Chapter 18: United We Fall

Chapter 18: United We Fall

Shhhhhink.

Meowth’s arms trembled, desperately trying to keep steady the haphazard cross shape he had formed with them. Slowly, Mathew’s club slid against his claws, trying and failing to force its way to his head. It took a second for his eyes to adjust — the swing down had put the flame out, and now both of them were coated in the dark.

Meowth pulled his glance back and upwards. Mathew was equipped with some goggles over his eyes that wrapped tightly around his mask, like the ones Poliwrath and Chip had been wearing when they feared his Hypnosis. Mathew looked stunned, but frustrated and desperate. He clearly wanted that first strike to land.

Before Mathew swung, Meowth had noticed the club’s light out of the corner of his eye, and the sound of steps right behind him, but he hadn’t thought anything of it. The only reason he reacted in time was because of Joey.

In a swift movement, Meowth pivoted from his rear to his feet, pushing Mathew and his club backward as he fully turned to face him. The cubone stumbled back. “What the hell, Joey?!” he cried. “I almost had him!”

“Mathew, we ain’t going through with this,” Joey said, putting himself in front of Meowth. “It’s wrong!”

Meowth was stunned. Joey was in on whatever this was…? “What are you trying to do here?” he asked both of them.

“This whole day’s been one big setup,” Joey explained. “Our bosses wanted us to beat you up, so you’d stay out of our business!”

Suddenly, a dozen oddities all clicked into place. Why he’d been so arbitrarily split up from the other Club members…why they needed to go to the back of the cave first…why Jermy had run off with Poliwrath and Chip…all of it, to isolate him, so SEAS could punish him. He should’ve known that photo-taking scheme was too easy.

He looked ahead to Mathew, dimly lit by the surrounding torches. The darkness of the cave and his goggles couldn’t hide those eyes. Through them, he saw Mathew’s seething contempt. Even while regaining his bearings, he was clenching his club far too tightly in his hand. “Joey, get out of the way.”

This is what Mr. Persian had tried to warn him about.

In between him and Mathew, Joey looked fierce. “No,” he stated with firmness. “This ain’t the way to go about your anger with Meowth. I’ve put up with more crazy talk than a cricket in a crowd, but this whole plan’s where I draw the line.”

SEAS is just asking too much of me, Joey was probably thinking.

“So you can’t stand yourself letting Mathew stoop so low?” Meowth asked for clarification.

Joey peered at him with confusion. “I can’t stand me letting you get hurt,” he said, as if it was evident.

…Huh. So Joey wasn’t thinking about the job, so much as he was thinking about…him? A strange, foreign feeling filled Meowth. Flattery, maybe?

Mathew’s head drooped down, seeming betrayed…then lifted with a cold malice. “Joey, you and I both know there’s no way out of this. It’s the only way we’re getting any kind of peace!”

“Is this your idea of peace?!” Joey gestured to the whole cave. “It ain’t mine! If you really wanted peace, we could just tell OCEAN to go employ someone else and stay in Kalmwa’er!”

Mathew groaned, putting a hand to his mask. “Damnit, I know your dad would’ve told you about this if you just remembered…! Joey, even if we didn’t want to go through with this, we can’t back out now. You should know what happens to traitors.” The cubone didn’t have it in him to finish the thought, but as far as Meowth was concerned, he didn’t need to.

They’re killed.

His own father…was he faced with a bind like this, too?

For a moment, Joey stood there, stunned. When he recollected himself, Meowth had never seen him look more jaded. “Oh, so now you tell me something new about Dad? Only when I try telling you to stop acting like a loon?”

“Joey, I’ve been trying—”

“No, you ain’t.” His words cut through the cave more sharply than any blade.

Beneath the goggles, Mathew’s expression sunk in betrayal. “Fine.” The cubone backed up and grabbed…some kind of strange object the cat didn’t recognize. What even was that…? Based on its design, Meowth could only assume it fired something small. “Have it your way.”

“Joey,” he said, stepping in. The totodile turned to him, a little shocked. “Thank you. But I don’t think you’re talking us out of this.” If Mathew’s situation did match Mr. Persian’s, that meant that the cubone had willingly walked down the same path as him. Meowth refused to let that fly.

“Meowth…” Joey looked at him worriedly for a moment, before relenting, backing up towards the trash mound.

Mathew nodded. “Well, even if they didn’t need us to do this, I still wanna kick your ass!” he barked, stepping in to swing once again. “Consider it some goddamned payback.”

