Chapter 2

“The lab I want to go to isn’t that far away. Honestly, it’s not even that far from where I first woke up. It’s just a few ledges over, and it’s actually one of the first places I found when trying to figure out where to go. But it and everywhere else had signs of aggressive Pokémon, so I just hid—until I found you, I mean.”

Nick adjusted the straps that kept the bag hanging off his back and trudged up a path that curved around the side of the cavern. Crystals growing off the side of the Pokémon-carved ledge illuminated him as he walked by, and the shadow that he cast onto the wall was twice his height. The shadow of an Iron Valiant followed him from behind.

When it came to traveling, the Iron Valiant stayed on guard, keeping itself alert and scanning the air and their surroundings for any would-be ambushers. Most Pokémon did not appreciate their territory going unrespected, and others would see a pair of travelers as easy targets. Normally, one or two individuals stalking around would not be an issue, but the backpack Nick carried was a problem. There were a number of species in this cavern that would see the bag and believe it contained something worth taking.

But Nick remained unaware of this. He split his focus, but it was never to stay on guard. He simply followed the worn path upward, and he would gaze out into the cavern and at the faraway Pokémon as they went about their everyday lives.

It was frustrating. The Iron Valiant could feel itself growing more and more tense the longer Nick’s expression remained solely defined by awe. He lacked even an ounce of worry about being attacked, and, to that point, he had placed far too much trust in the Iron Valiant far too quickly.

“Anyway, it’ll still take a bit to reach the lab, so it might be worth taking a moment to introduce ourselves. Especially if we’re going to be traveling together,” Nick added with a slight laugh. “Like I said, my name is Nick, and as of... yesterday, I think? It’s my dream to be a Pokémon trainer. But the real truth about me is...”

He purposefully paused as if to add dramatic effect.

“I’m not actually from this world.”

A cheeky smile crossed the human’s face as he checked over his shoulder. The Iron Valiant was busy tracking a wandering shadow that passed over a nearby crystal outcropping, and it only caught the barest hint of that expression at the very edge of its vision.

A huff escaped Nick’s throat.

“You’re not surprised?”

The Iron Valiant didn’t stop scanning for threats, but it shook its head to reply with the negative. As far as it was aware, Nick’s story was not unusual. Most species here—its own included—did not originally come from this world.

“Oh. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. Paradox Pokémon. From the Professor’s machine, or maybe Terapagos?” Nick mused. “Anyway, my story’s a bit more unique than that. The world I’m from doesn’t have any Pokémon at all!”

The Iron Valiant stopped walking. This time, its gaze was solely locked onto Nick. Its sensors zoomed in as it tried to search through any slight reaction that came from the human, and for anyone looking at it, they would have seen the Iron Valiant’s display show narrowed eyes.

But the human didn’t see that. Nick kept walking with his back to the Iron Valiant as he continued up the slope. He didn’t realize what he had just revealed: he was totally unaware of this world. He knew nothing about its dangers, and, if what he said was true, how could he ever share information as part of their deal if he came from somewhere where no Pokémon existed?

“Well, it’s not like there’s no Pokémon,” Nick said idly, answering the Iron Valiant’s unspoken question without even realizing what he was doing. “There are games, manga, and even an anime. Each one is pretty descriptive about the Pokémon in it.”

The Iron Valiant resumed following after him.

“I might not be an expert on behavior and habitat, but I remember a lot about general facts about Pokémon battles. I followed a few ‘competitive’ battlers back home, so I can remember a few things about some of the stronger species—you included.”

“Iron Valiant are strong,” Nick said, and the Iron Valiant’s gaze bore into his back. “Both in stats and because of everything they can do. They have a crazy amount of versatility in the moves they can learn, and they have a pretty effective ability. And, just on a basic level, they—and you, specifically—are Fairy and Fighting types. That’s a pretty good combination for offense.”

As much as doing so bothered it, the Iron Valiant lowered its gaze to the floor. It wasn’t able to continue staying on guard with all of the thoughts racing through its head. Nick had mentioned types—some aspect of Pokémon that was innate to them, apparently. The darkness that was a part of that Roaring Moon stood out to it, but it was having trouble understanding what being a “Fairy and Fighting type” truly meant.

Looking at its arms, its blades glowed, and it wasn’t sure how to feel. Its prized move, the one where it focused on the edges of its blades to make them sharper, didn’t share any connection to what it was. That was a Psychic-type attack, but... the Iron Valiant wasn’t a Psychic type at all.

So then, what was the point of practicing that move so often in all of its spars?

“When it comes to battling, there’s one fact that should be remembered, and it’s pretty key to winning every battle,” Nick continued, still unaware. “Competitive Pokémon battles are one thing, but they usually assume sides take turns and that Pokémon fight at the same level. Here? As far as I can tell, battles are more freeform, and a Pokémon’s power varies wildly. So, the only thing that matters is this:”

He looked back over his shoulder again, and the act caught the Iron Valiant’s full attention.

