Lucas first picked up the inquisitive, bolder blue Shuckle and examined it carefully.
Hmm, no signs of being painted to pose as a shiny Pokémon.
"Zz-bop~"
Perhaps thinking Lucas was playing with it, the Shuckle giggled, its soft feelers poking out from its shell and swaying slightly, looking very happy.
"Vi-ni~!"
Victini, shut out of the bathroom, heard the laughter inside and grew immediately displeased. Victini slapped at the bathroom door with a scowl, wanting to come in and play too.
Victini's voice, in turn, misled the red Shuckle by Lucas's slippers. Unlike his sister, he was a slightly timid, more cowardly male Shuckle.
The red Shuckle poked out his head, watching his sister being lifted high by Lucas. A trace of envy glinted in his little black eyes.
Fortunately, Lucas had become an expert at balancing affection, so to speak, and knew better than to favor one over the other. He hadn't meant anything by it—he'd simply wanted to check whether he'd really hit the jackpot and captured a shiny Shuckle.
So after putting down the blue sister, Lucas picked up the red little brother and played "lift high" with him too, to his delighted surprise.
It was like the two guardians in Alto Mare—usually it's a red sister and blue brother; here the Shuckles' genders, colors, and personalities were reversed. Kind of interesting.
How did Lucas know the Shuckles' genders?
Naturally, from intel provided by Suicune—who for some reason gave Lucas a gentle, almost fussy (in a good way) vibe.
After settling the two Shuckles and soothing their moods, Lucas also took Victini for a few rounds to keep it happy, then spent a good while prepping a meal for Vulpix. It was close to midnight when he finally collapsed onto the big hotel bed.
The fatigue of a full day surged over him like a tide. He was out the instant he hit the mattress; even the blanket was pulled over him by a long-suffering Serperior using Vine Whip.
…
The next day.
It was the 29th—only one day left before the Dragon Clan's gathering.
Feeling the time crunch, Lucas checked out of the seaside suite, then rode Dragonite from Cianwood City's outskirts toward Mt. Silver, far to the east in Johto—practically the opposite extreme from Cianwood City.
By noon, the sky was a spotless blue with a few wisps of cloud.
A flock of Spearow led by a Fearow was flying in formation, planning to raid a rival Pidgey flock in another forest.
Suddenly, Fearow heard a deafening boom from behind. Before it could react, an orange figure wrapped in roaring wind ripped past over their heads. The gale threw the Spearow's formation into chaos.
"Caa—!"
Fearow froze, then rage surged to its head. With a hoarse shriek, it prepared to accelerate and teach that provoker a lesson.
But the figure vanished almost instantly from Fearow's view. All it remembered was a pair of wings that looked like toys next to its own span, yet each flap raised a storm, and a conical cloud wreathing the other's body.
As the details clicked, Fearow's hot head cooled.
In their handed-down memory, anything that fast in the air was an untouchable big shot. Realizing it had just contemplated provoking such a big shot, Fearow broke into a cold sweat down its back.
Elsewhere, on Dragonite's back, Lucas, cocooned in flight energy, glanced curiously behind. Did Dragonite almost hit a wild Pokémon?
Since it didn't, he let it go. He reminded Dragonite and then looked ahead.
In the distance, a mountain range surged and rolled—majestic and sheer, standing solemn over the vast land.
Its peak speared the sky, mantled in pure white like a blade cleaving the clouds.
That was Mt. Silver's main peak, perpetually shrouded in blizzards and bitter cold—off-limits to ordinary trainers.
Never mind the disasterlike weather. Countless powerful wild Pokémon hid in those mountains, their austere aura veiling the skies around Mt. Silver, repelling the weak.
A nightmare for novices, a forge for the strong—rare and powerful Pokémon beyond counting—and a treasure trove in poachers' eyes. Every year, countless Pokémon from Mt. Silver were captured and sold across the world.
