Chapter 198


“Alright, Poppy. Remember what Nitey taught you — Icy Wind then go in with an Ice Spinner!”


Nina watched as the movement of the Bellsprout slowed from Freeze and her little baby seal slammed into it like a deadly ballerina covered in jagged ice.


The Trial of Ascension that Falkner got Nina set up on turned out to be a gift that kept on giving since she could keep coming back to challenge it every day. It was the perfect avenue to get some valuable battle experience for her team.


Nina could have just gone to a nearby park or Pokemon Center to seek out battles of course. But the Gym Trainer had always lamented the poor quality of the novice trainers she tended to meet in those public spaces.


However, the monks of the Sprout Tower were highly skilled, although she risked her team getting too hyper fixated on handling one specific type of Pokemon and battle style. It shouldn’t be too big of an issue if she paced them properly, which she was doing by alternating the days that they undergo the Trial. Today it was Poppy, but tomorrow she would let either Brucey or Sir Clodington have a go.


Nina determined that the benefits of battling the monks of the Sprout Tower far outweighed the disadvantages because, to their credit, the difficulty of each challenge level was perfectly tuned. And there was enough variation in the monks’ battle styles in every run since the elderly monk overseeing the trials rotated their members in and out.


“This will be battle number 16 for Poppy…”


The Popplio had managed to fight his way through the first ten matches without too much strain. But now, his opponents have started using rudimentary applications of Grass Type Aura in all of their attacks and the damage has been accumulating, as evident by Poppy’s laboured breathing after his latest victory.


“Po-po!”


However, Poppy remained as determined as ever as he did a clumsy little flip and forcefully clapped his fins together in a challenging pose, eliciting giggles from Nina.


“Poppy’s developing at a scary rate… I can tell that he’s starting to loosely incorporate Aura into his moves. I’m gonna need either Nitey or Espy to spend some time with him later to properly work out the fundamentals, else he might pick up some bad habits.”


In fact, Poppy was growing so fast that by the time he fainted on the 18th round, Nina could see a subtle but visible lightening of his skin tone and an overgrowth of his translucent ruff, indicating that he might be ready to Evolve soon.


Nina frowned with concern as she caressed the slumbering form of her baby seal. “This is the first time that I’m rearing one of the regional starter species… Is this sort of rapid growth normal?”


***


“It’s normal,” said Misty when Nina gave her a call while she was waiting around in the Pokemon Center.


“Pretty sure you should already know this but yeah, regional starters thrive on human bonding. And knowing how much you spoil your Pokemon, I’m not at all surprised that your Popplio is growing so quickly. The twins got their Kanto starters to evolve within just a couple months of getting them as well.”


The woman was wearing her Gym Leader getup and in the background, Nina could see the backdrop of the Gym’s arena and clashing lights of Type Energy. So Misty was clearly in a Gym battle right now and yet, had the audacity to be casually chatting with her niece in the midst of it. “Hopefully that poor firecracker doesn’t get too disheartened by this callousness…”


Nina nodded. “Yeah, but it’s still kind of scary, you know? I’m worried about Poppy’s fundamentals. I caught him using Aura earlier and I don’t want him to pick up any bad habits.”


Misty chuckled. “Oh Nina… You’re too used to dealing with finicky Pokemon. First there was your Dratini, then your fussy Eevee, and then you went and caught yourself that annoying Golbat who still refuses to Evolve. I can see why your perspective might be a little wonky. But like, your Wooper evolved very quickly didn’t he? And then there’s your Gastly as well.”


“Anyways,” The Gym Leader continued. “It might make you feel better to know that the training of a regional starter doesn’t really begin until you fully Evolve them since they go through their juvenile phases so quickly. So just keep doing what you’re doing. It won’t hurt to shore up their fundamentals where you can, but no need to deliberately slow down their growth either.”


Nina giggled and returned her aunt’s assurance with an obnoxiously cutesy tone. “Okay~ Thanks for the advice, Aunt Misty~”


“Ha! You little shit. So now you call me auntie?” Misty responded to Nina with a smirk. “Well it’s about time you show me some proper respect. Wouldn’t want to be a bad influence on the baby now, do we?”


