Hideo carefully walked the mountain path, very carefully tapping away at the area around him. This would be one of the worst places to fall, and one of the easiest to trip in.

But he didn’t want to fall too far behind Andy; Hideo already had to get saved a couple times by him the last time he went Pokemon-hunting. Hideo didn’t want to embarrass himself again.

To that end, he already had a rock-climbing expert out; Rocky was doing a good job guiding him around and keeping the path clear.

“Nah.” His answer was quick. “My parents never let me go mountain climbing. Say it’s too risky and stuff.” They didn’t even know he was here; he’d told them he was just visiting the graves to pay respects. Not to catch ghosts. “But I’m getting the hang of it. Rocky’s great for this kind of stuff~”

He brushed against the Lycanroc’s fur, the wolf grinning as he continued to keep the path clear for his trainer.

But Hideo’s enthusiasm dropped when he heard Andy mention his last trip here. “Aren’t Trevenants those big tree Pokemon? That must’a hurt really bad! Did you have to go to the hospital after that happened?”

At least he sounded fine now.

Andy Blackadder

Seemed like Hideo wasn’t the only one Doug was helping out these days. “Doug really knows his stuff, huh? You were lucky he was around; getting hit by big Pokemon’s gotta suck.” He was fortunate that he hadn’t been attacked by anything big for a while; last time had to have been that big Pokemon that Andy tackled him out of the way of.

He paid much more attention to any cues Andy or Rocky made. When Andy spoke in surprise, Hideo immediately stopped, even without Rocky’s intervention. He’d assumed there was some obstacle, whether a part of the mountain or a Pokemon.

Evidently the latter, judging from how Andy was ordering his Gengar. Sounded like it went pretty well.

But Hideo heard another Pokemon from the opposite side. A Kadabra. And he could feel something...familiar. Like when Elga was preparing one of his attacks. “Rocky, quick! Don’t let it get that off!”

His Pokemon acted fast, surrounding himself in bright energy as he rushed towards the concealed Kadabra. Several beams of energy were fired at the rushing Lycanroc, but he deftly weaved around them all.

Once he got behind the brush, he made quick work of the Kadabra. The others would only be treated to barely-muffled sounds of Lycanroc violence, until it suddenly went silent.

Rocky dragged the unconscious Kadabra from its hiding spot, over towards the two boys. “I hear Kadabras are pretty popular,” Hideo said, taking out an empty Pokeball, tossing it at the Kadabra once Rocky indicated he was close enough.

“So how’d you meet Doug? I met him when my Aipom stole his hat. We talked for a bit, and we became friends pretty quick.” Doug also nearly got sent to the hospital, but Hideo would leave that part out.

Andy Blackadder

Hideo is attempting to capture the Kadabra

“Didn’t know he had a Dewpider. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, though; dude loves his bugs.” That line of Pokemon was one he knew to stay away from; their water bubble was neat, but he heard some of them would try to take in vulnerable Pokemon as an attempt to save them - only to drown them. No doubt one might mistake his blindness as vulnerability and try to “protect” him. “I’m not a big fan of Dewpiders either.”

“But yeah, I guess he’s kinda looking after me too. He joined up with a mentorship program I’m in, and we’ve been doing a lot of stuff since then. It’s pretty liberating; all my other mentors kinda sucked ‘cause they think I can’t do much. Doug’s actually treating me like I know what I’m doing.” Plus, he took him to stuff most of his mentors never would have.

Like renaissance faires.

But reminiscing on their mutual friend could only go on for so long; he too heard a strange noise, and carefully followed Andy to the source. For obvious reasons, he didn’t make any attempt to look past the brush, instead just hiding behind it as he listened.

“I hear Oricorio are pretty popular. Maybe I can catch it and it could teach me how to dance?” He snickered at his own suggestion - as if he could ever dance well.

He didn’t want to interrupt the supposed spectacle, but it seemed like Epitaph thought otherwise. Hideo giggled at the thought of him just intruding on their little party and dancing. But a sudden hush went through the crowd and a silence rang through as he heard Epitaph do something.

“Ah well, guess the party’s over. Grab one of them, Rocky!”

