As the sun rose and fell and rose again, Joe reached his destination. New Bark. A homely little town. Population around twenty thousand. It was overrun by nature. Joe was on the deck observing the town as the ferry slowed down on its approach to the dock. Everywhere he looked was green. Lines of lush trees opposite rows of small but comfortable red brick homes. Bushes between most buildings.
The town was deceptively large for the population. It was spaced out. Unoccupied fields dotted the landscape. For every house or other man-made structure, there seemed to be a field a mile wide. Rising into the sky to the east was Mt. Silver. A town at the base of a mountain felt different. A massive mound of earth casting a shadow over the entire settlement made everything feel so small.
Joe disembarked and took a deep breath on the wide stone pier as he stretched. He stroked Sprigatito's head and began walking with a smile on his face, curious what lay ahead. The sun beat down from above, but not too harshly. Johto was a mostly mild region. Thanks to the pain in his side having disappeared, it was quite a comfortable stroll.
He walked on empty roads, cars rarely appearing. Hopped onto grass when he heard a vehicle approach. Besides the occasional vehicle, Joe rarely saw other people. A small group of teens skipping school. A couple having a picnic in a field. That was about it.
Joe also saw a decent amount of wildlife occupying all those fields that were part of New Bark. Small birds flying to and from trees, their nests hidden by the leaves. Bunnies burrowing into bushes. Bugs darting about, collecting nectar no doubt. Apparently they didn't mind living so close to people. The nearest house was only half a mile away, but Joe supposed neither people nor Pokemon bothered their neighbour.
His objective lay east, but Joe just walked wherever. He was pretty sure he went in a circle at one point. One row of homes seemed a bit too familiar. A potted plant dangled by a door, a painting on the ceramic created by an amateur. A parent displaying an item decorated by their child.
Joe walked up a small hill and spotted a cafe on the corner of a row of shops. Might as well. He sat at an outdoor table, umbrella already open. The shade was honestly a bit much, he felt a chill run down his arms and hit the release to close the umbrella. He looked down the road. Based on the number of stores, this was likely not a town centre. Just some small businesses in a quiet corner of a quiet town.
A waitress came out to take his order, the bell above the dark oak door alerting Joe to her appearance. She wore a brown dress with a white apron over it. Fluffy ginger hair, with freckles. A dangerous combination. She smiled at Sprigatito on his shoulder. A charming smile that Joe found instantly captivating.
"What can I get for you today?" She sounded as happy as she looked. In Joe's experience, most small-town employees were genuinely happy. Not many troubles in a place like this.
"Today's special, please." Joe had eyed the chalkboard with the menu on it as he approached. He didn't know what to pick so the generic option was fine. Easy to remember.
The woman didn't have to write it down. She slid her pad back into a chest pocket and clipped the pen to the outside. "It'll be with you in a minute."
For the fun of it, Joe counted. Sure enough, fifty-eight seconds later Joe heard the bell chime and the waitress walk through the doorway. His coffee atop a saucer in one hand, a small selection of cookies in her other. She put the saucer and small plate down. "Enjoy. They're safe for Pokemon, too."
"Thanks." Joe appreciated the effort as he watched her head into the building. He sipped the drink. Not bad. A little bitter, but he had a sweet tooth. Just personal taste. Not boiling hot either. Joe only realised afterwards that he didn't blow on it to cool it down. He appreciated that. One thing he hated about hot drinks was that he had to prepare them ten minutes before he actually wanted it. Such preparation didn't suit Joe's whimsical nature. How was he supposed to know he wanted hot chocolate in the near future?
Now for some snacks. Joe shifted his shoulder and Sprigatito hopped down to his lap. He looked to see the cat had salivated onto his jacket. Of course. It was a proven fact that Sprigatito was a glutton.
He bit into a circular biscuit with red jam in the centre. It hid cream underneath. A pleasant surprise. He grabbed a bland biscuit and noticed the shimmer of sugar on it. He fed it to his cat. She seemed to enjoy it. It was gone almost instantly. Three big, quick bites. He stroked her under the chin and felt her purr in response as he grabbed another biscuit for himself. A chocolate chip cookie. Classic. Couldn't go wrong with that.
Joe continued to relax even after the coffee and snacks were gone. Why was it called a saucer? Was it originally meant for sauce? Is it how alien vehicles got the nickname 'flying saucer'? So many pointless questions, but curiosity made it hard to ignore random thoughts.
Half an hour later he was done doing nothing. It was a nice break. He grabbed his backpack and headed inside the cafe. He could've left the money under the saucer, but he wanted to see the cafe's interior. One word descriptor: Comfy. Dark wood flooring. Tables covered by white cloths. Those cloths had a pattern around the edge. Looked like a Pokemon silhouette Joe hadn't seen before. He approached the polished oak counter and saw a curved glass container with bread inside. The cafe doubled as a bakery. He bought some freshly cooked bread, paid with a generous tip and moved outside.
