Circling around the Sandshrew area we continued on our path. The tunnel we took leading away from that cave was odd compared to the rest. Darker, I needed to pull out my flashlight as there was no moss on the walls…

"A new tunnel?" I wondered as we moved, and I almost startled as Papa spoke.

"Definitely. Something carved this recently, look, you can see the condensation forming frost on the ridges of the cave. This isn't an Onix cave, or a Golem."

"Alolan Golem are electric types, they're more often above ground, or in magnet rich areas."

"Electric?"

"Yeah! The whole line is different here."

"Weird!" Papa said, chuckling a bit. "Seriously, every time I turn around a pokemon I thought I knew about is something weird."

"That's Alola for you." I said, then thought it over. "Or rather just the world. Regional Forms aren't just in Alola. Pokemon adapt to their environment, which sometimes leads to weird results."

"Yeah I guess so." Papa said, sounding a bit wistful.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing Vicky, just the world changing around me I guess." He shook it off and we continued forward. Once more we broke through and this time into another bright cave. Although it wasn't quite as crazy as the Sandshrew cave, it led into a cave utterly covered in tunnels. Just looking around I spotted twelve, most of them half way up the cave walls, with massive claw marks leading from and to them.

One of them was just beside us at our entrance, and I walked over. The claw marks. The same three clawed marks I'd seen earlier, massive, and utterly carving into the rock face.

Steel Type? I could see something like an Aggron making these marks, but they weren't native to Alola. Right? If it was… I wanted to make friends with it. I always thought they were cute.

"Vicky." Papa said voice tight, "We need to go. Now." His voice was spooked, and I turned.

"Papa?"

"Come on. Now. I know these markings! A tunnel like this!" He urged, and already started urging the Stoutland back to the tunnel we just made it through when we both heard it.

Rock scraping rock, and the thumps of heavy footsteps.

"Get on!" Papa ordered and despite my own resistance, I hurried to do as he said. What could have Papa spooked that much?

We didn't make it into our tunnel, because that's where the noise was coming from, but we both noticed that too late, as we turned, and right there, coming out of the dark cave was-

"Tyran-ITAR!" It rumbled, more like rocks smashing together than a normal vocalization.

A Tyranitar!? On Alola!?

"Vicky! Run!" Papa ordered and he kicked the Stoutland into urgency, and we took off my Stoutland following at first without any control from me, until I got the reins and got him in order. I flinched as crashing rocks slammed into the earth behind us, but…

Papa, it's just a Tyranitar. We have Lucario, and Mimikyu could probably do some damage just on his own too.

Wood Hammer was a Grass type against a Rock.

But Papa was ignoring me, just urging us onward until we found another tunnel, this one well lit.

I turned as we curved in, and the Tyranitar was chasing us, roaring and looking angry.

I think us running through this cave, probably its nest made it even angrier than anything else…

Oh well, too late to fix that.

We scrambled into the tunnel, thankfully this one was well lit, and we raced ahead, although the noise of stomping heavy weight behind us continued to echo after us.

"Wow! I really didn't expect a Tyranitar! I mean, I know you can find some Larvitar on one of the islands, but… I don't think it was this one!"

"Just keep going!" Papa yelled back, although I noticed he kept looking behind him to check on me.

Oh he was really freaked out. Poor Papa.

We burst out of the tunnel and ended up sliding a bit, as the Stoutland found the floor mostly ice. As they scrambled we sort of fell into a snowdrift, which was odd until I looked up, wind blowing gently over the entire cave, as the cave we were now in, was actually more like a giant strip ripped out of the side of the mountain.

Snow, and frigid mountain wind seeped through and blew up snow drifts, but there was also sunlight, and because of that, there were actually trees and bushes growing in this area.

Unfortunately the edge leading off the mountain was a sheer cliff, so we were still in the mountain tunnels network if we wanted to leave.

At least not without a flying Pokemon.

"Should have brought Dragonite or something." I muttered to myself, a bit irritated at how this had gone.

Running away from pokemon like this was sort of… Embarrassing.

