Looking around the camp felt weird to Larry, he hadn’t been one to camp, but he was pretty sure that normally there would have been more stuff to set up.
The only thing in their camp was a little electric lamp in the middle and the tiny backpacks of the rangers, ‘Aren’t there usually like actual tents and stuff? Not starting a fire in a cave is a good call, but how are they cooking things then?’
Just then, Larry saw Maxie open the zip of her backpack. She pushed her arm in and instead of hitting the bottom, it just kept going, ‘What? Shouldn’t it have…’
Before he could finish the thought, she pulled her arm out again and, like from an old-timey skit or a cartoon, a giant first-aid kit the size of the entire backpack appeared, seemingly being pulled straight out of the ground.
She walked over to Valerie, “Valerie, let's go ahead and change your bandages.”
Valerie sat up with a wince, “Alright, show me how to do it. I’ll need to do it myself soon.”
It hadn't occurred to Larry, but it seemed this world was more high-tech than he had given it credit.
Larry and the male rangers turned, leaving the two some privacy, ‘So that's how trainers keep all those items on them.’
…
Valerie was grunting with every step she took, she had a seriously pained look on her face. Her injured shoulder seemed to still be hurting underneath all the bandages, even if she’d managed to apply the bandages herself. Larry stayed by her side vigilantly, he felt somewhat at fault, failing to protect her. He knew he couldn’t physically help her even if he wanted to, so for now he simply did what he could and kept her safe.
Even with an injured person accompanying them, they had made quick work of the rest of the destroyed walkways. Lairon and Graveler had shown themselves useful once again, using all the moves Larry was still too young to be able to use. They could form boulders and flatten ground like nothing else.
Larry had asked the Ranger Pokemon how they were so good at it, and as it turned out, Nicolas and Arin were rangers who specialized more in utility than fighting. Their Pokemon were trained for fighting, like any Pokemon, but they had a lot of moves that were useful for terraforming and had a large range of utility. The idea made him snicker to himself, he was reminded of his own playthroughs, ‘So even in real life, they’ve got HM Slaves.’
It also slipped somewhere along the way that the rangers had more Pokemon, but were only allowed to carry up to three of them if they were higher up the chain during work hours. With Maxie, Nicholas, and Arin using only one of theirs because they had never expected this to be thrust into such a large-scale operation. It felt kind of ass-backward to Larry if he wasn’t lying, ‘If you’re working in the wilderness all the time, why wouldn’t you be allowed to keep more of your Pokemon around? Why limit them to six in the first place?’
His thoughts came to a halt when he finally began to remember the walkways they were walking through. The corridor should’ve opened up to a giant lake, which he and his mom had traversed together to reach the cave where Moltres had been roosting. Unfortunately, there was no lake to be found anymore, only a giant rubble-filled lakebed. It was what they’d seen from afar before being ambushed by the Magmar, and they’d finally reached it.
The back wall of the first layer, where the Moltres cave had been before, was completely destroyed, and the rubble had rolled down in a massive landslide, filling the entirety of what had once been a lake with rubble, boulders, and other various rocks.
Stepping on the loose rocks, Valerie almost slipped, “Yeek!”
She was caught by Graveler, who hoisted her back up to the rock with a grunt, avoiding her wounded shoulder deftly, “T-Thanks Graveler!”
A sound similar to a “No Worries!” came back, “Gra!”
“So this is where the fight took place?” Maxie asked no one in particular. Larry nodded back and made a few motions, pointing at the former lake and making swimming motions, he mimed the fact he was speaking, “It used to be a lake!”
“It…uhh…What?” Maxie asked, slightly confused at his miming.
“I think Larvitar is saying that there used to be water here,” Valerie mentioned, sitting on the rock. She was quickly picking up his intent.
He pointed at her, “Yeah! Yeah!”
She slapped the bottom of her fist into her open palm before pointing at Larry, “Aha! Yeah, it probably was! You’re saying it was destroyed during the fight?”
“Yeah!” He cried back with a nod. Larry pointed at Arcanine and made the motion to shoot flame towards the former lake before acting out a tiny Godzilla play by throwing a stray pebble at the place he stood before, acting out all the awesome parts of the fight he imagined in his mind, “Like that!” ‘Damn, she's good at that!’
