Last time, on A Pokémon Trainer Is You:
What would you like to do as you head out towards Mount Moon? [Choose up to two]
- Catch a Pokémon
- Study the environment and ecosystem
Ask the other guy to join you?
- Sure, why not?
The other g- I mean… Indigo or… whatever his name is- look, are you gonna learn his name at some point? ‘cause if you’re not gonna, I’m not gonna, and at some point it might start to seem rude if you’re hanging out together.
Whatever. The other guy was pretty quick to agree to come along with you – at least as far as Mount Moon.“May as well; I’m going to Cerulean City anyway, and I guess you need all the help you can get. Just don’t expect me to wait around if you want to stay at this dig site for a week!”He sincerely doesn’t care whether he has a travelling companion or not, but you can tell he’s a little flattered that you asked him. His Squirtle’s certainly happy to keep hanging out with Scallion; those two go way back.
You set off from the Pewter City Pokémon Centre at dawn, leave the city on foot and take the eastern trail that leads towards Mount Moon, the highest peak of the Celestial Mountains of north Kanto. As you walk, you ask Indigo for his take on the Mount Moon situation – or at least, his take on what Brock told you. He frowns.“I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Stuff goes missing in my grandpa’s lab all the time. Doesn’t mean it’s stolen, it just means scientists are disorganised; they lose a lot of stuff.” You remind him of the strange noises that the dig reported. “Pffft. Wild Pokémon. They’re just being paranoid.” He’s… not wrong about any of that, you have to admit, but you trust Brock’s judgement. Besides, you want to check out this dig site. Fossils are cool. Anyway, you don’t need to worry about that for a while yet; you want to focus on making observations and taking notes as you move.
You’re on the leeward side of the mountains here – rain falls to the north and east of Mount Moon, around Cerulean City, leaving a dry rain shadow to the south and west that extends as far as Pewter City, where living things rely on isolated springs, streams and ponds for water. The vegetation is mostly hardy tussock grass, thorny shrubs like barberry and a few Chesto, Pomeg and Cornn berry trees, with scatterings of the same conifers you saw back on route 22. You assume a lot of the same wild Pokémon will live here too. You quickly take note of the species this area has in common with the Tohjo foothills: Rattata, Spearow, Nidoran, Wurmple, Mankey, all behaving in mostly the same ways you’ve observed before.“Bo-ring,” Indigo comments. “Can we keep moving? I want to get to that Pokémon Centre before dark.”You roll your eyes. This stuff is important – it’s what his grandfather does, has done for over 40 years. The behaviours of these Pokémon and the relationships between them are all part of a fine, delicate balance between fundamental forces of nature that-“Blah, blah, blah, I know, Gramps talks about this stuff all the time. What do we do with it? Who cares?”
I mean, he’s got a point. But you’re just getting started.
Not all the berry trees have been claimed by troops of Mankey, as they were on route 22. You can tell, because you don’t get pelted by thrown rocks when you pass them. Instead, you hear a beautiful, melodious song that every kid in Kanto is taught to recognise and fear like the very fires of hell: Jigglypuff. Those little pink puffballs are as adorable as they are deadly – not because they’ll attack you or anything, but because if they think you’re a threat, they’ll put you to sleep with their magical song. In the middle of the wilderness. For hours on end. Sensibly, you pass these trees by. You’re curious, but you’re not stupid, and you can guess well enough that the Jigglypuff claim berry trees as a source of food and use their song to ward off any potential predators.