But I guess for most trainers this was sort of the norm. It was a good experience. Mostly telling me that I didn't like it.

"Tyran!" A roar behind us had me turn to see the Tyranitar charging up the tunnel.

"Shadow Ball Mimikyu! Let's try to slow him down!" I called out and just continued to hold on as we charged away on the Stoutland with the angry Tyranitar on our heels.

We were running when I felt it, Mimikyu gripped tight and started calling out.

"KuKKuKKuk!" He shrieked, and I turned.

"DODGE!" I roared out, shifting the Stoutland to the side as Tyranitar hadn't decided to just let us escape. A boulder, incredibly sharp, had been pulled from the ground and launched forward. Stone Edge? The entire cave felt like it shook as the rocks hit, and it wasn't even over. The Tyranitar was charging forward moving a lot faster than I would expect for that pokemon as it sort of scrambled on four legs, and as it moved sometimes ripping out the boulders and tossing them forward.

And each time the entire cave shook as the Pointed rocks smashed into the snow and bit deep.

Then suddenly, everything sort of shifted.

"What?" I couldn't help but wonder as while I was looking forward the entire cave sort of shifted… Then more and more.

"Avalanche!" Papa cried out, and he turned Stoutland back right to me, and nearly ripped me off the other Stoutlands back to wrap himself around me. Rockruff jumping through the snow got a shock as the ground under him started shifting…

The ground of the cave had just given up, and snow, previously piled high enough that the Stoutland had to fight through it to rush us forward, started shifting, pulling us straight towards the cliff…

Really, really wish I had dragonite or Blue Heart right now.

"Hold on!" Papa cried out, and really what else could I do, as the snow yanked all of us right off the cliff and out into the open air.

—--

"KuKkuku!" I startled at the call as snow was pulled away from my face…

"Hey Pal." I whispered a bit and Mimikyu was there, along with the sunlight.

"KuKKuku!" He shouted happily and rubbed at me for a second before disappearing and then I heard more snow getting pulled apart and Papa coughed a bit.

It took a second for my brain to remember exactly what just happened.

I startled and pushed, getting myself pulled free of the snow. I hadn't been knocked out… I think, but the rush of everything just sort of blurred into falling and snow.

"Vicky!"

"Papa I'm here…. I'm okay!" I called out as I started yanking myself free of the snow, thankfully Mimikyu had found me. When I pulled myself out I looked around. Then up… "Wow… That was a drop." I whispered looking at what had to be a hundred feet above us, the cave we'd fallen from. Thankfully it looks like the cliff hadn't been as directly down as I'd thought. I'm fairly certain we'd mostly rolled down the mountain.

"Rockruff!" Papa called out, and I instantly shook my confusion away as I rose up.

"Stoutland! Rockruff!" I roared out as I got up… I didn't see them. "Papa! Lucario!" I yelled out and I rushed over to him, he was half upside down, but I helped get him up and Lucario was released.

"Lu! Lucario!" She called out no doubt sensing all the trouble even in her pokeball.

"Lucario! We need search and rescue!" Papa ordered before I could, and to my surprise she nodded and started looking around and in seconds ran off…

"Riolu!" I released my own pokemon and she looked far less confident as she looked around in shock at the devastation. "Help Lucario." I ordered and thankfully she turned and ran straight to her mother.

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I helped Papa get out of the snow and only once he was back on his feet did I get a chance to look him over.

He looked roughed up but…

"You okay?"

"Fine. You?" He demanded looking me over and even kneeling down and putting hands on my shoulders and face to check.

"I'm okay." I assured him.

"Lu! Lucario!" We both looked up and then rushed over. Stoutland's paws were in the air out of the snow and we shifted to help dig him out as Lucario moved on. Both Stoutlands were fine. Big fur, and tough bodies, they weren't that bothered by the avalanche.

Rockruff ended up the deepest, needing Riolu and Lucario to use moves to blast the snow away.

Once we actually managed to free him enough to breath the poor pup whimpered and only stopped when Papa fully had him out of the snow and in his arms.