“Joey, if you really want to help, get my medical kit and back me up.” Meowth brandished his claws, ready for this.

He should’ve known keeping his license was a pipe dream.

---

“Well, if Politoed wanted to go deep, he certainly succeeded…”

If Jermy had gone back in time and asked his younger self, sitting in that science fair moments before his life changed course, what was on his bucket list of things he’d want his dream job to give him, ‘an opportunity to deceive the police’ would not have been on it. Listening to Chip and Poliwrath grumble about it taking too long to find the rest of the Club members on this dark path, the pikachu could only think about what Mathew and Joey were doing at the moment.

By now, Meowth had probably already been threatened — and struck, if he hadn’t complied to OCEAN’s demands to stay away and stay silent. Knowing their luck, he would probably escape the pair’s inexperienced clutches, find Minichino and the others before they deal with them, and flip everything around, exactly as he predicted. After that, they’d all be in dire straits. Poliwrath and Chip would figure everything out, and they’d be arrested.

What a waste of a bucket list item. Then again, it wouldn’t be the first time. ‘Getting to receive the news that your sister was declared dead’ was a waste, too. And ‘getting to be endlessly bullied by your boss’. And—

“Jermy,” ORB said. “Keep your eyes on the road if you’re going to stomp around.”

He was brought back into the moment. Jermy had shifted to trailing behind the Service Guild members as they continued, making up directions whenever there was a split, or a fork, or rough terrain blocking their way forward. That way, they wouldn’t be able to make any guesses about whether he was telling the truth.

“Sorry,” Jermy mumbled to his machine. “It’s been a rotten morning.”

That prompted Poliwrath to peer back. “What’s got ya so down, huh?” he asked.

“Oh! Um…” He fought for a half-truth. “Just not an easy job today. I mean, Misery Cave?”

“Not exactly the safest of places,” Chip concurred. “What kind of crazy boss do you have to be to send untrained pokémon here?”

“Probably a real loon! Ehehehe!” Poliwrath chuckled.

Chip shot Poliwrath a glare. “I was referring to our client, sire…”

“No, no, he’s right,” Jermy said. “It’s a whole different type of crazy.”

And so was he. Jermy was going through with this, after all, despite his objections and complaints and worries. He was helping the organization assault somebody even if he didn’t like it. The pikachu was playing a role in a war he’d lost hope in a long time ago.

Jane had been right. Why did he stay here and let them drag him into this?

Rrgh, why did he even ask that question?! He knew the answer! It was because, once upon a time, he hadn’t been a part of this. Jermy had just been a person who loved science and math and had no concept of living as the yellow rodent mascot of an international media brand. Jermy had worked under Emmons Labs where his bright-hearted boss put them to task on making Earth a better place. That wasn’t what this organization was now, but Jermy still held onto that hope that, after this nightmare was over, he could have his old job back, where there was no pressure other than the path to scientific discovery, where David believed in his ability to act on his own, where his coworkers respected him and helped—

OCEAN will never be the place you want it to be again. You have to find another way.

…

Jermy stopped walking.

What?

Where…had that come from? That was something he had thought just then, right? Then why…

Poliwrath and Chip were both giving him weird looks. “You good back there?!” Poliwrath asked.

“…I need to sit down for a second.” Jermy stepped back, and slid down the stalagmite until his rear reached the cold, hard stone. The satchel weighing him down fell out of his grip.

“S-sir!” Chip panicked, flapping over to him as he sat, hand against his head. “Are you okay?!”

“I’m thinking.” Jermy tried to wave him off, trying to make sense of this sudden confliction.

ORB pushed up against his side. “Scans indicate unusual signs of disturbance and confusion.”

The chatot buried his face in his wings. “Gah, what a terrible time to not bring our emergency supplies…!”

“Chip! We still gotta do somethin’!” Poliwrath said firmly, bringing a torch up close to the two of them. “Surely we know how to calm down a lil’ freakout…”

Chip mused for a moment…then his expression brightened, and he brought his wings to his neck. “Take this,” he said, pulling off his headphones. He pried the nigh-invisible music player off of his body and fiddled with it. “If it’s thinking that’s got you like this, maybe some background noise will help you work through it?” Chip offered it to him.

Jermy nodded, taking the headphones and awkwardly pressing them against his mousey ears. A quiet, calm, steady beat filled his ears, built from percussive instruments he had never heard before. The music flooded his head as he processed what he had just experienced.