Because of this, Kanto's League kept a tight grip on the area. Regular trainers had to register at Indigo Plateau HQ and enter Mt. Silver via League-cleared routes.
But some regions were too hard to police—these became poachers' smuggling routes. Lucas was using one of those aerial routes now, cutting across the sky with impunity, unconcerned about attacks from below.
Lucas's plan today was, in a sense, similar to poachers—but they stole Pokémon; he intended to steal Mt. Silver's soil.
Yes, a Paldea League Champion-tier trainer was planning to dig up Mt. Silver's dirt. Lucas figured if he told the truth at registration, he'd get weird looks—and the process would take too long—so he chose to slip in another way.
With Dragonite's aura as deterrent, no wild Pokémon should have dared to attack.
But there's never a shortage of hotheads—Pokémon included.
As Dragonite skimmed over a dense forest, a beam brimming with destructive power lanced skyward from below, grazing Dragonite's flank.
What the—
Lucas and Dragonite frowned. This wasn't deep Mt. Silver; Pokémon shouldn't be that strong. Which fool fired Hyper Beam to provoke them?
They weren't going to bother with the unknown hothead—until the other, thinking the hovering pair were scared by that shot, hurled a broken tree trunk into the sky and let out a taunting roar—
"Rooaaar!!"
With the goading echoing around them, Lucas and Dragonite exchanged a glance. The same thought was in both pairs of eyes.
Teach it a lesson—
Dragonite spread its wings, shattered the trunk with a swipe, and dove in a gale, landing precisely where the trunk had been thrown from.
In the forest stood a roughly two-meter-tall, robust brown bear—Ursaring—letting out a warning growl.
A big yellow ring on its belly—Ursaring, notorious for ferocity and territoriality.
The moment he saw it, Lucas's doubts cleared—
Figures. No wonder it pulled something that dumb.
Dragonite scowled too. Even Nemona's Ursaring would probably mop the floor with this one—what was this Ursaring's attitude based on?
Just as Dragonite was about to one-shot it, Lucas's sharp eye caught tire tracks not far from where Ursaring stood.
Tire tracks? Here?
Something was off. He looked around—thanks to the young Ursaring's overblown territoriality, there were no other Pokémon nearby. If he wanted answers, Ursaring was his only lead.
"Don't knock it out—just pin it," Lucas told Dragonite.
Dragonite paused mid-charge of energy, swapping the tit-for-tat Hyper Beam for a gentler Hydro Pump—
That's the convenience of Normal-type energy—most Pokémon can learn that nearly all-purpose control. With training, they can seamlessly switch it into other types.
Moments later, a soaked, matted Ursaring sat on its knees, its brashness gone. Under Lucas's questioning and Dragonite's looming gaze, it kept nodding or shaking its head.
To a passerby, Lucas and Dragonite would look like the mob.
Without a Pokémon interpreter, Lucas resorted to simple yes/no: nod if yes, shake if no.
Crude but effective—soon he'd pieced together the story.
First, Ursaring had indeed seen a suspicious group driving deeper into Mt. Silver. At the time, the dark tools in their hands terrified it, so it hid.
But after they left, the young Ursaring stewed over it and felt cowardly and ashamed—how would it pick up a mate like that?
The more it thought, the madder it got—and then it lost its head and provoked the passing Lucas and Dragonite.
And ran into a brick wall.
"Suspicious, driving in, carrying 'tools'…"
Lucas rubbed his chin, thoughtful.
Classic poachers. Mt. Silver really is ill-fated.
He didn't plan to meddle, though—he had core-zone soil to steal.
He whipped out his battle-scarred phone and snapped the tire tracks like crazy, then sent the photos, coordinates, and a brief explanation to Lorelei.
Kanto and Johto are one. Besides Professor Oak and Professor Ivy, the other contact he had was Lorelei, the Ice Elite Four.
She should alert nearby personnel to handle it.
Of course, Lucas wasn't the type to watch Pokémon get poached—that would violate his convictions.