Both Maxie and Valerie snickered at his adorably childish act, completely unbeknownst to the fact that a former voting adult had played it out, “I think I get it, Moltres burned the water away while your mom probably attacked him with rocks.”
“Yeah! Yeah!” Larry hopped around joyfully before realizing his mental age and promptly stopping, “That means your mom should be nearby, though, right?” Valerie asked hopefully.
He nodded back eagerly, still unsure of what he should do if they met.
“Then let's go!” She stepped from stone to stone quickly, holding her shoulder with her arm awkwardly as everyone else followed.
…
The former lakebed had only become less and less traversable as the continued, going from a bed of smaller pebbles resting underneath bigger boulders, to something more akin to short exercises of rockclimbing. The further they got to the wall, the bigger the boulders which had split off from it. Where before they were the size of a neat decorative rock you would place in your front lawn, they were now slowly scaling up to the size of a car, with the bigger ones bordering on truck-sized.
Larry had been recalled, his lower mobility being nothing but a hindrance in such hilly terrain, he was keeping watch from the inside of their Pokeball, waiting to be released.
Their three wild companions trailed further behind the rangers, they felt uncomfortable staying so close to humans, opting to play the part of the rear team, who double-checked the humans' work. They had come to the agreement that once they'd found his mother,r they'd return back up to the second layer, they still had a society to run up there after all.
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Valerie was once again looking far more out of breath than her ranger compatriots, as she huffed along, “Haah…Haah…” With her hurt shoulder, she had been in no position to use her arm, so they had been forced to look for parts of the terrain which were scaleable only by foot or by simple terraforming by Graveler and Lairon.
“You wanna take another break?” Maxie proposed. But Valerie only shook her head, swiping at her sweaty forehead, “Haah…I…Haah…I gotta…Keep going…”
She heaved out another breath as she fought to stay upright, “...Larvitar…needs to see his mom…Haah…I promised…”
“Val…” Maxie looked at her with worry, “Then how about we slow down a little? She should be around here, right? If we’re slower, we can take more time to spot her.”
“Huff…Alright…Huff…” Valerie relented and let herself catch her breath.
‘Good thinking, Maxie!’ Larry congratulated from the inside of his Pokeball. Evidently, Valerie wasn’t doing too well, her overly righteous attitude was warping due to her ownership of Larry, ‘She’s overextending herself and sacrificing herself for my sake…’
Pushing at his Pokeball, Larry appeared in a flash of light as the group of humans stopped on high ground. He hugged himself to Valerie's leg in an attempt to calm her. She squatted down and petted him while catching her breath, “Huff…Thanks, Larvitar, don’t worry, we’ll find her soon.”
Larry shook his head and pulled Larry down onto her butt, forcing her to sit down before seating himself in between her legs, “Huh?” Maxie giggled at the sight and took a seat next to her as well, “Guess it's break time, right, Val?”
Everyone released their Pokemon, who kept working as the trainers relaxed in the middle of the lake bed. They hopped off of the boulder to continue their search, “Arcanine's nose is sharper than our eyes could ever be, so we’d only be slowing them down anyway.”
“Yeah!” Arin agreed with a cheeky smile, “They get to relax in their Pokeballs all the time anyway, we've got to give them something to do sometimes.”
“Agreed!” Nicholas nodded.
Larry also rose again after some relaxation in Valerie's lap. He pointed at the ground with his arm and crossed his arms haughtily, already knowing to play up his act, “You! Stay here! I'll go look!”
Valerie snickered at the sight, “Hehe! Alright, Larvitar, I'll sit here and relax. Tell us if you find her, alright? Just don’t go too far?”
So Larry picked the most logical direction, towards the Moltres cave, and went on his search.
…
The lake had been large enough for a leisurely half-hour-long walk across one of its sides. While Arcanine, Lairon, and Graveler simply opted to check through the middle of the lake for anything they could, Larry had a plan.
