"Grey, look over there. Aren't those Team Plasma members?"
Caitlin's slender fingers slipped past Grey's neck as she leaned against him and whispered by his ear.
The pose was a little intimate, but that was really only because the howling wind and sand were so loud that she had to get closer.
Of course, that also suited Caitlin just fine.
"Let me see..."
Grey narrowed his eyes and looked at the large moving group ahead.
It really did look a lot like Team Plasma.
That obvious church-style uniform pretty much only belonged to Team Plasma in Unova. There really were not any other organizations in the region that dressed like that as a group.
With that in mind, Grey decided to swap out his flying Pokémon so he would not attract too much attention.
"Reshiram, come back first. Caitlin, hold on to me."
Grey scooped Caitlin up in another princess carry, then a Great Ball hanging at his waist snapped open.
"Cuno..."
Articuno spread its wings, and even its cry came out much softer than usual.
Grey jumped lightly and landed on Articuno's back.
Compared to Reshiram, Articuno's back was much narrower.
And this time, because of the lack of space, Caitlin could not sit behind Grey.
So the only option was for her to lean back against his chest and feel the warmth coming from him.
The moment that happened, Caitlin's face, hidden where Grey could not see it, turned bright red.
This was the first time she had ever been this physically close to him.
And not only that...
She was practically nestled in his arms.
It was enough to make her heart race.
Caitlin could only hope the next few moments might stretch out just a little longer.
Except...
"Cuno!"
The instant Grey recalled Reshiram to its Poké Ball, Articuno let out a piercing cry so loud that every living thing nearby could hear it.
Even the Team Plasma members below stopped walking and looked up toward the sound.
"Articuno, dive down and use Blizzard to trap them."
Just in case he had mistaken them for someone else, Grey decided it would be best to use Blizzard to cool things down and make something like a cage.
Besides, Blizzard would cool the area off a bit too.
Seeing how heavily that group was dressed, they were probably already sweating buckets.
So in a way, this Blizzard was basically perfect timing, a good deed done for slightly rotten reasons.
Articuno beat its wings sharply, sending a freezing gale sweeping outward. The yellow sand filling the sky instantly turned into flying snow.
One ice pillar after another burst up from the ground, surrounding the group below.
And honestly, with how bitterly miserable those Team Plasma members had been, the appearance of all those freezing ice pillars actually made them feel a lot better.
For a moment, they thought they had simply been told to sit down and rest.
So they all dropped to the ground where they were.
Flap, flap, flap...
Articuno slowly descended, the pride in its eyes completely undisguised. Combined with the faint but undeniable pressure it gave off, it inspired the sort of awe that made people want to bow down.
"That's Grey of the Fighting Dojo from Kanto..."
An old man in a brown robe suddenly spoke. He wore a brown round-topped hat, and everything below his nose was hidden behind a thick white beard.
"It's Grey, we're done for!"
"I heard that guy kills without blinking, is that true?"
"I just hope Lord N will bury our bones somewhere nice and peaceful after we die."
The Team Plasma members below did not seem to have any intention of resisting.
It was almost like they were born without the nerve for rebellion.
"Young Grey, would you come down? This old man has something important to discuss!"
The old man's voice was strong and full of energy.
"Oh? One of Team Plasma's Seven Sages wants to talk to me? Then I'm definitely curious what this is about."
Grey jumped down from Articuno's back and looked over the group.
There were not even a full handful of Team Plasma grunts, all clustered around the Sage in the middle. It really did match Team Plasma's usual travel setup.
"Young Grey, I'm one of the good ones. I'm one of the Seven Sages from the naturalist faction, and my name is Rood."
The old man introduced himself as Rood, and Grey raised a brow slightly.
Rood, in Pokémon Black 2 and White 2, had left Team Plasma and helped establish ex-Team Plasma.
Ex-Team Plasma was different from Team Plasma.