“Wait, wha? What bab—”


But before the girl could get an answer, Misty hung up with an insufferably smug grin on her face. Leaving behind the reflection of a flabbergasted Nina on her Pokedex, mouth gaping like an idiot.


***


“Mr Collin!”


Nina threw herself at the massive beer belly of the familiar hiker-cum-geologist the moment that Nitey touched down on the ground. Her dainty arms barely able to wrap around the man’s girthy stature.


“Haha! Nina! Good to see you!”


“Good to see you too! Thanks for offering to be my guide and sorry for being such a bother.”


“Haha! Don’t worry your pretty lil’ head about it. I was just in the neighbourhood anyway.”


When Nina arrived at Violet City, she had made a call to Hiker Collin, whom she originally met in Diglett’s Cave, to ask about the Ruins of Alph. Since it was the older man who told her about it to begin with.


However, as it turned out, the man just so happened to be on assignment in the cave systems of Route 31. So rather than just talk about it, he offered to personally show the way to Nina.


The girl returned Collin’s sentiment with a beaming smile and thanked him once again. “I really would have liked to explore the caves of Route 31 as well, but we had been on the road for too long at that point and we’re sort of on a tight schedule...”


In the end, there was a limit to Nina’s wanderlust. Especially since she had more important priorities she had to get to. And she still needed to make time for Justin’s Black Zone expedition, which had met with some setbacks after a round of scolding from Professor Oak, but which the boy was still quite adamant about.


Collin chuckled. “A shame really, ‘cause there’s quite an impressive Marowak graveyard there that I think you would have loved.” He said with a little smirk.


“Dammit! Now I really wanna go!”


But ultimately, Nina just shook her head to dismiss her wayward thoughts. “So the Ruins of Alph.” She remarked.

“Hmph. Do as you like, so long as you don’t vandalize the place. Or I’ll haveta call the Rangers on ya.”


Nina responded with a smile at the grumpy old man and thanked him for his magnanimity before walking off with Collin towards the ruins.


“Don’t mind him.” Collin whispered. “Ol’ Indie’s getting a lil’ senile in his years. But he’s been guarding these ruins for as long as I can remember.”


Nina just shrugged, unbothered by the caretaker’s attitude. She had dealt with enough old people in both her lives to know better. At some point, once a person reaches a certain age, the jaded bitterness sets in and all notions of congeniality go out the window.


“Mentally, I’m in my 40s now… I wonder if I’ll end up like that in a few more years. How do these sorts of things work anyway?” Nina could only hope that her sprightly young body could hold up her jaded spirit.


***


The surface level of the Ruins of Alph had a distinctly stonehenge feel to it; massive slabs of cut basalt stacked on top of each other to form little hobbit holes. If said hobbits were cavemen and somehow possessed the ability to perfectly cut and lift such heavy stones — which was perfectly possible with the aid of Pokemon now that Nina thought about it.


And just as Collin said, there were camps set up near the vicinity of the ruins, occupied by a handful of researchers, all of whom with a sort of manic look in their bloodshot eyes.


“Looking at Unown for too long has the tendency to drive people a little wonky…” Collin whispered, before he approached the camp with a hearty greeting.


“Ah, colleagues? A fat man and a child. No. Tourists.” The researcher was a little twitchy and felt a little detached to Nina.


“No, we’re not tourists, not exactly. My name is Nina and I’ve already received permission to explore the ruins from Professor Elm.” The girl responded with a smile. “May I ask if you’re researching the ruins or the Unown?”


“The Unown, yes, yes… Communicate. They’re trying to communicate!” The researcher looked towards an old-school radio to his side, eyes wide in fervour, playing some sort of static on repeat, occasionally broken by what appeared to be English sounding words.


Nina’s heart skipped a beat as she approached to listen more closely.


[LA… TUDE… THRE… NT…] A lengthy pause. [ONE… SE… EN…] More static. [LONG… ONE…] 


The otherworldly girl gasped in realization and frantically dug out her Pokedex to record what she was hearing, but before she could, the static broke and the radio sounded out once more.


[LONGINUS…]


“Longinus… The Spear Pillar!”