So if he happened to run into those fools on his way to dig, he didn't mind playing a nameless hero—bag them and toss them to the Kanto/Johto League.
With that, he tossed a few stamina-restoring berries to the drowned-rat Ursaring, then mounted Dragonite and flew deeper into Mt. Silver.
This time, he had Dragonite fly lower. More dangerous, but easier for those on the ground to see.
Wild Dratini/Dragonair/Dragonite were rare in Mt. Silver.
But Kanto/Johto's famed Dragon Master and Senior Investigator—Elite Four + Johto Champion Lance—loved to ride his Dragonite to mete out justice.
In a way, Lucas was cosplaying Lance, to cow the skulking riffraff—make them think twice.
Maybe they'd tuck tail at the sight of a Dragonite overhead.
Watching the landscape race by below, Lucas looked up at the sword-like main peak splitting the clouds. Besides soil, he wanted to see with his own eyes if that trainer was there.
He hadn't found any info online, so he knew the answer—but he still wanted to check.
As for how and where to collect soil, he had a plan.
He couldn't just dig anywhere, nor did he have a way to test nutrient content on the spot.
Therefore, to find nutrient-rich soil, he needed another Pokémon's help.
The so-called Desert Tyrant—the rock/dark pseudo-legend that rules Mt. Silver: Tyranitar.
Other than a possible Moltres nesting in some cave, Tyranitar should be the apex lord here. But pseudo-legends start fragile and need massive energy.
Tyranitar's first stage, Larvitar, is rock/ground.
Studies note that after laying the egg, Tyranitar buries it deep underground in the mountains so that when Larvitar hatches, it's surrounded by special nutrient-rich soil to fuel a desert tyrant's growth.
Larvitar then eats soil nonstop, tunneling up to the surface, after which the parents lead it until evolution. Stored nutrients from its subterranean diet carry it through the second, "pupal" stage—then it "emerges" as a new tyrant.
So Lucas's path was clear.
Find a Tyranitar's home or territory—ideally a pair preparing to hatch—and quietly steal the "formula" meant to raise their kid.
Even Lucas felt a bit naughty.
"I wonder if digging Mt. Silver's soil is illegal…"
…
Near the inner reaches of Mt. Silver, a modified, massive jeep crept along a steep mountain road, its paint blending into the forest—hard to spot unless you came close.
Besides driver and shotgun, masked men sat in the open back.
They were dead silent—clearly not desperate amateurs; highly trained.
They moved toward a specific destination. When wild Pokémon blocked the way, the escorts' Pokémon handled them without firing guns and stirring up trouble.
They didn't bag those Pokémon, even rare ones.
After a long quiet, someone spoke, betraying faint unease despite the mask: "Boss, was that just now…"
The middle-aged "boss" in the passenger seat glanced back. "You mean—was that Lance, the Dragon Master, and his ace Dragonite?"
The man shrank, nodding slightly.
"We all saw someone riding that Dragonite."
"Shouldn't we turn back, or at least wait until Lance leaves?"
Even veteran poachers feared Lance—a living nightmare to their kind.
His aerial dragon legion was the source of that fear.
"No. This is the only confirmed intel on a Tyranitar pair about to hatch. Once they bury the egg, it's too late—we don't have tools we can bring into Mt. Silver to dig that deep."
"And if we fail the organization's commission—you know the consequences."
His voice was cold, with a hint of confusion and all-or-nothing resolve.
If he gambled wrong, prison at worst. If he won, he could take the reward and disappear, wash his hands clean.
Do nothing, and the vast organization spanning Kanto and Johto would not be kind.
He'd had no choice from the start.
…
Elsewhere, far away on the Sevii Islands—
A bespectacled, poised redheaded woman glanced at a message on her phone, surprised.
"He's in Mt. Silver?"
Lorelei didn't dither. After a moment's thought, she forwarded the intel to Lance, who should be near Blackthorn City in Mt. Silver's vicinity.