“Strength,” Nick declared, and he spoke as if that one word carried all of the meaning in the world. “As long as you’re using moves that can actually hit, you’ll win every battle if you’ve trained yourself to be strong enough. You have to completely outlevel your foes.”

The words rang true. The Iron Valiant understood the importance of strength. Though practicing that one move had been useless, every battle it had experienced in the past had been to chase that purpose, and the battles it had lost before would not be battles it would lose again.

As basic as it sounded, power was what defined the victor of fights, but Nick turned around before saying anything more.

“That’s my ‘secret’ strategy that I’ll help you with,” he said casually. “Really, I have to make sure you understand how to use the best moves. Once I’m out of here, I have a few more things that I know that I should be able to trade for help with getting on my feet, but it’s all exploring the world from there! I’ll get to see things I never thought I’d get to see!”

He started to practically skip ahead from there, and the Iron Valiant had to increase the length of its strides to keep in pace. Following, it silently chided itself for allowing its guard to fall, and it returned to keeping an eye on everything and anything that could lead to an attack.

Before too long, the slope leveled out, and they emerged onto a flat space that connected to a large recess in the cavern wall. The overhang above it was interspersed with shining crystals, and fallen fragments caused the floor to glimmer.

However, this place was not unoccupied—Pokémon watched them from above. Between the crystal growths on the ceiling, dark, lizard-like creatures hung from the stone. Yellow eyes tracked them as they walked past, but the Iron Valiant allowed its blades to shine, and none of those Pokémon bothered to risk an attack.

“There. At the other end. That’s the building I need to enter.”

It was a block of metal that was half-covered by the recess’s back wall. Crystals framed its sides, and it lacked any obvious openings. There was only a front door and a sign.

[Observation Post Theta], it read.

Though Nick did not notice their watchers, the Iron Valiant did notice that none hung around or above this building in the wall.

“I need to get supplies from here since I need to escape this crater—and not just these caves. I need food, water, and, kinda importantly, a sleeping bag. Even just a blanket would be good since I really don’t want to have to sleep on a hard floor. Again.”

Nick grabbed the door’s handle and pushed it open without any resistance. The light of the cavern’s crystals illuminated the inside, and this place clearly was one that was once inhabited by humans.

Once.

A long time ago.

Right now, it was a mess. Furniture lay scattered throughout the room in pieces, shattered glass hung off the ceiling, and dust coated many chunks of that refuse. The light from the exterior crystals didn’t let the Iron Valiant see that far in, but the light did allow it to see fallen and broken chunks of metal at the far side. A large portion of the back wall was missing, surrounded by bent metal covered in bite marks, and many small scratches covered the floor.

“I managed to find this place while trying to find somewhere to rest, but you can see that going in here on my own wasn’t a good idea,” Nick whispered. “I need to look through to see if there’s anything I can take, otherwise, I’m stuck trying to find food and supplies from whatever I can find outside.”

Cautiously, the Iron Valiant pressed its arms together to draw its polearm. Light glowed from its eyes, weapon, and glass embedded in its chest. The room lit up in hues of white and pink.

“Neat,” Nick said, stepping inside after it. “That’s pretty cool.”

Though Nick needed to search this place, doing so before handling or subduing whatever lurked past the chewed-apart wall would only open them to an ambush. Defeating it would buy them the time needed to gather what Nick required, and the same word from before echoed through the Iron Valiant’s mind.

“Strength.”

It needed to strike quickly and overwhelmingly. That was what mattered when it came to winning here.

Slowly, the Iron Valiant crept forward, only focusing on that open, back wall as Nick looked around. He whispered about the things he saw, like “shelves,” “a desk,” “a chair,” and even something about a blocked, side door.

Moving deeper inside the building allowed more and more of the Iron Valiant’s light to spread throughout this place, and, eventually, it managed to reach that opening to light up what was past the open wall. This back room might have once been part of the building, but it had been built into the cavern’s stone itself, and some wild Pokémon had taken offense to that.

The metal that made up this room had been ripped to shreds, and most of the floor was now open and exposed stone. The very back wall was outright missing—in its place, some of the stone above it had collapsed downward. There were no glowing crystals in here, not even shards. It was completely devoid of any and all sources of light. Yet, the Iron Valiant’s glow illuminated dozens upon dozens of holes in the floors and walls. In all of them, gemstones sparkled within, and they all reflected the light that emanated from the Iron Valiant.

“Oh,” Nick whispered, crouching to the side of the chewed entrance. “This isn’t the home of one big Pokémon. This is a nest.”

