The Ghost Specialist

The most dangerous part of traveling off-route was its inconsistency. Since Pokémon Rangers did not regularly patrol the wilderness to keep everything peaceful, it was possible to exit an area filled with weak, wild Pokémon and stumble right into the territory of a fully evolved beast.

The Pokémon League recommended that trainers intending to travel off-route should possess five Gym Badges. It was a slightly different recommendation than saying a trainer’s team should be rated at five stars. Earning Gym Badges required a level of familiarity with handling Pokémon, as anyone could technically be the trainer of a five-star-plus team if the Pokémon had been gifted. Inexperienced trainers didn’t have the knowledge or know-how to face impossibly strong foes.

Out here, while weaker individual Pokémon were the most prevalent non-plant forms of life around, there were also those Pokémon that stood at the top of their class. The strongest individuals tended to either claim territory or dominate the other species around them, and they were generally the victors of hundreds of fights. With the power needed to live out here and thrive, these Pokémon posed a unique threat. They sought to not be hindered by injury, so every fight was won with overwhelming power or a cleverness most wild Pokémon failed to achieve.

Thankfully, those tougher Pokémon stuck to their claimed territories. Avoiding them was as simple as staying away and making sure the only obvious intention was to pass through. Without easy healing at a Pokémon Center, wild Pokémon were reluctant to participate in unnecessary fights. Yet, it was still easy to accidentally aggress one of them, so trainers needed to stay aware of their surroundings to avoid attacks and ambushes.

Sam and Redi weren’t going into this unprepared. They had the skill. They had the extra supplies. They had a way to detect hostile intent. They had a way to call for help. And, most important of all, they were traveling in a group. A numbers advantage was one of the best ways to dissuade difficult fights.

Except, they were new at this. Mistakes still cropped up here and there.

“Before I left home, my mom made sure to drill a few facts about off-route travel into my mind.” Sam ducked behind a boulder alongside Redi. A screech pierced through the air above them. “Real fights aren’t common since Pokémon can’t risk injury without a way to heal. But if a Pokémon does have a way to heal, they’ll be far more aggressive and actively seek out battles. Grass Types can be pretty dangerous, but they at least tend to be passive. The big worry is if a Pokémon has a berry tree in their territory.”

“Do you think that’s why Porygon’s Charge Beam didn’t scare this one off?”

“Probably. If it can heal, a super effective attack isn’t going to worry it as much.”

Another screech echoed above them, and a rough-sounding caw punctuated Sam’s statement. The shout came tinged by the sound of ringing metal. In the sky, metal feathers sliced through the air. An angry-looking Skarmory snapped its head around to look for the pair of “invaders” within its territory.

Though this Pokémon was clearly one of those stronger wild Pokémon, Sam wasn’t worried, and neither was Redi. However, they needed to choose their plan carefully if they wanted to get out of this safely.

“So...” Redi started. “Hyper Beam time?”

“Hyper Beam time,” Sam solemnly replied.

A bloodthirsty grin passed over Redi’s face as she tossed Ursaring’s Pokéball high into the air. As the bear appeared in a flash of light, the Skarmory’s red eyes locked onto his position.

It dived at him, but Ursaring acted at the same moment. A glow formed inside his throat, and the Skarmory could not pull away fast enough.

Briefly, the world turned white.

Skarmory might have been a Steel Type and resisted Normal Type energy, but Hyper Beam was still a powerful move rarely seen in the wild. The impact of Ursaring’s laser beam struck it in the wing to turn its dive into a careening, downward spiral. The Skarmory tried to turn the momentum of the spin into the start of a Drill Peck, but Sam had an answer to that.

Primeape appeared before the recharging Ursaring and drew his fist back.

Unbothered by the potentially super effective Flying Type attack, Primeape threw his whole body into motion to unleash a perfectly timed punch. His Rock Smash slammed into the incoming beak, throwing Skarmory into the ground. The impact of the Pokémon into the rocky earth caused a clanging, clattering noise. When Sam looked up, he could only respond with a wince.

“Ouch.”

Beneath its body, stones were turned to pebbles, and the Skarmory scrambled to its feet. Angrily, it brought its head up and froze.

There was a visible dent in its beak.

Rock Smash was a move designed to break through a Pokémon’s defense, and while Skarmory wasn’t weak to Fighting Type moves, Primeape knew how to land devastating attacks. The steel-armored Flying Type had no choice but to fly away. It tried to part with a final, warning caw, but the noise from its mouth came out garbled and unintimidating.