That was a group genuinely formed to atone for the past.
They had truly turned over a new leaf.
Once he heard the name, Grey no longer felt like making a move.
Of course, he still quietly kept his Aura active.
If Rood and the others had any ugly ideas, then they could not blame him for being ruthless.
Grey was usually refined and polite, but when it came to members of evil organizations, especially the kind who wanted to make a move on him, he did not show mercy.
Whatever needed to be done would be done.
"If Gym Leader Grey doesn't believe me, you can call our king, N. I imagine the two of you know each other."
Seeing that Grey was not saying anything, Rood主动 offered to let him call N and verify the situation.
Grey did exactly that.
Once N confirmed that Rood was trustworthy, his attitude really did improve.
"Mr. Rood, what exactly is Team Plasma doing out here?"
Grey looked at the large bags and bundles they were carrying and wanted to know what they were up to.
"Ghetsis ordered me to search the Desert Resort for a set of ruins. Supposedly it has something to do with a sun god."
Rood answered honestly.
"Solgaleo? Isn't that a Legendary Pokémon from Alola?"
Caitlin was well-informed. The moment she heard "sun god," the first image that popped into her head was Solgaleo's white lion form.
"Uh, no, not that. This is actually about Volcarona from Unova. Supposedly it has a different color pattern from ordinary Volcarona, and it's very powerful, so Ghetsis sent us here to search for it."
As soon as he said that, Rood could not help shaking his head.
Ghetsis really was something else, sending Team Plasma all the way out to the Desert Resort over a single Volcarona.
And without providing any funding.
He was treating people like slave labor.
Back in the old days, they would absolutely have gotten travel money for a mission like this.
But the problem was that Colress was burning through money at a ridiculous rate, and on top of that, the money N used to tip livestreams on a regular basis was also coming off Ghetsis's card.
That combination had left Team Plasma hemorrhaging money. The organization had never exactly been wealthy to begin with, and now it was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
That was also the main reason Team Plasma had split into three factions.
There was no future in following Ghetsis.
Follow the other two factions, and at least there was still meat on the table.
"A shiny Volcarona? That really does sound pretty good."
Grey immediately pictured shiny Volcarona's color scheme in his mind.
Golden wings, orange-yellow antennae, and from a distance it looked like a sun.
It was absolutely his kind of aesthetic.
"Gym Leader Grey, are you interested in catching that shiny Volcarona? We can guide you there."
Seeing Grey's interest, Rood decided to send the shiny Volcarona his way as a favor.
After all, even if they caught it, they would not be allowed to keep it themselves. Rather than hand it over to Ghetsis, who refused to pay anyone, he would rather turn it into a favor for Grey. Maybe in the future, whenever Grey looked at that Volcarona, he would remember Rood kindly.
"That works. Out here in a desert this big, I really am just wandering around like a headless fly. Having a guide sounds nice."
Grey thought that was a pretty good deal. He recalled Articuno, then followed behind them with Caitlin.
Finally, after nearly half an hour, they arrived in front of a set of ruins.
There was only one entrance aboveground, and most of it had been swallowed by drifting sand.
Most of the ruins were below the surface, almost certainly buried under the desert.
The place had practically fused with the sands. Unless you got close enough to really look at it, you would never connect it with ancient ruins at all.
And just as Grey had expected, on both sides of the broken passage leading into the ruins stood a number of Pokémon shaped like daruma dolls, all colored bluish gray.
They were Darmanitan in Zen Mode.
They were not all that strong, though.
Around level 50, about Gym level.
Any Pokémon on Grey's current team could crush them.
"Gym Leader Grey, according to the information we gathered earlier, that shiny Volcarona is somewhere below. We'll stay outside and circle around a bit, just to avoid any awkward misunderstandings."
Rood knew very well how delicate his organization's current reputation was.
It was not exactly terrible, but it was not exactly good either.
It was stuck somewhere in the middle.