That sudden, random, foreign thought was something he had been ignoring this whole day…and yet, when it was laid out to him, it seemed so obvious. His position really wasn’t going to go back to the way it was on Earth, so why did he continually drown himself in OCEAN’s demands? True, their threats held the pikachu back…but anywhere was better than this.

Jermy mulled over his next step — the decision he would need to make if he wanted to break off. The thought of having to go toe-to-toe with their soldiers intimidated him, but the beats filling his ears calmed his fears and raised his confidence. He was a smart cookie, right? He could find some way around or through those fights, surely, even if his strength wasn’t all there. All he had to do was make sure everyone else came out of it okay.

Slowly, Jermy rose to his feet. “Thanks,” he remarked as he passed the headphones back to a relieved Chip. He wasted no time in turning to his robot, light coming through the front glass like a headlight. “ORB, I want you to change your internal alignments.”

Jermy waited for a witty retort from ORB that never came. “What alignments are you adjusting?”

After a pause, Jermy asserted, “OCEAN is an enemy now.”

Poliwrath’s eyes flicked between Jermy and ORB. “Uh, what the heck are ya…?”

“I should point out that shifting OCEAN to the enemies list also shifts a multitude of people out of the friends list,” ORB said. “Are you sure?”

“Well…” Considering himself, the war, and Jane… “A lot of them are hanging in the wrong list.”

ORB paused for a moment, silently churning his request. Then, he said, “If you want to protect the Club, you’re not going to do it at this pace. You snails need to stop slithering around.”

“Wait…” Chip peered at Jermy. “What does he mean, protect the Club?”

“I’ll make this quick.” Jermy spun to the Service Guild members. “Long story short, I lied. Politoed and the others aren’t here in the dark. They’re closer to the entrance…and if we don’t go find them now, they’re all done for.”

---

Ffsshhhhhhh…

The weapon sizzled like a soda can as a purple gas filled the air. Poison… Meowth took a quick breath of fresh air and held it as the colored mist spread around him. He sprung back, but Mathew rushed him down. He swung for his left cheek, but refocused at the last second and smacked him in the side. Meowth grit his teeth and put a paw over his mouth, trying not to gasp from the pain. He kicked him away and sprinted out of the cloud.

He peered at Joey as he stumbled away. The totodile was still rummaging through his satchel, trying to find his kit. Even if Mathew refused to fight Joey, Meowth didn’t like the thought of leaving Joey alone with him. Meowth needed to buy time before he could make a break for—

A bone soared right past his face.

Meowth skidded to a stop, just short of taking a face-full of it…and then lost his balance, tumbling into the trash at his feet. He heard the club whir through the air, returning to Mathew like a boomerang. The cat was prone — he needed to think fast. As his arms swum through the filth around him, an idea came.

He grasped a bottle, turned onto his back, and tossed it at Mathew. Then, a piece of cardboard. Then, an old scarf. Mathew shrugged off each makeshift weapon easily. “Shit, that’s the best you’ve got?” he lowered his weapons as he came closer, looking disappointed. “Where are those coins of yours—gah!”

Coin-shaped disks of energy, formed in Meowth’s own paws, were slung through the air, answering Mathew’s question. One slashed at his right arm, one at his left, and one was big enough to topple Mathew over. He sprung to his feet and getting some distance. “Joey! Have you found it yet?”

“Just a sec…got it!” At the other end of the cave, Joey leapt up and raised his arms to the sky, clutching his medical kit in his hands.

“Open it up. How many pink berries are in there?” Trying to get some level of protection between him and Mathew, Meowth leapt at one of the trash piles and started clawing his way up. Whoever had left these here — the geodudes? — had packed them surprisingly tightly, well enough to mostly hold his weight.

The sounds of panic echoed through Meowth’s ears as Joey fumbled with his kit, trying not to drop the items inside as he opened it. “Uh…ain’t any more than two in here!”

Two…that wasn’t a lot. If Mathew fired another poison cloud toward him on the summit of this mound, he’d only be able to stand his ground twice, assuming Joey could toss one his—wait. Where had Mathew gone?

Meowth looked all around the base of his pile. Hadn’t the cubone been just behind him? Fortunately for him, his eyes were well-adjusted to the dark, so if Mathew was trying to slink through the shadows, he wasn’t going to have much luck. That meant he must be hiding behind one of the other piles… “Joey, do you see him?” he called out to the totodile.