He slowly ate the warm loaf out of the packaging, surprising himself by eating the entire thing. He had wanted to save some. Oh well, best eaten fresh anyway. He scrunched up the packaging and tossed it into a bin when he finally encountered one.
As he enjoyed the soft breeze, he noticed building quantity decrease. He soon saw why. A large cabin. Multiple storeys. It was made of tree logs, uncut. Regular bumps on the wall from the rounded logs. A thick stone chimney in one corner. A standard wooden picket fence four-feet tall around the property, grass field included. The gaps between posts were large enough for Joe to fit through, so the fence was just there to mark territory. It wasn't keeping anything in or out.
Roaming freely in the field were a number of Pokemon. Plenty Joe hadn't seen before, but a few he recognised. The evolutions of the Partners of Johto. A big green quadruped, pink flower blooming from the base of its long neck. Meganium. It was playing with a Pokemon Joe didn't recognise. A blue bird with wings as white, and maybe as soft, as clouds. It, too, had a long neck.
His eyes settled on a fierce-looking Pokemon as he walked along the fence. It was bigger than he was. At least seven-feet tall. Blue body, with a red mohawk of angular fins. More fins ran down its back and along its tail. It had an elongated jaw with sharp teeth. Feraligatr. Joe felt like this one had more muscle compared to others of the species, but he was operating with extremely limited knowledge. Just a picture he had in his mind from a documentary he saw at some point in the last five years.
Feraligatr locked eyes with Joe and scared Sprigatito into the young man's jacket hood. Joe stopped and stared Feraligatr down with narrowed eyes. Man recognised man. After staring at each other for some seconds, the crocodile curled its arms above its head and flexed its biceps. Joe rolled up his sleeves. Two could play at that game. It was a flex-off.
The pair switched from stance to stance, showing off various muscles. This meant Joe took off his jacket and shirt at one point, causing Sprigatito to have to stand on the ground for a change. Joe didn't think she'd touched dirt ever since he adopted her.
Joe and Feraligatr curled their arms into their torso to show off their back muscles. Hands stretched above their heads and clasped together to highlight their chest. This went on for a few minutes until they exhausted all poses they knew. They stood there, unmoving but continuing to stare at each other. After a bit, they approached the fence and reached out over it, grabbing each other's hand like people do to arm wrestle. But it was no competition. No, they accepted each other's strength. They nodded and separated. No words needed to be spoken between men.
When Joe was messing around, Sprigatito started to pay attention to her Trainer's shadow. There was something about it. She'd noticed a few days ago. Sprigatito approached and lowered her body, tapping the ground where Joe's shadow was. Nothing. Eventually Joe's flex-off ended, drawing Sprigatito away from his shadow. She could investigate another time.
Joe smirked as he went to his clothes and picked them up. Sometimes he thought he should grow up, but there was no harm in having a bit of fun. Once his t-shirt was over his head and he was pulling it down his torso, he noticed something. Or more like someone. A woman standing at a window of the cabin. She was far away, he couldn't make out any details, but she was most definitely staring his way. Joe wondered what expression she was wearing and how long she'd been watching. After his jacket was on, Joe grabbed his bag and his cat and speed-walked away.
Having moved on, Joe kept walking east until he reached the outskirts of town. The thinning out of man-made structures continued until there was nothing. Trees and bushes hid the houses Joe knew should be somewhere behind him. Plains as far as the eye could see, except the mountain ahead. Kind of hard to ignore.
Although Mt. Silver wasn't the only mountain. It was just the tallest mountain in the range. On a map, mountains stretched north for hundreds of miles. The range was called Sterling, in reference to the tallest mountain's name also being a purchasable metal currency. Sterling was the centrepiece, quite literally, of a triangle of land. Sinnoh up North, the tip of the triangle. Bottom left of the triangle was Johto and bottom right was Kanto.
At the base of Mt. Silver was a river. Quite large. Wide and deep enough for a double decker bus. A cliff from the mountain loomed over the gently flowing, barely audible water. Joe wouldn't have minded relaxing around here for a time. Maybe do some swimming. It'd been a while. But with the objective so close and so obvious, he felt a call to hike up it.
Connecting the outskirts of New Bark to the hiking trail was a bridge just a little too small for vehicles. It was made of large bricks that had been carved from stone hundreds of years ago. Vines crept up the columns from the ground and water below.
Once he was across, Joe started walking along a dirt path that soon turned into a rocky trail as he ascended a gentle slope. He was now on Mt. Silver. Since it was just the base of the mountain, it was a wide-open space. Fields of grass and flowers still called this place home. It wasn't until higher up that nature didn't grow due to the cold.