The Lycanroc jumped into the fray, further scaring the wild Pokemon. With two fully-evolved Pokemon causing trouble in their midst, most decided to run, or wildly fired off their attacks in panic.

It was hard for Hideo to tell who was where, so he left it up to Rocky to get one for him. Only when he heard Rocky come back to him did he take out an empty Pokeball, ready to capture what he’d caught.

He didn’t even know that Rocky had grabbed the Oricorio. Rocky had taken his joke seriously.

Andy Blackadder

Hideo is attempting to capture the Oricorio

Hideo grinned. “You know I’m gonna have to take you up on that offer sometime,” he said, unable to restrain his giggle. He could already imagine Andy struggling to teach him the footwork, the two of them constantly tripping each other up. Maybe they’d actually have to go to the hospital after that.

Hideo pocketed the now-filled Pokeball, unaware he’d just acquired a dance teacher of his own. “I’m sure Epitaph just wanted to have some fun~. No need to yell at him.” At least he assumed that the Gengar had danced along with them. Sounded like something he’d do.

But before he could joke around any more, Hideo heard something rustling through the bushes. Seemed once again, the wild Pokemon found them first.

And it sounded one of them fired first: he heard something happen to Andy beside him. It didn’t sound painful - but Andy sounded distressed, explaining just what was going on.

And then Hideo heard the stampeding Pokemon. “Ah crap!” Hideo shouted, stepping back so he wouldn’t be where he assumed her path would be. “U-uh, Rocky, stop whatever’s charging at us! Fast!”

Rocky was quick to act, already pulling rocks out of the ground by pure force. The rocks flew straight at the Girafarig, pelting her in the side. She stumbled to the ground, meter away from Andy.

Before she could get up, Hideo was quick to toss a Pokeball at her; even if she got out, this would at least slow her down long enough for Andy to deal with whatever was holding him down.

Andy Blackadder

Hideo is attempting to capture the Girafarig

Hideo, too, breathed a sigh of relief. It didn’t sound like that stampeding Pokemon got out of his ball, and Andy sounded like he’d been freed from whatever was holding him down. “Good thing Rocky helped in time!” he said.

Hideo noted to himself that he’d just saved Andy’s life (or at least from a trip to the hospital). He was pretty sure Andy wouldn’t like him pointing it out, but that did kind of make up for when they first met. Though he still owed Andy one more.

Hideo walked over towards where he threw the ball, only needing to feel around for a moment to find it. “I’m sure we could make up a few ways for you to teach me.” Elga guiding him along could work. Maybe even the Kadabra he got could help.

But he stopped that thought as he heard Andy walk off, following close behind him. He could hear the other boy tapping away at something, so he’d followed along quietly, not wanting to be a distraction. Rocky followed along, making sure Hideo didn’t trip over anything and keeping watch so they wouldn’t get ambushed again.

Hideo did hear the sound of splashing water, and followed Andy as they investigated the source; a Slowbro and a Xatu bathing. “Sounds like they’d be pretty good catches,” the younger boy said, already preparing a Pokeball. “Rocky can get that Xatu nice and quickly. And I’m sure Epitaph won’t have trouble with the Slowbro; they got that name for a reason, and not just ‘cause they say it.”

“We can probably just grab them from here. Get some rocks ready, Rocky.” The Lycanroc nodded, pulling some rocks out of the ground with a little more subtlety than before. The Xatu still noticed the sound, staring straight over at the group. It opened up its wings, preparing an attack of its own.

“Aaaaaaaand-”

Before Hideo could give the cue, Rocky fired his Rock Tomb, aware they would’ve been attacked if he waited any longer. And sure enough, the Xatu shot an attack of its own, several blades of air flying straight in the way of the flying rocks. But Rocky proved to be the stronger attacker, the Air Slash only serving to break small chunks off the rocks.

Predictably, the rocks hit the Xatu straight-on, knocking it onto its back. It floated on the water, unconscious (face-up, thankfully).

True to Hideo’s word, the Slowbro only just started to realize something was going on, looking over and blinking at the knocked-out Xatu.

Andy Blackadder

Hideo is attempting to capture the Xatu