"Rooar!"
Garchomp's massive body dipped; the powerful hind legs coiled and fired—and in the next instant its whole frame blurred, spearing straight into the earth beneath their feet.
Like a bunker-busting missile, it used that armor-hard head to punch a clean hole and vanished underground. All that remained was a round, smooth-edged opening.
A heartbeat later, Jason felt the tremors from deep below grow several times more violent.
Rumble… ROAR… THUD… skrreee!
Dull impacts and furious bellows thudded through the thick layers of soil in nonstop waves. Every snarl made the people topside feel the ground prickle under their boots.
Gast had already ducked behind Jason, only half a head poking out to stare at the hole, nerves taut.
Cynthia and Iono, by contrast, were unruffled. Cynthia especially—she stood quietly, golden hair lifting in the wind, pale-gray eyes calm as still water. She had absolute faith in her ace.
The subterranean chaos built fast—and ended faster. In the span of a few breaths, the shaking cut off.
BOOM!
With a bang, the hole Garchomp had made blew open; dirt and stone fountained skyward. A lean figure burst free and landed steady—Garchomp.
There was hardly a speck of dust on it.
One scythe-like foreclaw was buried across a colossal earthworm tail. Hooked firm, it hauled the owner up from the depths.
When the "earthworm's" full body came into view, Iono let out a little "huh," then hustled to explain for Cynthia:
A Paldean Titan Pokémon—Orthworm.
Only now did Jason truly feel what "Titan" pressure meant. This Orthworm was enormous; ring after ring of orange-red metallic segments coiled on the ground like a small hill. Each segment gleamed coldly; the huge head's yellow eyes rolled in panic.
In both size and aura it dwarfed its kin. No doubt one of East Province (Area Three)'s local bosses—the Lurking Steel Titan.
And yet, this "unstoppable" Titan thrashed like a snake caught at the seven-inch mark, powerless in Garchomp's grip.
Jason finally had a visceral measure of Garchomp's true combat strength. A Champion's ace—unreasonably strong.
"Beautiful work, Garchomp." Cynthia's approving smile bloomed; she stepped up and patted its arm. "Waaah! Miss Cynthia's Pokémon is too strong!" Iono squealed, whipping out her Rotom Phone to snap the subdued Orthworm. "That one's notorious—digs and flees at insane speed! Several elite Trainers the League sent got made to look like clowns. Didn't expect it to finally get bagged by Miss Cynthia's Garchomp!"
While Iono gushed, Jason had already sidled up to the Titan. He hadn't forgotten his main role—interpreter.
As this area's Titan, Orthworm should know the lay of the land. With Armarouge and Ceruledge making such a ruckus, it couldn't be ignorant. Perfect—start with some basics.
He extruded a little "foot" and kicked the metal hide a few times.
Donk, donk.
A crisp sound—but with his meager force, it was a tickle at best. The Titan, drowning in capture-terror, didn't feel a thing—let alone notice the little blob nearby.
"…"
He had to wriggle all the way around to the giant head. Here, surely.
Sure enough, the searchlight-yellow eyes finally clocked him.
"Help me!" Orthworm latched onto him like a life rope, voice warbling with tears. "Make that terrifying thing let go! It's going to rip my tail off!"
It clearly mistook him for just another wild Pokémon and begged him to plead.
Jason ignored the plea. "What were you doing underground to make that racket?"
The Titan burst into grievances. "You think I wanted to?! I was moving house! I can't stay in this dump another day! If I stay I'll end up dead!"
His eyes flicked—there it was. "Oh? Armarouge and Ceruledge are at it again?"
The massive head bobbed so hard it looked like kowtowing. "Aren't they! You don't know how loud they get! The whole underworld shakes! More than once their moves whiffed and blasted me instead! Keep this up and I'll be a dead worm sooner or later!"
As it sobbed, Jason's mouth curled into a faintly mocking line. "So your plan is to run?" His tone dripped contempt. "Some Titan—turns out you're just a dig-and-dash coward."
The words stabbed Orthworm's pride like a spike. Do you know who I am? A Titan—one of the apex predators here. Not the strongest, maybe, but a local lord by sheer bulk; lesser Pokémon took detours around it. And now a flimsy Ditto called it a coward—to its face. With a Garchomp dragging it like a loach, no less!
Intolerable.
"Heh," it bluffed, voice low and brittle. "Coward? I'm conducting a strategic redeployment. What do you know!"
To save face, it craned its neck and bellowed, "If it weren't for something even scarier pulling strings behind Armarouge and Ceruledge's fights, I'd have smashed them down ages ago! Wouldn't be their playground!"
Jason's heart lurched.
Geeta called it. The sudden, to-the-death feud—there was a third party stoking it.
He opened his mouth to press for details—when the ground convulsed again.
RRRRRUMBLE!
This quake dwarfed Orthworm's stirrings by several degrees. The entire plain jittered; boulders tumbled off distant cliffs and slammed down with deafening cracks. A wave of energy—heat laced with rancor—rolled up from a massive cave mouth in the deep.
The headliners were below, in the middle of a war.
Orthworm's bravado shattered in an instant. Its metal rings shook uncontrollably; segments clacked together in a clatter-clatter rattle. Gone was the tough act—back was the whimper.
"P-please! Let me go! I don't want to die! Whatever's behind those Armarouge and Ceruledge is really terrifying! I can't afford to cross it!"
Jason ignored the wails and relayed the intel to Cynthia and Iono.
"A third party meddling?" Iono's face tightened. "That is odd. The League's ecological surveys only list Armarouge and Ceruledge clans here. Maybe a powerful outsider moved in?"
Cynthia fell into thought, then looked to Jason. "Jason—ask if it knows specifics about the puppeteer. If it gives us something useful, I'll have Garchomp let it go."
He passed on the deal. At the prospect of living, Orthworm clutched the plank and started spilling everything it knew.
"It's a terrifying Pokémon! Its body—like metal! Yes—metal! And there's a glowing horn on its head!"
Jason listened carefully, grunted for it to continue.
But after those lines, the Titan just waggled its huge head and stared at him with pleading eyes. "I… I'm done. Can I go now?"
He blinked—then his voice jumped an octave. "That's it? Nothing else?"
"Nothing! Really nothing!" it said, weirdly righteous about it.
"How is that any different from saying nothing?" He felt his blood pressure spike.
"I swear! I only saw it from far away. Nearly scared me to death—like I'd go take a closer look!"
He nearly hauled off and smacked the giant worm himself. So in the end, it was a dig-and-run coward. And with something that vague, he couldn't pin the species at all—just "metallic body, glowing horn."
~~~
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