The metallic doors twice the size of the tallest Charizard and four times as wide under the giant statue opened with a creaking sound. Beyond them, far into the distance, was a mountain twice as big as the statue. It leaned to the other side, rising towards the sky as if it was a staircase, and its outer layers were carved, divided into three floors extending outwards from the mountain. These floors had holes that probably gathered together into a cave system, an usual habitat to the fire line. And, of course, the Charizard were everywhere.

  There were Charizard all over the mountain, from the base to the very flat top; the mountain probably had a thousand Charizard. They were flying into and out of the floors, many lazed about, lying whenever they wanted, curled on the rock floor, there were some just eating their food in groups as they watched others of their brethren brawl each other, and a few walked inside the mountain in groups while talking to each other.

  I was stunned, frozen in front of the door, and the others weren’t any better. This shock came from the fact that I was seeing something that, in my mind, I wasn’t supposed to see at all. A hidden world that echoed humanity but was very much not.

  “Impressive, right? I was the same when I first saw this scenery.” Isla said as she watched our faces, pride clear in her voice. “Come on, our stop is over there.” She passed through the door and turned to the left, walking close to the wall on something resembling a dirt road. All but one Charizard flew towards their lair. That one walked side by side with Isla.

  Moving my legs and pulling my eyes away from the striking view, I saw that to the side of the door, not far away, was something resembling a very small town. A dozen houses made of rock, a bigger one in the middle of them and a compact Pokemon Center right under the side of the mountain.

  I followed Isla reluctantly, still watching the mountain with my peripheral vision. After a few seconds, the others followed too. We strode through the town, at the direction of the only two story house. As we approached, I saw that the building was carved on the side of the mountain wall that rounded the valley. We entered after Isla, took out our shoes and waited at the entrance when she raised a hand to stop us and quietly entered through a double door in the back of the house.

  A few minutes later, her head emerged from inside, “Alright, come on up.”

  The room past those doors was an expansive one. There was a mahogany table in front of mahogany bookshelves, many technology trinkets laid about, and tasteful art decorated the walls. A woman was sitting at a chair with a rigid back, looking at us as we entered, green hair in a ponytail and pointed earrings in her ears. She looked older than Isla, who stood to the side, but was fitter.

  Rising from her desk with a book and pen in hand, she walked around it to lean against the table itself. Small scars of claws and fire covered her arms, legs and belly, where her short blood-red uniform didn’t cover.

  “My name is Liza, I’m the chief ambassador of the Charicific Valley Reserve. Any questions?”

  We looked at each other and when nothing came from the others I answered, “No ma'am.”

  “Do you have any idea why you’re here?” She said and this time her eyes focused into our faces.

  “No,” I said on behalf of the group.

  After a moment she nodded, “I see. You just need to answer some questions and you’re free to go.” She opened her book which I now noticed was very bulky and raised her pen.

  The first questions were the same ones as Isla; who we were, why we were nearby, where we came from. The ambassador asked some facts about our journeys, what our pokemon were and if we had references to our character. I was a little pleased to see that naming Professor Oak caused a reaction, albeit just a look and a raised eyebrow. Aiden mentioned Akashi and what sounded like a clan elder, Jess gave her Gym Trainer uncle’s name and Dendra a relative, but explained that they were from Paldea. Liza noted down in her book everything we said with a certainty that left me impressed.

  “That’s everything from me,” Liza turned, waited for the last page to dry a little, then closed the book and stored the massive thing and her pen on her desk. “You’re free to go.” She made to leave by a side door.

  I opened my mouth but Aiden was quicker, “Wait a minute. Ah, could we battle a few Charizard in the reserve?

  Liza stopped for a second before sighing, “I’ll not turn down a helping hand. Arceus knows we need everything we can to fight out their aggression. Isla, show them to the second circle.”

  Isla pouted, “Yessir.”

  The tall woman left the room with no further words.

  “Come on,” Isla said, taking us out of the room and the house. “Take out the pokemon you want to battle, we’ll want the Charizard to see them before entering their lair.”

  I released everyone. I thought about not releasing Mountain but maybe he’d like to see the Charizard mountain. I shrugged as my pokemon appeared around me and took in the surroundings. Cape and Valley were looking like they gained a present, Mesa and Mountain were interested, and Jungle was bored. The others also released all their teams, however, when Aiden told Isla that he had a Gyarados, she asked him to not release it. The Charizard here apparently wouldn’t be too fond of one of the Atrocious pokemon in their lair.

  We followed as she took us out of the city and towards the Charizard massive lair. A few Charizard glanced at us with interest but no one approached, and soon continued with what they were doing.

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  “You said that Charizard built this reserve?”

  “That’s right, the league found the reserve thirty years after the Charizard began building it. The then Champion at the time came and formed a pact with them, since then there’s always been at least ten league employees here to monitor and protect the reserve… that’s what we say at least, but they don’t need any protecting,” she winked at us and her Charizard grunted in approval. “We're here to ensure that nothing permanent happens as a result of any misunderstanding.”

  “Incredible, who would’ve guessed that a place like this exists right in the middle of nothing,” Jess said, staring at two Charizard using Flamethrower at each other, thankfully very far away from us.

  “You guys didn’t know that this existed?” Dendra asked the rest of us. Seeing as she’s from Paldea, it was expected for her to think we knew.

  The three of us shook our heads and Isla giggled, “No, just high ranking officials know of this place, helps that the Charizard hunt their own food.”

  We reached the base of the mountain and climbed through a side ramp with no problem. There was enough space for my whole team to walk side by side, so it wasn’t a problem.