“Hah…Lemme see.” Joey closed his satchel and began weaving through the small maze of mounds. Right as he came close to the cat, he suddenly pointed at one of the piles close to him. “Here!”

Waste clattered and crashed as Mathew sprung out from behind it. He was carrying his satchel in the arm that once held his Club. With a thrust of his other hand, he pointed his mystery weapon forward and fired…at the base of the pile? Meowth looked on confusedly as it formed below, then let his watchful eyes follow Mathew as he sprinted to the other side.

Meowth could see his game here — Mathew was going to climb up to him, then push him backwards into the poison, rendering him unable to hold his breath through it. He produced another coin in his paw, preparing to deliver another Pay Day onto the cubone. If he wanted to climb up here, he could certainly try.

Preparing his ascent, Mathew reached into his satchel and pulled out his—

That wasn’t his club.

FWOOSH!

A powerful, controlled blast of wind rushed from the Whirlwind Wand into Meowth, launching him backwards. Cutting pain seared through Meowth’s back as he slammed into the wall of the cave, then went down…down…into the poison cloud. He hit the floor, and instantly a putrid taste filled his mouth. He coughed and hacked, trying to get it out of his system, but it persisted, leaving him weak, injured, and unable to move.

He could barely even look up to see Mathew approach him as the cloud dissipated. “We could stop this right now, Meowth,” he told him firmly. “If you leave this cave and the Club, never speak of this again, and stay the hell out of our way…we’re done here.”

Meowth wheezed and shuddered, barely even able to get out an answer. If he turned back here, he wouldn’t find the full truth behind his father. If he turned back here, he would never prove that his peers were wrong about him. Even worse, if he turned back here, he let Mathew have this win. He couldn’t afford to leave this fight. Besides…it was probably time for him to take a beating, anyway. “N—cugh!—Never…”

Mathew paused, as if stunned by the answer. Then he stepped forward, raised his arm, and… “Alright then. Have it your way!” The club banged down on Meowth’s ribcage, making him lurch in pain. “I’m not leaving…” Again. “until my job here is done!” Again. Scraped from the rock, eaten away at by poison, and beaten by a club, his vision was going dark… “So we’ll just have to—gaaaaaah!”

Mathew screamed, stumbling away from him in recoil. Meowth couldn’t see what hit the cubone…but he did see water dripping all over the rocks next to him. He was picked up, and a pink berry was awkwardly put in his mouth, followed by a blue one. Meowth swallowed them both down. The feeling of being gnawed at from within subsided, and energy came back to him.

“Are you good?” Joey asked, trying to put him back onto his feet. The totodile put his kit into his paw.

“Yeah. Thanks.” Meowth pushed off from the totodile, regaining his bearings. He looked over to the cubone, still reeling from the Water Gun Joey launched on him. Droplets fell from the back of Mathew’s dampened skull mask, making him flinch whenever one happened to hit his tail. He looked back to Meowth in contempt, raising his club and the Whirlwind Wand in his other hand…and, upon seeing Joey put himself between the two, promptly lowered them.

“Seriously, Joey, you’ve gotta stay out of this,” he ordered, breathing heavily. “Do you want me to use either of these?”

“I reckon you shouldn’t use any of them,” Joey said, looking down upon the reptile. Just barely lit by the other torches, Meowth could see fury and desperation in Mathew’s expression…but he didn’t dare lift a finger against the totodile. Joey didn’t seem oblivious to this, either. “And against me, you ain’t gonna, are you?”

Mathew seemed momentarily surprised. “Joey…what kind of person do you think I am?”

I would never hurt somebody who wasn’t dead to me, Meowth figured Mathew intended.

The crocodile squinted. “You don’t got any problems with using it against Meowth. Why not me?”

“Because he’s dangerous, and you’re a kid.”

“Since when did me being a kid ever stop us before?” Joey pressed.

“Ugh, forget this!” Mathew grabbed the totodile’s side and pushed him away, then sent a gust to Meowth’s right. Meowth narrowly avoided being blown back — but it did get his arm, causing his grip on his kit to go loose. It spun like a disk and crashed into a mound of trash, out of sight. “Ha! Hole in one, bitch!” the cubone then yelled, storming the cat at a reinvigorated pace.