So under those circumstances, Rood felt it was best to keep a little distance between himself and Grey.
Otherwise, if Trainers from the Unova League happened to see them together, it would be very difficult to explain.
After all, most outsiders still had no real idea that Team Plasma had split internally.
"That works. We'll head in first."
Grey waved a hand in farewell, then entered the ruins with Caitlin.
Honestly, Unova did not have a lot of things in abundance, but ancient castles were definitely one of them.
There was the Relic Castle in the Desert Resort, then there was another old castle linked to the Castelia Sewers, or reachable from the southern side of Driftveil City.
On top of that, even Team Plasma's headquarters was an ancient castle.
It felt like you could walk a few steps in Unova and stumble into another castle.
This was definitely the region's most castle-heavy episode.
Inside the ruins, or rather, inside Relic Castle itself, the layout felt less like entering through a front gate and more like climbing in through a high window in the castle roof.
So the two of them explored downward layer by layer.
They did not run into many Pokémon along the way.
Grey caught a Scraggy he liked the look of, and that was about it.
Naturally, he had that Scraggy sent back too.
It could not possibly run off as well... right?
Grey was starting to lose confidence.
If this newly caught Scraggy also slipped out, then he really would have nothing left to say. At that point he would have to go to Lavender Town some other day and invite a respected medium over to check whether the Fighting Dojo was cursed.
How was it that, in the few days he had been gone, every Pokémon in the place kept running off?
Back to the main issue.
"Grey, there seem to be areas around here where the ground is sinking like an hourglass. Be careful not to fall in."
Caitlin noticed that parts of the ground had started spiraling inward. It looked dangerous.
That was the fastest way down to the next floor.
But it was too dangerous, and with Caitlin beside him, Grey quickly decided against taking the "sand elevator."
"There's a staircase passage over there. Let's go down that way."
Grey spotted steps in the distance and led Caitlin over.
Not long after, they reached the lowest floor.
The space around them was nearly empty. Aside from a few wild Pokémon, all that remained were weathered ceremonial objects.
"Did Team Plasma trick us? They said there was a Volcarona down here..."
Caitlin looked a little disappointed. She had been hoping to see Grey show off.
Instead, they had wandered around every floor, checking each level thoroughly.
And after all that, they had reached the very bottom without seeing so much as a scale from Volcarona.
"No. There'd be no point in Team Plasma lying to us. And a Seven Sage from N's faction has even less reason to deceive us."
Grey shook his head.
His Aura had not picked up much.
But the system had detected that a Larvesta was living somewhere nearby.
And if there was a Larvesta, there ought to be a Volcarona too.
Suddenly, a silver-white strand shot out of the ground to Grey's left.
It stuck to the ceiling, and the ground itself began to swirl like a vortex.
Grey and Caitlin both changed expressions.
Seriously? They were already on the last floor, and there was still another level below this?
A Pokémon slowly crawled up through the shifting sand. It had five golden antennae, a body shaped somewhat like a silkworm, white fur around its head, and emerald-green eyes.
Pokémon: Larvesta, Shiny
Type: Bug / Fire
Level: 50
Ability: Flame Body
Moves: omitted
A shiny Larvesta!
Grey had not expected to run into its pre-evolution before finding shiny Volcarona itself.
Just like many Pokémon native to Unova, the Volcarona line evolved very late.
In fact, among all Pokémon, Larvesta was near the very top when it came to late evolution levels.
It did not evolve into Volcarona until level 59.
In other words, it would only become a Volcarona once it was approaching Elite Four level.
The amount of time needed to raise something like that was obviously enormous.
But that was also exactly why Volcarona, after all that buildup, possessed a level of strength that many Bug-types simply could not match.
It was one of the few truly prestigious Bug-type Pokémon.
"It's a Larvesta."
Caitlin's brows lifted slightly. Since Larvesta evolved into Volcarona, if they could not find the shiny Volcarona, catching a shiny Larvesta was practically the next best thing.