“At least it’s a Steel Type?” Sam said. “With the right berry, that dent should definitely smooth out.”

He paused.

“Definitely. Probably. Eventually.”

Due to its injured wing, the Skarmory’s flight wobbled.

“Yeah. Eventually,” Sam repeated, trying to keep his voice even.

From behind the boulder, Sam stood, and so did Redi. Though the Skarmory was gone, neither of them let down their guard. Sam looked around for any other Pokémon who might have thought it was clever to take advantage of the “injured” winners of this fight.

None came.

Sam would have tried to do something like that if he was a wild Pokémon. Thankfully, any hidden Pokémon watching seemed to recognize it’d be a dumb idea to try to take any of their stuff.

“...Yeah, I think we need to make our Pokémon more obvious. Haunter and Misdreavus can scare away anything that tries to go after us from the ground, but even with Tibia and Fibula’s warning, they can’t stop anything from the sky.”

“At least they haven’t been Dragon Types,” Redi said. “We’re heading right toward Blackthorn City. Imagine being hunted down by one of their dragons.”

Redi shivered.

Off to the side, Primeape shook his hand with a hiss. No matter how strong he was, punching metal that dense still hurt. However, he seemed more annoyed than in pain. The Fighting Type was supposed to be strong against Steel, and suffering recoil from an otherwise recoil-less move meant he still had a lot of room to improve.

Without anything else going after them, Sam took this moment to look around. A flock of Spearow flew over a rocky landscape in the distance. There weren’t many trees around, but there were plenty of cliffs and canyons. On the horizon, the sun wasn’t yet beginning to set, but there wasn’t much light left before dark.

They were only a single day into their northward trip off-route, and Sam recognized they needed to camp.

“Just wanna check, do you sense anything?” Sam asked his shadow.

Neither Tibia nor Fibula gave him a response, which meant the two Gastly detected nothing. The six sets of eyes in Sam’s shadow stayed quiet—there were obviously other Pokémon nearby but none seemed aggressive.

“I think we should set up camp right here. I know we’re in that Skarmory’s territory, but I doubt it’ll attack us again, especially once it gets too dark. Haunter and Misdreavus are stronger at night and can scare it off if it does attack, but I think we should take advantage of how we’re inside somewhere ‘protected’ by a known threat.”

“That Skarmory’s gonna get upset, but I don’t really care about how a Pokémon that’s already attacked us feels.” Redi let out a yawn. “Yeah, let’s camp here. I want to sit down.”

“Me too,” Sam agreed.

Haunter split off to gather firewood. Quilava set it alight once he was back. Primeape and Ursaring stayed out as visible guards until it was dark, when they were returned to their Pokéballs to rest, and Misdreavus helped guide Porygon with helping Sam and Redi assemble their tents.

Sam felt physically exhausted even though they’d only been traveling off-route for a single day. As expected of the wilderness, it lacked official roads for them to follow. No, this area was just a series of rocky hillsides that stretched above Dark Cave, and unlike the paths above the southern Union Cave, there were no obvious trails worn by hikers.

Travel through these parts was a hike that involved far too much climbing and maneuvering around unexpected obstacles. Enough Pokémon lived out here that they were generally always able to find some way north, but it was never an easy walk. And Sam knew it would only get more rocky and mountainous as they continued further north.

He really appreciated his Pokémon. They had more energy and strength than a pair of squishy humans. He would have turned around if it wasn’t for their help.

Once their campsite was all set up, complete with a roaring fire in the center, Sam collapsed into one of their foldable chairs. Redi immediately did the same across from him, and Quilava jumped into his lap.

“A nice thing about training Ghost Types is that we don't need to organize shifts for a night watch,” Sam said.

“Your Pokémon aren’t going to sleep?”

“Maybe for a little bit, but neither Haunter nor Misdreavus really need to. They’ll use Night Shade to hide us if something dangerous comes close or flies overhead.”

Redi replied with a nod, letting out another yawn, and they sat there for a while, doing nothing but trying to recover. Once he felt he had recovered enough energy, Sam reached into his backpack to take out that brush and bring it through Quilava’s fur.

“So,” he started. “We’ve been off-route for a full day at this point. What are your thoughts so far?”

“ ‘Bout what? Traveling?”

“That and other things,” Sam said, shrugging.

Redi rocked her head back and forth, leaning back in her chair. She stared up at the sky and at the countless stars above them. So far away from any settlements, there was hardly any light pollution. The night sky was far more visible than on any official Route. Sam could see so much more than usual.