"That sucked." I decided to say for everyone as I watched the poor pup whimper. Yet even as we all started to relax Riolu perked up and barked.

Lucario's ears twitched one and she was off, along with Riolu…

"Crap! There must be other pokemon!" I called out and darted after them.

"Hey! Don't run off! Vicky!"

"I'll be with Lucario! We have to help!" I roared back.

If a pokemon was in danger, I couldn't just ignore it, and this was our fault.

Lucario thankfully was fully on it. She was already digging at the snow, and as she worked a Sandshrew was revealed. The poor thing looked a little dazed, and fully startled as Lucario pulled it free, but then she just moved on, leaving it sitting in the snow.

"Shrew?" It whispered confused.

I was running right past it to stick with Lucario when I realized.

Sandshrew are great diggers.

"Hey, the avalanche would have trapped other pokemon." I said, slightly out of breath. "Please help us. Lucario can locate any of the trapped pokemon, but she isn't good at digging."

The Sandshrew blinked for a moment cutely, its little paws rubbing together as it sat back its butt, and then….

"Shrew." It rose up and I nodded running after Lucario. Lucario was already digging, but Sandshrew dove in, and was gone in a blur, spiraling into the snow and shifting through it like water. Lucario stopped looking at me and nodding firmly.

"Lu."

"Yeah, well, none of us know Dig." I said, as she snorted at me. Then she pointed and ran off.

I could just hear Sandshrew finding something in the snow, as another pokemon's voice echoed out through the tunnel.

Good.

Lucario found another, started pawing at the snow, and then Lucario barely ducked back as a massive limb shot out, sending a flurry of snow up into the air.

"Luca!" She shouted and Riolu jumped back as another limb did the same… But neither limb actually did more than start waving around from there.

I blinked, massive fist with a weird design on the end, that looked like paw prints only…

"Crabominable!" I said the memory striking me. "That's what that weird print in the ice was." I shouted almost relieved as a mystery was solved.

Then I realized it was still trapped.

"Riolu! Vacuum wave the snow. I think it's just lashing out because it can't see."

"Rio!" She agreed and started thrusting her fists forward slowly causing flurries of snow to shoot off and soon the head of the Crabominable was seen. It was on its back and now that it could see it stopped lashing out.

"Crab?"

"Lu, Lucario." She offered and it stopped fighting and instead gave off something like a laugh, as it started working its way out of the snow.

Lucario just nodded and then instantly jerked her head to the side.

I shifted to follow and…

"Oh they're so cute!... Oh, oh no!" I rushed right after Lucario who took off Riolu right beside me.

Vulpix were bouncing and digging in the snow. It looked cute at first, before I realized they were bouncing trying to shift the snow. That wasn't cute, but desperate.

"Lu! Lucario! Lu!" She shouted as she rushed forward, and all three of them shifted, tails raised and on the defensive, but Lucario paid them no mind, racing forward, even as they opened their mouths and Powdered Snow shot out.

It only took a second for her to blitz right past them, Extreme Speed, letting her blur right past their attacks, but then instead of attacking them from behind like they expected, she started digging at the snow with strong tireless strikes.

The Vulpix all seemed shocked, and then flinched again when Riolu and I arrived. We started digging, and I mostly moved snow so it wouldn't fall back in, along with Riolu, as Lucario simply dug so much faster than either of us could do, and then the Vulpix joined us digging at the snow to kick it away letting Lucario dig faster.

Finally…

"Lu." She gasped, as she pulled what looked like snow right out of the snow bank but it was another Vulpix.

A little one.

"Hand it here!" I demanded, as I slid onto my knees beside Lucario.

The Vulpix was placed in my lap, and I could tell it wasn't doing well. Either the avalanche, or being stuck under the snow for so long.

It wasn't breathing.

Small fox, probably not that old, it felt limp in my lap, entire body just lifeless.

No.

I shifted it, ready to work when suddenly everything around us exploded, Ice and snow exploding, and I looked up for just a second.

"Tyran! ITAR!" The Tyranitar roared angrily, and instantly, sand started sweeping over everything around us, including me.

