Pokémon: Partners in Pladea

Chapter 4: Project Zero

Ash and Pikachu rode Miraidon back up to the cliff where Josh and Flow fell into the Crater and began carefully climbing down. It wasn't going to be easy, though, as Ash and Pikachu had never done anything like this alone before.

"Pika-Pi," Pikachu said.

"I hope so too, bud," Ash responded seriously, "Serena mentioned that Josh had similar powers to me, but that they allowed him to make things float, right?"

Pikachu nodded to show Ash that he was remembering correctly.

"She said that Josh had very little control over his power, and that it was unlikely that he was able to do anything to slow the fall down," Ash sighed, "But I know that in life or death situations, things can change in an instant. That's why I believe that they survived."

Pikachu agreed with Ash. On a few occasions, he'd seen Ash pull something crazy out of nowhere when he's losing, so it wasn't impossible that Josh or Flow did something similar.

"Anyways, let's hurry," Ash said, "We'll take a break at sunrise, so I want to get down as far as possible before then."

"Pika," Pikachu acknowledged.

****************

Great Crater of Paldea, Day 2

4:25 AM

(Pokémon Speech Translated)

Flow was sobbing uncontrollably! What she had seen made her vomit up the little she had eaten the previous day, and some of the Pokémon quickly got to work cleaning it up, while others attempted to calm Flow down. Josh's Gardevoir laid motionless on the ground, but she was luckily still breathing. There were claw marks scratched into the walls, floor and ceiling, and there was blood splatters on all nearby belongings. Nobody could figure out whether the blood was Gardevoir's or Josh's, but it was likely a combination of both.

"How could this happen?!" Blastoise shouted angrily as he stomped around.

"I-I shouldn't have left him alone in here!" Flow wailed, "I should've paid more attention to how he was feeling!"

"Nobody is blaming you, Flow," Spheal squeaked, "He lashed out in anger and fear against you yesterday, so we understand why you didn't want to be near him as you slept."

"I just want to know what could've caused this much damage," Flow's Lopunny quivered.

Flow's Venusaur wanted answers too.

"It just doesn't make sense!" He roared, "There shouldn't be anything down here strong enough the do anything even similar to this!"

"And look at these claw marks!" Lopunny exclaimed while tracing her hands across them, "The only Pokémon down here that I saw that had anything resembling sharp claws was a Bisharp!"

Josh's Spheal bounced towards them to join their conversation.

"And I don't think a Bisharp would've been able to cause this much damage to Gardevoir," Spheal added, his eyes beginning to water as he looked at his injured friend.