“I haven't seen that many Normal Types,” Redi said. “Mostly just the ones that are part Flying Type, which I don’t really want to catch. I know I’ve been way too picky, but...”

She ran her tongue over her teeth.

“What does the New Pokédex say is out here?”

Sam stopped brushing Quilava to take out the New Pokédex and use her side to keep it up. She let out a complaint when he stopped brushing her, but she was already falling asleep, so her complaint was half-hearted at best.

“What kind of species are you looking for?” Sam said, flipping through its pages.

“Something strong but capable of tricks.”

“Tricks that support itself or tricks that support the team?”

“Either or,” Redi answered.

With how much he’d read through the New Pokédex, Sam felt more confident about finding species within it at this point. For this request, he only needed to browse through the earliest entries of the book, but he knew enough about its later entries that he had a feeling few people knew about as many Pokémon as him.

“To be upfront, the New Pokédex doesn’t contain information about what can be found off-route. All of the listed habitats are official Routes or nearby caves. I can’t give you specifics, but I can try to guess what species might be around. Just remember that a lot of Pokémon are migratory, and a species can be pushed away if any single, territorial Pokémon gets too strong.”

“That’s fine. I just want to know my options,” Redi said. “Hit me. I wanna figure it out.”

Sam didn’t shorten the list to meet her requirements—there were too few nearby species for him to narrow down the options. Instead, he just read off all the Normal Types he was pretty sure could be found somewhere nearby.

“Dunsparce. Aipom. Lickitung,” he said.

Redi waited for him to continue, but when he didn’t, she glanced down from the sky to stare at him blankly.

“That’s it?”

“Yeah. I mean, there’s also the usual mountainous Pokémon and the usual common species, but unless you want to catch another Ursaring or, like, a Sentret—”

Redi let out a groan.

“Ugh. If I could afford it, I’d try to hunt down a Snorlax, but even taking Mr. Pokémon’s sponsorship, I would barely be able to afford enough food for a single day!”

She slumped in her seat, sliding down so half her body was hanging off her chair. Sam frowned and resumed looking through the book, trying to search for more potential species.

He took the chance to bring up another topic while he did.

“Are you going to take it?” he asked.

“A Snorlax?”

“No, Mr. Pokémon’s sponsorship,” he said flatly.

Redi wiggled in her seat and stared into their campfire. Sam glanced up at her to see a frown.

“Maybe,” she said. She sounded unhappy he had brought this up at all. “I feel like if I take it, I’m betraying my goal of only supporting my family, but I really need his help. Getting the right Peat Block for Ursaring will be impossible without Mr. Pokémon’s connections. And I’m hoping that Porygon’s Upgrade will actually be that—an upgrade. I don’t want them to be stuck as some kind of a tool all their life. If all it takes to get Mr. Pokémon’s help is to tell people how I evolved my Pokémon...”

Porygon was floating next to her, and she raised a hand to rest it on the Pokémon’s back. The artificial species behaved as emotionlessly as always even as Redi patted it affectionately. The only reaction was a slight shift downward that came with the application of force.

“What about you, Sam? You gonna take it?” Redi said, turning back up to the stars.

“I need to talk to my mother, first,” he said.

Redi nodded, and Sam watched as she relaxed in her chair. He closed the New Pokédex, having found what he was looking for.

However, there was a topic he wanted to bring up before moving on. He breathed in and took a moment to choose his words carefully.

“You know you need your family’s approval if you want to take Mr. Pokémon’s sponsorship,” Sam said. “And that means calling them.”

Redi responded with a long, drawn-out sigh.

“I know,” she said. “And I will contact them. It’s just... I don’t want to hear them get upset. I didn’t exactly leave after telling them first. And before you say anything, you should know I have been sending them messages!”

Sam blinked at her.

“You have?”

“Kind of. I’ve been sending letters to my aunt and she’s probably passing them over. At least, I hope she is.”

Sam stared at Redi as she continued to stare into the night sky. He didn’t say anything until she glanced down at him and saw his amused look.

“What?”

“It’s just... nothing.”

“No, tell me,” she said, sitting up.

Sam chuckled slightly.

“It’s just that I thought you were allergic to reading and writing.”

If Redi had something in her hands, she would have thrown it at him. Instead, she angrily stuck her tongue out at him as he laughed.

He put the New Pokédex back into his pack and would have taken out that brush once more, but at this point, Quilava was already fast asleep in his lap.

“I found two more potential Pokémon, but we might have to go out of our way to find them,” Sam said.