When you spot some rustling in the long tussock grass, you have Scallion lash out with his Vine Whips and flush out an Ekans, which promptly flees up a hillside and into a pile of rocks. Ekans mainly eat bird Pokémon eggs, but can actually fall prey to adult Spearow themselves if they’re outnumbered – discretion is the better part of valour for these Pokémon. Seeing Ekans here, you wonder if there might be less aggressive bird Pokémon they could bully… and indeed, you can see Pidgey in the air as well as Spearow. You never saw Pidgey on route 22, which is interesting – they normally flourish in more verdant areas, with more berries and other high-energy plant foods. Rough terrain like this tends to be Spearow territory. There must be some other niche here, some prey that they’re better at exploiting than the Spearow…“Maybe it’s because they use wind attacks?”Got him. He’s interested, in spite of himself.“If you’re looking for something Pidgey are better at than Spearow… well, Spearow don’t use wind moves like Gust. Their wings aren’t big enough, ‘cause they’re optimised for manoeuvrability. That’s basic.”You wrinkle your nose at the “basic” comment, but he’s right; that makes sense. You climb to the top of a ridge so you can sit and watch the surrounding area while you eat lunch with your Pokémon. That’s when you remember that Indigo has a Pidgey. You give it (…hiiiim? It’s hard to tell with bird Pokémon… yeah, him) some dried Pecha berries as a treat, then send him out scouting with some instructions: talk to the Pidgey in this area, find out what they eat, bring some back if you can. After a little coaching from Nancy the Negator, Pidgey coos in agreement, then flies off towards the next ridge. While you sit and eat, you keep looking for clues to the presence of interesting Pokémon. Several rocks up on the ridge bear deep scratches, and you can see an abandoned burrow – you’d guess it belonged to a Sandshrew that used to sharpen its claws on the rocks. Once you know what you’re looking for, you can spot them from a distance; you just look for weird round stones that move. Then, far off… you notice a patch of blackened, burned grass. Weird.“Hey, Pidgey’s back,” Indigo says. His Pidgey lands in front of you, triumphantly depositing……a pinecone?
Uh…?
Scallion cautiously pokes the pinecone with a vine… and it blinks. Actually, you know this – this is a Pineco, a Bug Pokémon with a tough pinecone-like shell that anchors itself to tree branches. That… weirdly makes sense. Wild Spearow might not spot Pineco in trees or be able to penetrate their defences, but a group of Pidgey could hit a tree with a big Gust and blow a whole lot of Pineco to the ground, where they’d be vulnerable. You don’t think that’s the whole puzzle, but it’s a niche where Pidgey would outcompete Spearow.“Well, it’s mine now,” Indigo says, rapping an empty Pokéball against the Pineco’s shell and sucking it in with a flash of light. You stare at him blankly. “What? My Pokémon beat it, right?” He scratches Pidgey under the chin and feeds it another berry.
After lunch, you pick up the pace – you want to reach that burnt area and figure out what the deal is.“I guess this is kinda fun,” Indigo concedes. “Figuring out why Pokémon live where they do and how they survive. I mean, it’s still super nerdy, but… y’know. And I got a new Pokémon out of it!” His Squirtle, cheerfully jogging along beside him, squawks agreement. Well, progress is progress.
When you reach the next valley, you find the swathe of burnt tussock and do the best you can to extract some information from the damage. It was a pretty intense blaze that took out almost a whole field of tussock… and then suddenly stopped. There’s a cluster of trees that are completely untouched by the fire, and the blackened grass ends in an abrupt straight line. Some of the burnt plants are partly covered with heaps of dirt, like someone smothered the fire. You pick your way around to the trees-and are greeted by several angry Pidgey who rush out of the trees, tweeting angrily, and immediately knock you onto your butt with a powerful Gust. Indigo and Squirtle burst out laughing, and Scallion helps you to your feet with his vines. You back off slowly, as the Pidgey fly back to their roosts. They must have nests in those trees.
Hang on.
In a sudden stroke of inspiration, you check the wind by licking a finger. Nor’easterly, coming down off the mountain. Right, that should be the prevailing wind in this part of Kanto. But that should have driven the fire towards the trees… unless something changed the wind. That must be it; the Pidgey pushed the fire back the way it came with Gust and put it out with Sand Attack. They can occupy territory that Spearow can’t because they can protect their nests from wildfire. Indigo frowns.“But what starts the fire?” You point out that this is a dry area with lots of potential kindling. Fires can’t be a rare occurrence here. But… they’d be unpredictable, and why would Pidgey only learn this technique in this area?
Suddenly, Scallion calls you over to the opposite edge of the burnt grass. He’s found a spot where the sides converge to a point – and there are footprints in the dry soil, outlined in soot and ash. This wasn’t a random fire; some kind of Fire-type predator started this blaze to flush out prey from the grass. You high-five (or… high-vine) Scallion. You’re gonna have to confirm this theory with further observations, but even if this was a one-off, it’s so cool – a flock of Pidgey working together to control a wildfire!“Yeah… yeah, Gramps would love that, all right.” He’s not saying he loves it. But you’re pretty sure he does.
You need to hurry to get to where you need to be by day’s end, but you’ve identified a whole bunch of Pokémon that live in this area – and if you want to quickly track down and catch one, you could have your pick of just about any of them.