‘Tyranitar don’t move much, and I know Mom made me run away near the cave where Moltres was roosting, so she couldn’t have gotten that far away from there during their fight.’ Where there was a cave before, there were now the remnants of a gigantic rockslide. So for now, Larry simply made his way over there. She had to be waiting over there, somewhere between the gigantic boulders. It was definitely breaking his promise with Valerie not to go too far, but he’d simply have to apologize when he came back.
During his walk, his thoughts strayed every which way, and the memories of the fight came back to Larry.
‘You’ll die! Just like your mother!’ The hateful voice of the Magmar shot through his mind, and Larry blinked at the sight of the Pokemon, ‘I know she can’t be dead…’
‘I-I simply have to keep going,’ He advised himself mentally, ‘She’s bound to be around here.’
His mind kept wandering though, with various insipid thoughts, ‘The last time I went missing, she almost destroyed the mountain. Why isn’t she doing it now?’
Larry tried to refute the sound logic as his heartbeat sped up. He shook the thought away, ‘She’s become better at controlling her emotions. Mom wouldn’t freak out like that again, would she?’
In his mind, a thought about his previous life's mother bloomed. Her face was indistinct, covered in a shadowy veil, he couldn’t even remember it anymore. ‘I really wasn’t a great son in my previous life…’ He’d never done a thing for his mom, taking her love, but never returning it. Stuck in his own room like a coward, he wasted away until even she couldn’t care for him anymore.
‘And now?’ Larry chided to himself, tears beading in his eyes while digging through some difficult terrain instead of scaling it, ‘I did it again, taking, taking and taking…’
‘She cared for me…Looked out for me…Trained me…’ He wiped at his eyes before he hopped down a boulder, ‘And? Where did it bring her?’
More memories returned to him, ‘I’ll deal with this. I’ll meet you on the other side of the lake when I’m done.’
‘Alright, Mom! You show it who’s boss. We’ll meet back at the other side of the lake.’ He cheered her on back then.
He kicked a pebble angrily, launching it just a few meters in front of him, as more tears beaded in his eyes, ‘I ran away from her, then forced my ideals onto her and finally sacrificed her for my own safety!’
Sniffling away a runny nose, Larry rubbed his eyes clear as he kept walking, ‘Goddamn, I’m such an idiot…’
Once again, his mind was invaded by the Magmar Patriarch, ‘This is a life-or-death fight, little Larvitar. Your mother's dead!’
“N-No, she can’t be dead!” Larry cried out fearfully before realizing. He looked around anxiously, only to find nobody nearby.
He kept walking, the wall in the distance slowly closing in, ‘She can’t be dead. I-If she’s anywhere, it's over there…’
One foot fell before another, but Larry's mind was elsewhere entirely, continually falling back into the same spiral. His inability to form a strong bond with his family and the hazy condition of his mother, and his role in it.
Did she even like him? What was their relationship with his reincarnation? She’d sacrificed herself in a ploy to save his own life, but was she even his mother? She certainly thought so.
It was all his fault, wasn’t it?
A shiver ran down his back, and Larry felt himself heave involuntarily, nothing came out, but he was tearing up again, ‘Oh god…’
‘Breathe Larry…Breathe…’ He circulated his Type-Energy as he continued walking, it had calmed him before, so it might do the job now.
The energies spread through his body and he felt his aches from the fight before begin to lessen, just a smidge. His breath became clearer and it felt like his sinuses cleared up from the crying. Then another stray thought crashed it all back down again.
If she was dead, had he killed her?
Another shiver ran through his body, and the TE slipped out of his grasp, then came the heaving.
‘God…I-I’m terrible, aren’t I? What am I even doing here?’ Larry looked up at the ceiling, now far less impressive than before, the tears now just began streaming as he silently began to sob, ‘Why did someone as terrible as me get a second shot?’
Crying his heart out, Larry broke down on the other side of the lakebed. He cried loudly, sobbing as he fought to stay on all fours, uncaring about wiping away the tears and snot. He tried to grab at his TE helplessly, he needed some kind of reprieve. The TE washed out of him in his emotional state, slowly kicking up a sandstorm around him.
The Olive-Green Hue was unmistakable, buried under a large hill of boulders a tail peeked out underneath. His breath hitched, and Larry finally realized.
‘I love you’
‘I love you too’ Their last exchange.
A promise had been broken.
