, you don’t,” she said.

Sam’s mother sounded angry.

She pointed forward as Delcatty knelt down to ready herself for battle. Lairon cried out as stones levitated in the air and were chucked forward. Unfortunately for it, the cat moved with an agility Sam had never seen before to dodge each and every attack.

“How did you find us?” Sam asked.

“Not now, honey,” his mother said. “We have a battle to win.”

The wild Lairon charged, head held down to prepare what would be a devastating Headbutt. His mother called out a command as it lunged towards Delcatty.

“Iron Tail!”

Delcatty’s tail gained a silvery sheen. She stepped to the side to avoid the charge, and then her tail lashed out to strike a less-defended point on Lairon's back.

Ridiculously, Lairon cried out again before lunging for a Metal Claw. Just like before, Delcatty avoided it by leaping to the side. In fact, she constantly kept to Lairon’s side, leading it in some sort of dance. Metal Claw after Metal Claw came out, but Delcatty avoided them all while repeatedly flicking Lairon’s side with her own reinforced tail.

“Now, Thunderbolt. Continue to use the move until Lairon’s fainted,” Sam’s mother said.

Delcatty’s fur sparked with static electricity. The move wasn’t as strong as what an Electric Type could have done, but it was powerful enough for a special attack. The Thunderbolt left her body to course through the Lairon, and absolutely nothing about its metal armor helped it resist the move.

How... How is this possible?

Delcatty was winning without being touched. Sam had never seen the cat move so skillfully in his life. He’d always thought she was just a house cat, a lazy feline that wanted to sleep all day. But now that he was seeing her in battle, he thought about it. Delcatty was the evolved form of Skitty. Why would such a lazy Pokémon bother to evolve?

Eventually, after a full minute of this chase, the smoking form of Lairon tried for one last bash, not even having enough energy to conjure up a full move. It lurched an inch forward before crumpling to the ground. Its eyes spun from the exhaustion of the battle.

Lairon fainted.

Victorious, Delcatty proceeded to trot right up to Sam and Cyndaquil, her tail flicking back and forth in pride. Behind him, the herd of Aron tensed out of fear. She ignored them to press against Sam’s leg affectionately, where he petted her back.

Huh. Static-y.

“How did you find us?” Sam said, repeating his question.

“Mark came to get me. You know, the Pokémart employee?”

Sam slowly nodded his head. He remembered how Mark had looked worried when he left.

“Really, what were you thinking, entering Granite Cave like this? You and Cyndaquil have no experience! This is way out of your league!”

“Me? What about you! You run a bookstore!”

She moved up to Sam and crossed her arms.

“And what does that mean?”

“I, uh...”

Sam wasn’t sure how to respond, but then his mother smirked.

“I used to be rated as a five-star trainer. In other words, my team was equivalent to one capable of earning five gym badges. And Delcatty was my ace.”

The smug feline meowed proudly and rejoined her trainer at Sam’s mother’s side. Sam was left speechless, and Cyndaquil was dazed from sheer shock.

“And... you haven’t explained how you found us,” Sam mumbled.

“While I might have retired, Delcatty used to work with your father when he was a Pokémon Ranger. She’s used to finding lost people.”

The cat looked extra smug about that. Once more, Sam felt like his entire world had just been overturned.

“You’re grounded, by the way,” his mom said.

“Yeah,” Sam mumbled.

“And when we get home, we’re going to have a serious talk.”

“Okay.”

His mother nodded her head, satisfied, but then the floor shook.

Turning back to the tunnel's sudden curve, Sam watched in horror as a large, metal claw grabbed onto the edge of the wall. A head the size of his body was sleepily dragged forward. An Aggron, the evolved form of Lairon, made itself known.

Tired, the massive Pokémon yawned, the noise shaking the cavern around them once again. It blinked to steady itself before focusing its gaze on both Sam and his mother.

“Let’s... get out of here,” Sam said hesitantly.

His mother stared at the metal beast.

“I agree,” she said carefully.

Although Aggron was an incredibly powerful Pokémon, it was too big to give a proper chase. Not just that, but Delcatty and Sam’s mother knew the way to get out, so within a spare few minutes, Sam was already back on the surface.

There, though he would never admit to it, Sam was hit with such relief he cried. He thanked his mother. He thanked Delcatty. He thanked Cyndaquil, too. He was a novice who had entered an advanced trainer’s domain, unintentionally risking it all. His plan to catch a Sableye had failed, but with new revelations, he had a feeling a lot would be changing from here on out.