"Vicky run! We have to go!" Papa roared out and I realized he had caught up with us. Stoutlands both leaping in the snow towards us with Papa on their back.

But I had a dying Pokemon in my lap.

So I did the only thing I could. I ignored the angry Rock Type, and focused on the baby in my lap. I tore off my jacket, and threw it over Vulpix, so the sand couldn't hurt it and bent down to work under the cover.

I knew this. Blissey was big on medicine. Small animal, fragile. Both hands wrapped around it's little barrel, holding it as flat in my lap as I could.

Compress. One, two, three. One, two, three.

Nothing.

Okay I could do this. Grab its snout close mouth. Breath into nose, I exhaled gently only for a second, and then again. Tiny animal, tiny lungs.

Then shifted back to compress.

"Tyran!" Roared over me, but I ignored it.

"Vicky! We have to move! That's a Tyranitar right there! It's going to-" Papa's cry was desperate and scared, but I had faith in Lucario and Riolu, and more importantly, a life was on the line.

"I can't!" I yelled back, and then went on to ignore him.

I started compressing. The cold fur under my fingers was chilling, but everything was cold right now considering how much snow I'd had dunked on me. One, two, three. One two three!

"Come on!" I hissed, demanding this poor thing not die because of… Well, me.

"You… You won't get through me!" Papa yelled.

I'd been the one that wanted to explore the stupid caves. If I had my team, we'd have beaten the Tyranitar without issue.

If I'd done so many other things this wouldn't have happened!

Then the fox twitched, its paws jerking lightly, as if startling awake, and its mouth opened.

It coughed, a wheezy weak noise, but snow escaped its mouth, probably full of snow as it suffocated, and it coughed and cleared its air ways. I held it gently, sides slowly starting to move, as they expanded and contracted under my hands. Tiny little eyes slowly opened, tired, weak, but pretty little blues met my own.

A crash above had me look up, and there was Papa. Standing between me and the Tyranitar, Lucario in front of him. "A-Aura Sphere!" Papa roared out, and Lucario howled as she charged up a large energy ball…

I'd never heard that tone of voice from him before.

The Aura Sphere whipped out and the Tyranitar swept its tail, a massive rock ripping out of the snow to smash into Lucario's attack.

It didn't quite destroy it, but the sphere that hit him was far weaker…

"Again! Lucario! Don't let that Tyranitar move an inch forward!" Papa roared out, his voice biting.

Heh, his bite at this point was probably just as bad as his bark. He was angry. Really really angry.

Once more Lucario shot an Aura sphere, and the Tyranitar once more deflected most of it. It timed the Stone Edge right in time to waste most of the Aura Sphere, and more and more rocks were being pulled up…

There was a time limit here, unless Lucario could secure this win, the Tyranitar was gathering resources for more powerful strikes.

"Riolu!" I shouted, still holding the baby, who was too weak to do more than twitch in my arms. Riolu jerked, having been standing beside Papa staring at the battle. "We're in this too! Get ready We're helping out!"

"Lucario! Aura Sphere!" Papa shouted, and I shouted right with him.

"Riolu Vacuum Wave! Push it even faster! Blast him away!"

There was no hesitation. Not in Lucario who gathered her energy into a sphere, and sent it shooting forward, or Riolu who shouted right alongside her mother.

Energy gathered in between her paws. She wasn't just releasing the blast quickly, she charged it, gathered her power, and then thrust her paws forward. The wave of energy was stronger than any I'd seen from her.

Whether she was growing more powerful, or just the idea of fighting alongside her Mama gave her all the juice she needed.

It struck her mothers Aura Sphere, and like a burst of high powered wind, it exploded out over the back of the sphere. The Aura sphere burst forward, completely missing the Stone Edge that rose up out of the snow to try and block it, and there was a flash as the Tryanitar had just a moment to see the glowing energy about to strike him.

"Blast it!"

"Don't stop!" Papa and I roared together, as the Aura sphere slammed into the Tyranitar, and then Riolu's Vacuum wave blasted through the Stone Edge that had risen up, and once more hit the Aura sphere from behind.