After some hours, when the sun began touching the horizon, Joe came across a PokeCenter. Earlier sections of mountains were good tourist attractions for casual enjoyers of nature, so this was unsurprising. Joe had encountered the occasional hiker along the way that would no doubt rest at this PokeCenter. It also wouldn't be the first time Joe rested at a PokeCenter in the middle of nowhere.
Most PokeCenters followed a general rule for construction, but designers took liberties in how they implemented the requirements while adding their own personal touch. This one was large because it doubled as a hotel. The League, with its absurd amounts of money, funded all PokeCenters to some degree. They believed it necessary. But some that saw less foot traffic needed extra funds. Hence, this one partway up a mountain was also a hotel.
On day two of the hike, after enjoying a reasonably priced cooked breakfast, Joe set out. That may have been the comfiest bed he'd ever slept in. And the quilt full of feathers was so warm. Joe took notes. He'd be buying a feather quilt when he returned to his apartment in a year.
As he ascended, Joe observed Pokemon everywhere he looked. Some small bugs flew around collecting resources from flowers in the meadow he was walking through. This bug caught Joe's eye because he was sure he hadn't seen it before. It was small, less than a foot in length. It had big black eyes. Thin limbs. Yellow fuzz around its body and a white face. A brown scarf around its neck.
Joe knelt down to the bee as its swift hands gently caressed the centre of a flower. The Pokemon took note of the human that had approached, turning his way. It waved and smiled, which Joe automatically replicated. When the Pokemon flew away using near transparent wings, he stood and continued along the trail.
Sometimes Joe wondered if he was even going up, the incline was so faint it was hardly noticeable, but he knew the angle would be harsher in the future. He should be happy about how easy it was to walk right now.
That night Joe camped out. Sprigatito was clearly cold. She jumped into Joe's shirt and leeched off his body heat for the entire night, from the time he was sitting around relaxing to the point he got into his sleeping bag. He was still in his t-shirt and jacket, but another day or two and that'd be changing. He'd feel the cold soon.
Joe could've gone to a cabin to rest, but he wanted to be outdoors now. In order to support tourists, there were multiple easier trails around certain mountains. Cabins were placed on these trails and anyone could use them freely. Some people stick to a schedule and sleep every night at a cabin, drastically cutting down on the resources they needed to carry.
On day three, Joe continued hiking. The slope of the trail was definitely getting steeper. He walked alongside a mini cliff that was roughly a twenty foot drop. Grass was still on the mountain, Joe could see green sticking out from atop the small cliff, but it was thinning out.
Joe spotted a dark cave entrance, a round hole in a cliff. A car could fit inside, by the look of it. Curious, he left the rocky trail and checked out. As he approached, he could feel and hear a deep rumble. He grabbed his phone from his pocket and turned on the flashlight, aiming it inside. It was a shallow cave. In the grand scheme of things, it was a tiny indent. Inside, he saw a wide Pokemon. Tough brown skin, if it could be called skin. Perhaps more like a body of stone. Around its stomach were square plates coloured orange. The deep rumbling he felt was the Pokemon. It was clearly asleep and snoring, the act vibrating through Joe's bones.
Atop the brown Pokemon's stomach that heaved up and down with every breath, Joe spotted a smaller Pokemon. A long yellow body with a black head. Droopy ears that reminded Joe of a canine. Every time this small yellow Pokemon breathed, light coursed through its black ears and illuminated it. Electricity coursed through its body and to the ears that would one day become a frilly collar.
Both Pokemon shifted from the bright light of Joe's phone so he covered the device with his other hand. He didn't want to wake them so he returned to the trail.
The rocky path became much harder to traverse and Joe saw no other people at this point. The trail, for the rest of the day, was made of massive rocks that were annoying to move along. One wrongmove could easily cause a slip and a twisted ankle. He had to place a hand on larger boulders to steady himself. By the end, he could no longer see the green of nature. It was all brown rock and dirt from here.
Now thatJoe was high enough, he looked West. Joe could just about see buildings that made up New Bark. Then it was fields and trees as far as he could see. Seeing the world from above really put into perspective just how large it was. He could just about see roads leading to other small towns nearby, but obviously the other small towns were out of view from his current position.
That night, Joe stopped right by snow. Mt. Silver was a snow-capped mountain and he knew it had to start somewhere, but it was a little odd to clearly see the border between ground and snow. From here on out he'd be wearing his winter coat. He'd been seeing his breath today. It was getting cold. His constant movement could only warm him so much.