“What are they?” Redi asked, more than willing to go along with the change in topic.

“Since you want a species that’s capable of support, I’m looking at two that are technically part Psychic Type.”

She hummed consideringly, and Sam repeated their habitats in his head to make sure he was remembering them correctly.

“The first potential Pokémon is Stantler, which can evolve into the half-Psychic Type Wyrdeer, and it shouldn’t be impossible to find at least one Stantler in the mountains. The problem is they tend to travel in herds and use illusions to defend themselves, so if we act too aggressively, we’ll become lost and confused and easy targets for them to trample us under their hooves.”

Sam’s words didn’t seem to dissuade Redi. She rubbed her chin in thought.

“Illusions might be good for my team, though,” Redi said. “And the second?”

“Girafarig,” Sam answered, “but I doubt we’ll find any. That species is a bit further away since it's native to the Lake of Rage rather than anywhere nearby. I just wanted to bring it up since the New Pokédex says it can evolve into something called a Farigiraf. That evolution is definitely foreign since it's not listed until several hundred entries deeper in.”

Redi didn’t respond right away, clearly thinking about her potential options. Back in Goldenrod, when Sam listed off Normal Types for her, she’d initially turned down Stantler. However, she never turned down Girafarig, but these two species effectively filled the same role.

“I’ll think about it,” she said. “The problem is I want to find at least something before Blackthorn, but I don’t want to risk staying off-route for too long. That, and when it comes to catching Pokémon so far away from other humans—”

“I know what you mean,” Sam said. “Pokémon on Routes generally accept the chance of being caught, but that’s not true out here. And there’s something to be said about meeting new team members naturally instead of going out of your way to catch a specific species.”

“Yeah!” Redi said, smiling at the idea. “It’s kind of like Misdreavus. She found us instead of us finding her.”

The Ghost Type peeked out of Sam’s shadow and looked at him. Quilava woke up, raising her head at the mention with a frown.

“It was a bit more complicated than that,” Sam said.

“Semantics,” Redi replied, waving a hand.

“I’m surprised you know what that word means.”

For the second time that night, Redi stuck her tongue out at him, and both of them snickered at their exchange.

Out here, without civilization anywhere close by, the stars were their only other company, and the night was quieter than anywhere else they had been. In the silence of the mountains, they cooked dinner, fed their Pokémon, and proceeded to fall into a deep rest.

The next morning, Sam and Redi continued on, trying to leave the Skarmory’s territory as soon as they could. They pushed through the rugged terrain, doing their best to avoid getting caught up in any other fights.

A few other Pokémon still attacked them, but those Pokémon tended to be the already-aggressive flocks of Spearow and Fearow. When it came to the species that couldn’t fly, most ran away the moment either Ursaring or Primeape came into view. Their species were mountainous and seemed to have a reputation in these parts. The local Pokémon knew better than to mess with one of them.

Traveling through the untamed wilderness was exhausting, but Sam adapted, and his Pokémon helped. While each hour seemed to take forever, the days themselves felt short. They kept their focus on traveling and searching for a new Pokémon for Redi, so periods of energy were kept slim. This kind of travel was a form of practice, and it was better to not spread themselves thin.

They adjusted their northward direction to begin heading slightly northwest, choosing to travel around Blackthorn instead of heading directly to it. They zig-zagged through the terrain, following the most viable path through uneven hills. Thankfully, as Ursaring’s species marked territory via deep gouges in trees, he instinctively recognized other territorial marks. Direct attacks became infrequent as they learned the signs of danger in this difficult terrain.

A few days passed. Sam missed the comfort of the Pokémon Center, but he appreciated being able to experience a new part of the world. There were fewer wild Ghost Types than he expected, and he only ever caught glimpses of wild Gastly, but he kept an eye out for anything just in case. Unfortunately, he doubted they were traveling deep enough off-route to encounter a truly rare species.

Eventually, by following subtle signs Misdreavus pointed out to Sam, their group found the first hints they were on the right path. A wide, well-tread trail brought them through a series of canyons closer to Blackthorn City than Sam would have ever thought. It opened into a narrow valley at the base of two short mountains. Within it, Stantler. Two dozen of them grazed beneath a thin forest of trees.

The herd was on high alert, keeping their eyes on the sky. A small ledge let Sam and Redi hide behind a boulder and spy on the Pokémon from off to the side.

At this point, Redi was willing to take any Pokémon she could get, but Stantler were high on her list. With a herd of them so close, she had the chance to capture at least one.

Quietly, Sam and Redi began to whisper out a plan.