Chapter 20 – The Next One
It started with a thought he'd had for a while but hadn't said out loud yet.
He was sitting in Rowan's lab not the side room, just one of the chairs near the window while Rowan worked at his desk and he'd been turning it over for a few days. The team. What he had, what he needed, what came next.
Deino was attack. Fast, instinctive, still rebuilding but the foundation was there.
Piplup was versatile. Quick, getting smarter in the gaps between commands, BubbleBeam now clean and reliable.
What he didn't have was a wall. Something that could take hits, hold ground, buy time when things went wrong. Something that didn't go down easy.
He knew exactly what he wanted.
"Rowan."
Rowan looked up from whatever he was writing.
"Where would I find Rhyhorn around here?"
Rowan put his pen down. Not dramatically just set it down and looked at Ryan with the particular attention he gave things that interested him. "Rhyhorn."
"Yeah."
"Not Geodude. Not Onix. Rhyhorn specifically."
"Yeah."
Rowan looked at him for a moment the way he sometimes did like he was reading something Ryan hadn't said and filing it away for later. "North of Sandgem. There's rocky terrain about two hours out, past where the route flattens. They come down from the higher ground in winter sometimes." He paused. "They're not easy to catch. Thick hide, bad temper, they don't stop once they've started moving."
"I know."
Rowan picked his pen back up. "I'm sure you do." He looked back at his papers. "Take Potions. More than you think you need."
That was it. No more questions, no pushing. Just take Potions.
Ryan almost smiled. "Thanks."
---
He told Piplup and Deino that evening.
They were in the field behind the lab, end of the afternoon session, sitting on the frozen ground the way they'd been doing most evenings lately. Ryan leaned back on his hands and looked at the sky going grey and orange at the edges and said it like it was the most normal thing.
"We're getting a third."
Piplup looked at him.
"Rhyhorn. Rocky type, tough, built like a tank. Takes hits and keeps going." He paused. "North of here, two hours out. We're going in two days."
Piplup made a sound. The considering one not yes, not no, just processing.
"Pip pip," it said finally. A question.
"Because we need someone who can hold ground when things go sideways." Ryan looked at Piplup. "You're fast. Deino hits hard. But if something gets through to us I want something between us and it that doesn't move."
Piplup seemed to accept that logic. Looked away, looked back, gave a single nod that was very nearly professional.
Deino's ear had been turned toward Ryan's voice the whole time. Now he made a low sound.
"Yeah," Ryan said. "You'll meet them when we catch them. No promises on personality." He paused. "Rhyhorn are kind of a lot. Just so you know."
Deino made a different sound. Hard to read.
"That's not a no," Ryan said.
---
Two days later. North of Sandgem, past where the route flattened out and the ground started rising into broken rocky terrain. Cold enough that his water bottle had a skin of ice on the inside when he checked it.
Deino was in his ball. Ryan had thought about it long and hard Deino was still rebuilding and the last thing he needed was a charging Rhyhorn in his face. Piplup was out, walking beside Ryan with the focused energy of something that knew this was different from training.
"Okay," Ryan said quietly, picking his way between rocks. "Different from the posts. Rhyhorn hits harder than anything we've trained against and it doesn't stop once it's moving." He glanced at Piplup. "But you've got type advantage Water against Rock. BubbleBeam is going to hit hard, harder than normal. Use that."
Piplup looked at him with the expression of something that had already calculated this.
"Don't get cocky about it though. Super effective doesn't mean it goes down in one hit. Rhyhorn hide is thick and they don't stop for anything." He stepped over a crack in the rock. "If I say move you move. No questions."
"Pip." Understood.
They found them twenty minutes in.
Three Rhyhorn between the boulders, heavy and slow. One had separated from the others standing on a flat stretch of rock, head down, pawing at something frozen in a crack. Broader than Ryan had expected. The hide was thick and grey and it moved with the particular heaviness of something that had never needed to be fast because nothing had ever made it run.
That one.