Something shifted on the floor, and the Iron Valiant immediately snapped its polearm up to prepare itself for an attack. However, the creature there was small—no bigger than one of the Iron Valiant’s limbs—and it looked at them with a grin.

A cruel grin. A grin that contained far too many teeth. The purple fur on the creature’s body allowed it to cleanly blend into darkness, and a pair of gemstone eyes on its face reflected the Iron Valiant’s light back at it—

The same way that so many other pairs of gemstone eyes reflected the Iron Valiant’s light back out from where they had been asleep in their holes.

“Just a Sableye? One Sableye isn’t that strong. It’s not going to be hard to—”

The Iron Valiant grabbed Nick’s arm and tried to run.

That was the signal that started this whole mess. This was an entire nest of Sableye, and the Pokémon here had just encountered a pair of intruders in their home.

The Iron Valiant’s intention was to retreat to a more strategically advantageous position, of course, but it couldn’t get even a foot closer to the narrow front door before Nick pulled it right back. Yanking it to the side, he tore the Iron Valiant away from the opening. From within that backroom nest, dozens of Sableye leaped right at where the Iron Valiant had just stood, and each attacking Pokémon seemed to control the darkness itself to have shadows wash out in a flood.

“We can’t leave! Look!”

If the Iron Valiant had tried to run in a straight line, it would have been caught by the sudden surge from behind, but that wasn’t the only problem. Right at the door were a handful of other Sableye. Neither Nick nor the Iron Valiant had tried to hide their approach, and these gremlin-like beings had noticed them and snuck around to try to catch them from behind.

Suddenly, Nick took off running, but he didn’t head toward the entrance. He dashed to the room’s side.

“There’s a door there!” he shouted.

The problem was that Sableye were greedy Pokémon. Just about every Sableye here stopped their attacks to hungrily gaze at the bag on the human’s back.

The Iron Valiant was forced to act then, and it struck, swinging its polearm in a sweeping slash as Nick ran toward the room’s side. The Iron Valiant’s glowing blade cleaved through the growing horde of creatures in the room, but despite using that same attack that had handled the Roaring Moon before, the blade merely phased through these grinning creatures without any major effect.

At least, that slash bought them time. The Iron Valiant had failed to do damage, but that lack of effect caused all of the Sableye to laugh.

The world was in chaos. The walls were consumed by swirling shadows. The air vibrated from dozens of hungering cackles. Grinning, the Sableye started to take turns jumping through the air, and the Iron Valiant swung and swung and swung. Each time, it dealt no damage, but it could at least throw off the Sableye’s aim.

Behind the Iron Valiant, Nick fought to push one of those fallen, broken shelves away from a side door. The ongoing squeak spoke of him slowly making progress, but he was not pushing it fast enough to give them enough time for the Iron Valiant to sustain its defense. It was used to fighting off larger Pokémon—or at least groups of no more than three. These Sableye were weak, but they existed in impossible numbers and completely ignored all of the Iron Valiant’s attacks. Most of the Pokémon failed to do anything to it, but the few shadowy swipes that got through left behind a freezing chill where they struck.

“Help... me!” Nick shouted as the cabinet creaked across the floor.

They were running out of time; the Sableye were surrounding them. The gremlin Pokémon circled them across the floor, and some were even crawling on the walls just to approach.

Hardening its resolve, the Iron Valiant knew it would have to resort to the same strategy it had relied on in the past. This time, however, when it dropped its guard, it was not to land an attack against its foes, but it was to give itself a single moment to unleash a slash.

Claws dug into its back. Several cold feelings shot through the Iron Valiant’s body. However, it was still able to swing its polearm, slicing through both the fallen cabinet and the door.

No longer blocked, Nick charged forward, tripping through the gap. The Iron Valiant pushed an arm behind it to knock away the three Sableye gripping onto its back, and it charged straight into the side room.

As it entered, Nick scrambled to return to his feet, but as he turned around, he let out a laugh.

The Iron Valiant turned just in time to see Nick lunge right at the door. His fist shattered a glass box right next to the entrance, and the room they had just entered suddenly became illuminated by a dull, red light.

Something in the wall above the door clicked and then cracked. Internal machinery broke, the last maintenance for emergency procedures being too far in the past, and a thick slab of metal slammed down to crush the sliced-open door and completely seal off this room.

No Sableye managed to get in.

Nick and the Iron Valiant just barely managed to escape.

“Ha... hah!” Breathing out, Nick shakily stood up, wobbling from an obvious adrenaline overload. “A panic button! Should’ve known there’d be one here. Except...”

The Iron Valiant had already noticed. Escaping here was not necessarily a good thing. This room possessed no other doors, and it lacked even the smallest of windows.

The fallen slab of metal might have protected them from the horde of Sableye outside, but it also blocked the only entrance.

In other words, by trying to escape from their attackers, they had only managed to seal themselves in this room instead.