Once more, Meowth was subject to a game of cat-and-mouse, where he was the mouse. Joey, with a yell, was the dog now, hunting the cat.

So healing off his strikes or poison is out of the question, Meowth contemplated as he sprinted, moving on all fours to pick up the pace. I need to get him to miss everything he throws at me. But how—?! His train of thought was interrupted as his hind paw struck the sharp end of a wedged rock. A second later, he heard Mathew cry out as he stumbled, tripping over that same rock. That gave him an idea…

Using a passing pile of waste as a stepstool, Meowth reached up and pried one of the torches off of its mount. “Joey!” he called as he swapped back to a bipedal run. “Put out every torch in this room except for this one!”

“What?!” Mathew cried, panting as he sprinted harder to close the gap between them. “Damn you…!”

Joey called out. “Are you sure it’s okay if I—”

“I’ll be fine.” Suddenly, the cat planted a foot down and faced Mathew head-on. When he came down with his club, Meowth blocked it with his torch. The weapons were almost of equal size. “I can see in the dark. Just take them out!”

Mathew continued his onslaught, making swing after swing after swing with both the club and the wand. Meowth’s new torch was much easier to guard with than his claws were, allowing him to keep each strike away as the cubone advanced upon him, pushing him against the wall at his back. It may not have worked earlier, but Mathew was breathing harder, swinging sloppier… He was relentless, but the totodile had done a number on his stamina.

Speaking of Joey, the cat couldn’t help but notice torches going dark out of the corner of his vision, one by one. If Meowth could just hold out a bit longer…

Angered by their deadlock, Mathew pulled back as far as he could muster, then swung harshly down on Meowth with both weapons. He blocked, but couldn’t throw him off, leaving the two in a struggle. The two stared at each other for a moment…and then Mathew’s eyes flicked to the end of his torch.

Before Meowth could even think about it, Mathew slid the club up and pressed the blunt end straight into his torch’s fire. Once more, the club was ignited — and right up in his face. Meowth leaned his head away from the club, using a free paw to pull some of his lengthy whiskers out of the way. With Mathew reaching so far, it was easy to prod him with the torch.

“Gyaaah!” Seeming more stunned than in pain, Mathew fell back, giving just enough room for Meowth to slip away. He gave a sweeping look around them…and was met with darkness. Joey worked fast — fast enough to already be at his side, lobbing one last small Water Gun at Mathew’s club. Now the two could only see what was immediately around them.

“Quick! If you don’t want him to see, we gotta get this room blacker than a…oh, forget it!” Joey pointed to the torch in his paw, fixing to take it out.

Meowth held it almost protectively. “Then how would you be able to—?”

“Oh no you don’t!” Giving them no time to banter, Mathew lunged from the dark, trying to tackle Meowth. With just enough time to react, Meowth kept himself from falling…but the cubone’s shove broke his grip on his torch. Meowth recoiled as the torch fell straight into the trash on the floor.

It landed by a sheet of discarded paper. The light consumed the page, and quickly, its contents were burnt away. The flames danced from one piece of waste to the next, spreading like a plague. Soon the whole pile was charred, fueling the destruction as it spread.

For a moment, the three of them backed up, watching it grow and cast long shadows behind them all. Joey sloppily lurched back and launched a Water Gun at it, but the move was too weak, and the totodile was too tired. He wasn’t strong enough to put this fire out. None of them were.

All at once, each of them realized the moment had come to make their move.

Meowth and Joey whirled towards the exit, but they were too slow. With a clatter, Mathew threw his club and wand aside and gripped Meowth’s tail. He swallowed a yowl as he was pulled back towards the flame, kicking futilely.

“Meowth!” Joey cried. He lunged and grabbed one of his paws. “What the heck are you doing?!” he asked Mathew as he tried to get Meowth away. “Ain’t you gonna get burned, too?!”

“For causes like this, it’s worth it!” the cubone yelled. With whatever strength was left in him, he desperately pulled Meowth towards the fire.

Meowth grunted in pain, trying not to cry out in pain and break Joey’s focus. He was the object in their tug-of-war, and the pain between his arm and his tail was splitting. The cat could swear he was going to rip in half—

“All of you, stop!”

Suddenly, a bolt of electricity surged over Meowth’s head. Mathew and Joey both let go of him, scrambling away from the fire. Meowth clamored onto two paws and turned to face Jermy, putting himself at the center of the trio. He refastened his combative stance. “Great, now there’s three of you…”

“He said ‘all of you’, moron,” ORB chimed in, rolling past Meowth’s shins as he headed off into the darkness.