"Yeah. Its strength is pretty good too. It's clearly been building up for a while."
Grey immediately became interested in catching it.
A shiny Pokémon had appeared right in front of him. Even if he had not wanted to catch it, he would at least have wanted to chat with it.
"Hey, hello there."
Grey quickly checked the system shop, traded for the kind of energy cubes Bug-type Pokémon loved most, then pretended to rummage through his backpack.
The moment he took out the cubes, Larvesta's hostile look instantly turned into eager flattery.
By Zebstrika's stripes, in all the time it had been alive, it had never smelled anything this fancy before.
One sniff was enough to tell that it was premium stuff. It even wondered whether its dad had ever eaten something this high-end.
Maybe it could ask this human for a little?
Just a little bit would be enough.
With that thought, Larvesta slowly crawled over.
Its green eyes blinked as it let out a soft cry.
"Larv..." (Human, could you share a little of that delicious food with me?)
Larvesta was still pretty innocent and had no idea just how rare a creature like itself really was in human society.
And on top of that, its dad, a Volcarona, had often told it stories about humans once worshiping their family.
So in Larvesta's mind, asking humans for food felt like the most natural thing in the world.
Of course, to show it had manners, Larvesta did not just charge over and demand it. It politely asked if the human could spare it just a little of the energy cubes.
"You want some? That's no problem. But can you answer one small question for me first?"
Grey held the cube out to Larvesta and asked, "Do you have a Volcarona down below that's colored kind of like you are?"
"Larv." (That's my dad. Why are you looking for him?)
Larvesta started munching away and vaguely told Grey all about itself and its father.
After hearing the story, Grey raised a brow.
Well, look at that.
It was basically the same situation as Steven's ace Metagross.
Another absurdly lucky double-shiny family.
What kind of blessed RNG was this?
"Nothing much. I just want to be friends with you two. And if you're willing, I'd like to take you outside and treat you to food even better than that."
Grey could tell this Larvesta loved to eat, just like little Riolu.
"Riolu!" (What's wrong with loving food?!)
Little Riolu jumped up and interrupted Grey's train of thought.
"Ahem. Force of habit."
Grey coughed lightly, then looked back at Larvesta and waited for its answer.
"Larv." (Then come with me! My dad should be happy to meet you!)
Larvesta hopped into the quicksand and dropped to the hidden lower level.
Seeing that, Grey turned to Caitlin and apologetically said, "No way to princess-carry you down there this time."
"I-it's fine. I'll go down with you."
Seeing Grey look genuinely apologetic over something so small, Caitlin moved a little closer and whispered by his ear, "A-after we get back out, you can princess-carry me again if you want~"
"That works."
Grey reached out and lightly flicked Caitlin's nose, making the tip of it itch.
"You're a little naughty, you know that~"
Caitlin clenched her fist and gave Grey a light tap on the chest.
Grey just smiled and said nothing. Then he walked to the edge of the quicksand and jumped straight in.
Inside the hidden chamber beneath Relic Castle—
"Larvesta!" (Dad, Dad, I found a human! He says he wants to take us outside for good food! He doesn't seem like a bad person, and he's got a super strong Fire-type aura on him!)
Larvesta chattered nonstop to a much larger moth-like Pokémon with three pairs of golden wings.
"Fire-type aura?"
The Volcarona slowed the beat of its wings and turned its compound eyes upward.
A shower of sand and stone fell away, and Grey landed safely on the ground.
Before Volcarona could react, Grey stretched out both arms and caught Caitlin as she dropped after him.
Only after that did Volcarona truly meet Grey's gaze.
"Volca!" (Human, use the legend you carry and fight me!)
Without another word, Volcarona spread all six wings wide. Golden firelight gathered at the tips, blazing like a miniature sun.
The moment it saw Grey, it knew there had to be a battle.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810.