Ryan crouched behind a boulder and studied it. Piplup crouched beside him actually crouched, low to the ground, eyes locked on the Rhyhorn with an intensity that Ryan hadn't seen from it before.
"We wait for it to turn side on," Ryan said quietly. "Then"
Piplup was already moving.
Not running slipping out from behind the boulder in absolute silence, low to the ground, circling wide to come at the Rhyhorn from the right. Ryan watched it and didn't call anything because Piplup wasn't looking at him. It was reading the Rhyhorn the angle of its head, the direction it was pawing, the position of its legs.
The Rhyhorn turned slightly, following whatever it was digging at.
Piplup fired.
BubbleBeam hit the Rhyhorn square in the side and the sound it made was like something had hit a boulder a deep crack that echoed off the rocks around them. The Rhyhorn staggered sideways, one leg sliding, a sound coming out of it that was somewhere between pain and fury.
Then its head came up and it found Piplup and it lowered its horn.
Oh that's a lot of angry Rhyhorn
"PIPLUP LEFT, KEEP MOVING!"
The Rhyhorn charged. The ground actually shook, Ryan felt it through his boots, and it was faster than he thought i could be. And Piplup was already gone, left, fast, the Rhyhorn's horn cutting through empty air where Piplup had been half a second ago.
"BUBBLEBEAM LEGS, NOW!"
Piplup pivoted mid-run and fired low BubbleBeam catching both front legs, water spreading across the rock surface, and the Rhyhorn's charge broke, one foot sliding badly before it caught itself. Still up. Still angry.
It turned back toward Piplup slower now, one leg uncertain on the wet rock.
"PECK RIGHT FLANK, CLOSE IN!"
Piplup closed fast, beak forward, hit the Rhyhorn on the right flank a sharp crack on impact and the Rhyhorn swung its head hard trying to catch Piplup with the horn. Missed. Piplup was already back, resetting, breathing hard.
The Rhyhorn was breathing hard too. The BubbleBeam had done real damage Ryan could see it in how the right side moved, something that hadn't been there before the first hit. Super effective and Piplup had landed it clean twice.
But it was still standing and it was still looking at Piplup like it whas personal.
"GROWL THEN BUBBLEBEAM, SAME SPOT!"
Piplup squared its shoulders and the Growl came rolling out low and heavy across the rocky ground Ryan watched the Rhyhorn's charge stutter, just slightly, something in it hesitating and then BubbleBeam hit the right side again, same spot, and this time the Rhyhorn went down on one knee.
Now.
Ryan had the Pokeball ready. He threw it hard and clean and it hit the Rhyhorn on the lowered head and the red light pulled it in and the ball skidded across the rock and spun.
One.
Two.
Three.
Click.
Silence except for Piplup breathing hard beside him and Ryan's own heartbeat in his ears.
He walked over slowly and picked up the ball.
Looked at it.
Three Pokemon.
"Piplup," he said.
Piplup looked up at him. Still breathing hard, a scratch along its left side from where the Rhyhorn's horn had nearly caught it on that last pass Ryan hadn't even seen that happen.
"That first BubbleBeam," Ryan said. "You read it yourself. I didn't call that."
"Pip." Quiet. Not smug something more serious than that.
"That was the right call." Ryan crouched down to its level. "And the Growl into BubbleBeam at the end that was yours too."
Piplup looked at him for a moment. Then away.
Ryan stood and looked at the ball in his hand.
Rhyhorn. And eventually Rhydon. And then something nobody in Sinnoh had ever seen.
He was going to be the first.
He clipped the ball to his belt and turned back toward Sandgem.
Piplup fell into step beside him without being asked, still breathing a little hard, the scratch on its side catching the grey winter light.
Ryan looked at it. "Pokemon Center when we get back. That scratch needs checking."
"Pip pip." Dismissive.
"Not a request."
Piplup walked in silence for a moment. Then "Pip." Fine.
Ryan almost smiled.
Three Pokemon now. A wall, a fast striker, a dragon finding its way back.
Long way to go still.