When Joe sat on the ground, Sprigatito scurried from beneath his shirt and cautiously approached the pure white powder. She touched it with a paw and immediately felt a shiver run through her body. She bounded back to Joe and scrambled up into his shirt once more.
Daybreak occurred. It was now day four of Joe's hike. He walked with Sprigatito's head sticking out of his coat's collar. The crunch of snow underfoot was satisfying.
It didn't take long for Joe to notice the mountain path becoming narrower and steeper. It was no longer surrounded by safe ground to stand on. A rock face on one side, a drop on the other. The trail had become like the perilous path in Olivine, but it wouldn't be like this for long. The trail should split soon, with one way going further up the rugged terrain and the other path slowly heading down to Kanto.
Joe had expected to see different types of Pokemon now. Primarily ice-types. But there was nothing around. He'd never hiked this high before so maybe this was normal, but he felt a little uneasy about it. He ignored this feeling though, chalking it up to a difference in what he expected. Nothing more and nothing less.
Joe was taken from his thoughts when he heard Sprigatito whining.
"What is it?" Joe stopped and looked down at his cat.
She turned her head to look up at him, her eyes partially closed and a gentle whimper coming from her throat. She was not a fan of this environment.
"Do you want to go in your Pokeball until we're out of the snow?" The cat nodded so Joe obliged. He held the Pokeball near her and opened it. The storage orb only required a bit of force to open. Blue energy absorbed Sprigatito and the ball closed. Joe pocketed the shrunken sphere and returned to walking, now alone.
Not long after Sprigatito called it quits, Joe could clearly see a section of the path level out and become flat. And he immediately spotted a Pokemon on the path.It stood on all fours, long white fur moving in the wind. A horn ran up one side of its head.It looked at Joewith sharp green eyes that were highlighted and contrasted by its red skin.
Joe continued to approach and the Pokemon shifted. Getting a better look at it, Joe felt like he'd seen it before, maybe in a documentary or as a challenger to Jasmine. Semi-wolf related. What was it again… An Absol? But the skin was different. It should be black, not red. Joe figured Pokemon could have visual differences amongst the species, but this was a big change.
As he tried to remember what the documentary said about the Absol species, he got close enough. Absol began barking at him. Joe ignored this. Figured he could just walk by it. Absol then lowered its body slightly and began growling. A deep, guttural sound. Claws from its big paws dug into the rocky path after effortlessly moving snow aside. Joe took another step forward and the horn on Absol's head started to glow pink.
This got Joe to stop. He was certain Absol was preparing an attack. From what Joe had experienced during his trips around Johto, it was extremely rare for a wild Pokemon to be aggressive. The fact that Absol was thinking of striking him made Joe pause to question why. There must be a good reason for a Pokemon to act this way.
"What, you're going to attack innocent ol' me?" Joe put on an accent. He was trying to de-escalate with a bit of humour. Maybe he could help with whatever had Absol spooked, but he needed to bridge the gap in communication first.
Absol ignored his comment and swung its head with a bark, unleashing the pink energy from its horn. The pink arc cut through air and struck the rock face by Joe's side. A warning shot. And a lethal one at that. There was now a wound in the rock a foot deep. Joe was prepared to dodge, but really, where would he go? He was on a narrow mountain path. And the pink arc moved fast. Joe didn't even know if he could've dodged it.
For a brief moment, Joe's vision around Absol blurred. Like a mirage in a desert, heat rising from sand. He blinked and his vision was back to normal. He remained clueless, it didn't seem like a problem with him or his eyesight.
But more importantly, Joe threw his hands up in the air. "All right, fine, I'll back off. But if you need any help, just ask. Or, well, you can't speak human language…" Joe assumed something was going on further up the path. He wondered if he could be of assistance, but Absol didn't respond to his comment. It just continued to glare at him to get him to leave.
As Joe wondered what to do, what might be happening and how he might be able to help, Absol barked loudly and turned around. Joe was confused, but only for a moment. Something struck the mountain with a deafening crack. Joe thought he saw yellow electricity. Whatever it was blew a massive chunk out of the cliff face, causing boulders to fall onto the path further ahead. The only way forward was blocked. Joe should've listened to Absol and left the area. He couldn't move forward now.
Joe squinted and shielded his eyes with a hand as the boulders kicked up snow and dust, creating a cloud on the path. As the wind slowly blew the airborne snow away, Joe lowered his hand. Situational awareness. He couldn't afford to be blinded if he was in danger.
Joe's eyes widened. Standing atop the boulders it just created was a striking yellow, white and black Beast. Strong legs of muscle led to four powerful paws. Blowing in the wind, along its back like a cape, was long purple fur. Tough as diamonds fangs made for biting protruded over its bottom lip. Its pink eyes were glaring at Joe. "What the hell is Raikou doing here…?"