Frontline Mission #13

Jackson was scrolling on his phone as he waited outside of Grovehart’s central laboratory for his sister. She was one of the many pokemon scientists that worked there. His partner pokemon, Atlas, was sitting by his side.

“Sorry, experiment went a little longer than I expected.” His sister, Amber, apologized as she came outside the building. Trotting with her was her pokemon, a shiny sanyatto named Lumi. Around the blue and white pokemon’s neck she wore a purple necklace with small light beacons and an oval stone on it. Atlas’ tail wagged as he greeted the other pokemon.

“That’s alright.” Jackson answered as he put his phone in his pocket.

“So what exactly are we checking out again?” She asked as her brother turned and began to walk towards the train station. 

“There’s been a lot of reports in the Brookfell mines about a pokemon causing tunnel collapses. So they asked me to check it out.” The trainer answered. Years before he had worked in the mines before a leg injury that made the job impossible.

“Are you worried about going back there?” Amber asked and Jackson shrugged his shoulders.

“Not really. Just finding a pokemon shouldn’t be too bad.” He replied. The two siblings waited for the train to come into the station and then boarded, heading towards the mining town of Brookfell.

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When they arrived at Brookfell and exited the train the environment was a stark contrast to that of Grovehart. Instead of lush plant life the area consisted of a sandy desert. Even what did grow in the harsh desert, such as cacti, weren’t really around the populated areas like in Grovehart. Not only that but instead of organized blocks of sleek, modern buildings Brookfell was a rather chaotic collection of buildings. Most of them were also somewhat weathered with a thin layer of dust and sand.

This came to no surprise to the siblings, who if anything found the city familiar and calming. Both of them had grown up there, before Jackson had moved to Thunderdale in search of work and Amber moved to Grovehart for research.

Jackson led the way as he walked down the familiar path. As the two trainers and their pokemon went further down the quarry the appearance of the buildings and environment showed the poorer aspects of the city. They were all too familiar with this since they had lived in one of the lower income areas before they had moved.

A few of the miners nodded to Jackson, recognizing him from when he once worked in the mines. As they reached a mine shaft entrance the trainer stopped in front of a man in a worker’s uniform. Jackson shook his hand although the two were clearly familiar with each other.

“This is my sister, Amber. She came to help.” Jackson explained and the man nodded.

“Yes I believe we’ve met briefly in the past. My name is Eric. I’m going to bring you to the more troubling spot.” He explained as he began to enter the mineshaft. Amber was nervous as she followed, feeling a bit more confident with Lumi at her side. She had never really been in the mines before, and she had a good reason to be afraid of them considering what happened to her brother.

Eric stopped at an intersection where the mines branched out, telling them some more details about the report before he left to return to work. The only thing he had really been able to tell them was that the pokemon was shaking the ground somehow and causing caveins.

“Alright, I guess we just have to start searching then.” Jackson said as he turned on a flash light. Although the main tunnels of the mainshaft had a good amount of lighting the branching hallways often didn’t have any lighting. ‘

“You should have brought your old helmet.” Amber teased.

“Oh that thing was destroyed in the blast.” Jackson answered. Although he was unfazed, Amber seemed to feel bad after inadvertently bringing up the accident.

“Are you sure you’re okay with being down here?” She said but her brother just nodded.

The two continued on through the long corridor, not really hearing or feeling anything as they walked. Atlas was sniffing as they walked while Lumi scanned the darkness but neither of them seemed to pick up anything of interest.

“This thing isn’t as active as I thought it’d be.” Jackson said as he checked his watch, thinking about how urgent the call to him had seemed. The two had been underground for around an hour now without finding any signs of a troublesome pokemon. They had passed a few smaller rock type pokemon but nothing that would be causing the tunnel collapses.

“Yeah, we haven’t had a single sign of the thing. Do you think maybe it moved on?” She asked as she looked towards her brother.

“I doubt it. There’s not really a reason for a pokemon to leave the area if it’s been here for a while. The miners all said it's been a few weeks of this.” He replied.

“There’s been cave-ins for a few weeks?!” She exclaimed. Based on how dangerous seemed she was shocked that something hadn’t been done sooner.

“It started out smaller but has gotten a lot worse. They tried some other things but nothing really worked. And the mines can’t really just stop. Any pausing of mine work means no money for the miners and no resources.” He explained and Amber nodded grimly. She remembered how fast the miners had returned to work after Jackson’s accident, even those that had been injured.

As they continued down the tunnel they finally got their first sign of the pokemon as the earth shook. It was only a small amount and if it wasn’t for the history they’d received for the miners they probably would have just dismissed it as the ground moving or an intended explosion. However, given the worker’s warnings they suspected the shaking would only get worse.