Ash's Story (Part 6: Unova)

Chapter 90: Relic Currents

Driftveil City felt rougher than Nimbasa, even after all this time.

Nimbasa measured battles with lights, scores, and clean rooms. Driftveil smelled like steel rails, market stalls, tunnel dust, and work that did not care whether someone had won a League.

Clay's city had always felt like that. If something mattered here, someone had probably dug for it, built around it, or argued about its price.

We came because of a rumor that made Pikachu's ears lift the moment he heard it. People were saying Klink had a new evolution, and after everything we had seen with Klinklang, I wanted to check whether the rumor meant a new form, a new machine discovery, or something else entirely.

The answer was waiting at a small stand near the entrance to the reopened Clay Tunnel.

"Fresh Klink Gear Cookies!" the vendor called, holding up a tin shaped like a Klink's gear. "New evolution in flavor!"

I stared at the tin.

Alice stared at the tin.

Pikachu slowly lowered his ears.

"Really?" I asked. "It is just some cookies?"

The vendor did not look sorry. "Very popular cookies."

Golly adjusted her glasses. "The advertisement is technically misleading."

Eve picked up one of the tins and examined it. "It is also working."

I sighed and bought some because at that point refusing felt like losing twice. The cookies were actually good, which somehow made the rumor more annoying.

Cilan tasted one and closed his eyes. "A mechanical sweetness with a crisp rotational finish."

Iris looked at him. "It is a cookie."

"It is a very themed cookie," Cilan replied.

We still entered Clay Tunnel because the tunnel was open now, and Driftveil's underground paths had always led to more than simple travel. The moment we stepped inside, cool air wrapped around us, carrying the smell of damp stone and old digging.

The walls were scarred with work marks. Some paths were clean enough for travel, while others opened into narrow holes that looked like something had been moving through them long before people widened the tunnel.

Alice looked down one side passage. "This looks like a maze."

"Yeah," I said, turning slowly. "And not the kind that wants visitors to feel comfortable."

Pikachu's meaning came alert from my shoulder. "Many small feet. Not gone. Waiting."

Before I could answer, a sharp metallic chittering echoed through the tunnel.

Durant poured from one of the holes, steel bodies shining in the dim light. More emerged behind them, forming a restless, armored wave across the path.

"Durant!" Alice called, stepping back.

"Looks like there are Durant nests around here," Iris said, already reaching for a Poké Ball.

The first group charged before anyone could finish planning.

"Pikachu, Electroweb across the front!" I shouted.

Pikachu leapt from my shoulder and fired a web of electricity across the tunnel. It spread between the walls and trapped the front Durant long enough to stop the first rush.

That helped for about three seconds.

More Durant came from side holes, skittering around the trapped group and forcing us backward.