  “If this place is hidden, why did you stop us and take us here?” Aiden asked, breathing hard as we climbed the steep slope. “I can’t imagine this place staying hidden if you did that with everyone who passed.”

  “Good point kid,” she acknowledged with a sigh. It took some time for her to continue. “I guess it's not square to drag you here and not explain why huh.” She finished speaking just as the floor leveled and we left the ramp that continued upwards to move inside the expansive floor.

  “I thought we were going to the second circle?” I asked, wiping some sweat from my forehead with my forearm.

  “The first circle is the base of the mountain, this is the second circle,” Isla said with a smile, her Charizard grunting. “As I was saying, we stopped you guys because last week some people tried to steal eggs from our hatchery.” Her Charizard let out a growl as we entered an empty tunnel and traveled towards the inside of the mountain. Our pokemon had to form files to enter, but the size was comfortable for even Chopper, even though he was on the smaller size of a Hariyama.

  “Hatchery!?” Dendra asked. “You have a hatchery?”

  “They have, but it's hidden. A group of Charizard noticed the transgressors and scared them right away on their flying mons before they could snatch any eggs, but we are clever. We’ve spread our Charizard all around the Valley and beyond, our hope is that those rascals didn’t go far and are just laying low.”

  “So everyone you find outside you interrogate and bring here,” I said. “That’s why the city seemed empty.”

  “Right, orders from above I’m...” she looked like she wanted to say more but we had apparently reached the place.

  The tunnel walls expanded into a giant cavern easily able to fit fifty Wailord. The back of the cavern was open to the sky with well crafted stones jutting from the ground and the ceiling, forming a maw shape that overlooked a rocky space under the mountain and let the sun in. It made the place well lit. In the middle of the cave were many groups of Charmeleon sitting around Charizard, listening to them as if they were studying in class.

  “We’ll start you guys with Charmeleon,” Isla explained. “The Charizard in the reserve are three times as strong as the Charizard living outside when they just evolved, so a Charmeleon should be a fair start.”

  She walked away, towards a nearby group with her Charizard. As soon as they were gone Cape’s head snapped to me.

  “You’ve heard her, first the Charmeleon,” He grumbled and still stared. “Don't look at me like that. If you want to fight a Charizard you just have to crush the Charmeleon, or it might be too hard for you?”

  Cape stomped his feet thrice, but got the message. The Heracross crossed his arms as Valley pointed and laughed at him.

  Isla came back with a Charizard and his following of thirty curious Charmeleon, “Alright, who’s going first?”

  “Me, me, me,” Dendra said, walking to the front with her Teddiursa. Her pokemon, Chopper, Cross, Ress and Twirl were embarrassed but nonetheless followed her.

  I exchanged a glance with the others, and they were okay with it. To be fair, it was expected.

  “Let's start with… Twirl,” Dendra nodded and the Tyrogue walked forth until he was in the middle of the cavern. The other groups of Charmeleon had stopped paying attention to their teachers. The teachers seemed resigned to the loss of attention and took the time to sit down and relax.

  The Charizard that had come with the group hummed as he stared at the small fighting type, then he pointed a claw at the smallest Charmeleon. The pokemon stepped up, glaring at Twirl all the while.

  The fight that ensued gave us a surprising amount of information. The Charmeleon didn’t have many moves, probably just three, Ember, Scratch and Fire Fang. It was much stronger than Twirl, however, and was able to take moves like Rapid Spin–Twirl strongest move–without even flinching. That combination gave him an easy victory by immobilization but Twirl’s speed made the Charmeleon run for it, leaving him breathless at the end of the fight.

  As the Charmeleon walked away and the tired Twirl returned to his pokeball, I asked Isla about the moves we could use. She asked us to not use anything that would bring down the cavern, but didn’t seem worried about it, and soon I discovered why.

  The teacher Charizard nodded at his student, grunted, and then stomped down. Energy traveled through the cave, the marks of fighting between the two pokemon were smoothed over and a circular hole in the ground was formed. Isla explained that we were going to fight inside of it from now on, and couldn’t leave as it would be considered a surrender. Apparently, the Charizard used Rock Tomb to make an arena where running around would be kept to a minimum.

  The rest of Dendra’s team went one by one, Ress, Cross and finally Chopper. Ress and Cross were eyed by the Charizard and then he chose their opponents. The fights were brief and the two fire pokemon won, Ress wasn’t strong or fast enough to win and Cross’ mobility was shown to lack Falkner’s precision as a closed space was his downfall. Chopper went and used his size to press down the strongest Charmeleon of the group to the ground. The Charmeleon was stronger but the Hariyama had the leverage and the weight.

  Then went Aiden and his Swablu–Horsea didn’t want to participate. Swablu won with Dragon Pulse and Dragon Breath, but it didn’t seem to move the group of Charmeleon or their teacher. Isla asked the Charizard about Gyarados and the teacher agreed to set up an exhibition battle against himself after everyone else had fought, which ticked off Cape even further, but he didn’t say anything.

  Jess was confident in at least Quake winning, but Blade surprised everyone by winning first, since he knew Rock Tomb he was able to hit the Charmeleon hard and then finish him with his speed. Quake won by using his classic trap in sand and hit with rock tactic. Velocity lost, surprised by the speed of the small Charmeleon chosen to fight her. The Torkoal Soot and the Mantyke Wave didn’t fight, but Jess was able to get Isla’s Charizard to promise to show her fire type some moves later.

  And finally there was us.

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