“Everything there is to be said about you has already been said, so let’s just not get into it.” Jermy said before turning to Mathew. “You need to stop attacking Meowth.”

Meowth loosened his stance, surprised. Jermy was…asking Mathew to stand down? With a glance, he saw the totodile gawk, too.

“What?!” The cubone was just as flabbergasted. “Are you crazy? You realize OCEAN’s gonna—”

“Not give you the cozy job with the science division? Yeah, they won’t. It never existed in the first place — at least, not a cozy one. The only ones I know work you down to the bone, treat you like you’re worthless, and then don’t bat an eye if you ever get knocked down… It’s not the career you said you were looking for, Mathew.”

“You mean exactly what we’ve been doing up to now?” Mathew spat. The fire behind them crackled, reaching the peak of its ferocity. “Well…fuck it! That would be fine. I can handle putting my hand in this war of the gods or whatever that OCEAN’s doing. As long as it helps make that war end so I can find some peace—”

“Do you really think it’s gonna be all hunky-dory once you finish the war? No,” Jermy said. “You won’t come out of it the same guy you were going in. OCEAN and the war will take away what’s important to you, and you’ll never get it back. They already have taken away what’s important to you…” He squinted at Mathew for a moment, then addressed everyone. “And they’re in the process of taking even more, right now!”

Mathew stood there for a moment, stunned into silence. “…But…you were the one who led me to OCEAN in the first place! You had our backs every step of the way! How can you just turn around and—”

“Yes, I did do all those things,” Jermy cut in. “All of this is my fault. If I had the guts to tell my bosses off, you would actually be able to relax here in Kalmwa’er…and maybe Joey would be able to work on finding where his mom and dad ended up. I’ve made a mess of things, so just…lemme put it all back together, alright?”

Joey looked at Jermy in surprise, and with great sympathy. “Jermy…” Meowth wanted to feel sympathetic as well, but after that fight, he could hardly muster the energy.

“Also, since he forgot to mention the most important part,” ORB added, carrying Meowth’s medical kit in his claw, “There are actual lives on the line here. Why do you think OCEAN split you into two groups in the first place?”

It took a moment for the revelation to hit Meowth. He took back his kit and popped one more Oran Berry into his mouth, then passed one to Joey — luckily, he still had plenty of those. “If they knew I was meddling, then they probably also know that…”

“Yes,” ORB affirmed. “The rest of the Club is in mortal danger.”

“Hah?! Oh no!” Joey cried with horror. “We gotta get back to them!” He began to run off, biting into the berry as he moved.

“What?” Mathew seemed skeptical. “Who the hell would be fighting the rest of the Club? The only ones there are the geodude.”

“That’s what they wanted you to think,” ORB commented, “and it’s why we need to move.”

“Yeah, what he said!” Jermy slipped forward, using a Quick Attack to get ahead. His cheeks sparked, just barely lighting the way for them. “Come on!”

Meowth began to chase after them, but he stopped when he peered back. Mathew wasn’t moving. “Aren’t you coming?”

“…What?” Mathew’s breathy words weren’t aimed at Meowth. The cubone had his back to him, staring at the fire.

Meowth paused, really questioning if he should offer, but… “Do you need an oran, or…” No reply. “Forget it.” He whirled around and left Mathew be. He wouldn’t want his help after everything, anyway.

With the torches on the walls of the cramped path still lit, Meowth, Joey, Jermy, and ORB had almost no trouble running back the way they came. Soon, they emerged from the opening back to the river…

Just in time to see two green blurs cascade past them.

Joey cried out as Politoed and Breloom hit the rocks of the banks, splaying out. The former’s King’s Rock slipped off of his head; the latter’s cape tugged at her neck, pulled along by the current. Meowth was left stunned. A perfectly clean hit on both of them at once? He’d never seen that before.

The one responsible for it did not make himself a secret — and it wasn’t a geodude. To their left was a grey pokémon, staring them down with beady green eyes as he stood tall. He brandished the massive red girder in his hands as, behind him, Meowth could hear the grunts of Minichino, Poliwrath, and Chip fighting deeper in the cave.

“Well, what do we got here…?” The gurdurr looked confusedly at Jermy, but as his gaze shifted to Meowth, his expression turned to a wicked grin. “Fresh meat.”