Both pokemon Mother and daughter roared in time as their attacks joined into a much more powerful whole, as the attack exploded.

The Tyranitar skidded back, snow giving it no traction and then blasting it fully off its feet as it roared in pain, bouncing across the snow and tumbling.

Then everything went quiet.

Papa and I were both breathing heavily after shouting, and as the snow and smoke from the explosion cleared, Tyranitar was weakly rising to its feet.

"Ty-Tyran!" It growled, and then from above.

"Waaaaaaaoi!" A noise screamed from above, a shriek, and howl all in one, and a ray of white blasted down, crossing over the Tyranitar and then right towards Papa and I!

"Lu!" Lucario jumped in the way, fighting back against it as it struck her, and everything once more exploded.

The temperature suddenly dropped, so fast and so cold that I felt my skin prickle.

When the exploded snow cleared…

Tyranitar was frozen solid, and a line of spiked jagged ice traced across where the beam's attack had arced across the snow. My Virtual Library Empire (M|V|LE1MPYR) thanks you for reading at the source.

Lucario was okay, although the attack had definitely hit. She was scuffed up from blocking the Ice Beam.

I looked up, down from the cave was souring something that was amazing, and kinda scary.

An Alolan Ninetales.

A very angry, Alolan Ninetales.

A Ninetales that was exhaling air so cold, it was coming out of her snout as powdered snow, and came to a soft landing right atop the Tyranitar. Glaring down at… Well me.

Aw man. I did not have the pokemon to deal with this. Dragon Babies weren't going to do much, and Mimikyu and Riolu weren't going to do anything against a Ninetales that strong.

"Nine-tales." It growled, a vicious angry sound that rumbled deep in the Ninetales chest.

"Lucario! If I'm facing down a Tyranitar today, there is no way I'm going to be scared of you!" Papa roared back his own voice barking out. And Lucario fell into her stance without hesitation.

"Yip yip yip yip!" The cries weren't pokemon cries, but more like whines as the three Vulpix from before suddenly burst out of the snow…

Had they dug in to hide from the Tyranitar?

They charged forward in a sprawl, the skulk of foxes tumbling over each other as they raced to… Their mother?

Either way they raced up.

She reacted, jumping off the Tyranitar, and landing in the snow and seemingly pushing all of them under her, as she never took her eyes off us.

There was a stare down. Papa and Ninetales, the tension only ramping up, when something surprised me.

A Sandshrew squeaked as it waddled over, the same Sandshrew we pulled out of the snow, and behind it, was a Sneasel probably the one he'd helped rescue, and he hesitated, but started squeaking.

"Shrew! Sand Sandshrew! Shrew!"

"Ninetales growled snow misting out from her jaws as she didn't seem to want to hear a thing, but slowly a sort cry echoed out.

The Vulpix in my arms. I rose up, and started forward.

"Vicky don't get close."

"It's okay Papa." I responded back calmly, as Ninetales was now growling at me, but Papa wasn't having it. He stepped in front of me, and I could hear his own growl.

"Don't even think about it!"

I hesitated, Papa wasn't playing around, and even I knew when to stop ignoring him, but then he reached out and put an arm over my shoulder.

Then there was communication. Papa and Ninetales, and… I relaxed, the tension in my shoulders disappearing, the rage in the Ninetales vanishing.

"Here, your baby is okay." I told the Pokemon, and this time stepped forward with Papa at my side, the two of us approaching in, and I helped the baby onto the snow, where it whined weakly.

Ninetales moved in without hesitation, and curled up around the little Vulpix, the others joining her, as she started licking and checking on it.

Then she looked at us.

I reached into my bag, there was a tension in the Ninetales frame, she was ready to pounce, but when I just pulled out the good old Oran berry, the large pokemon relaxed.

"Your baby was under the snow for a while, it wasn't breathing when we pulled it out. It's probably gonna be weak." I offered the berry and the Ninetales delicately pulled it out of my hand before settling it into the snow near her kit, and chewing off a few small bits for the Vulpix to eat.

It really was weak.

I looked at Papa who was frowning as well.