Spacemon, Vol. 2 – Chapter 5: The Storm Leviathan

Welcome to another exciting installment of Spacemon, the tale of a Pokemon TRPG campaign! It is a sci-fi space epic played using the Pokemon Tabletop United (PTU) system and GMed by fellow TAY author DragonStorm247. You can get caught up on the entire Spacemon saga here!

Having narrowly escaped the clutches of the Romanov Supremacy, the crew on the bridge breathed a collective sigh of relief. Morgan looked out the viewport at the purple and magenta light swirling around the Helix, glad to be safe in warp space.

“Do you always have close calls like this?” Minerva asked her new employers, breaking the silence that had fallen.

“Uh … yeah,” Shane told her.

Before the pilot could respond, Alex walked onto the bridge. “Hey, what’s all the commotion up here?” she asked.

“Oh, you know, just avoiding capture by Romanov radicalists,” Shane informed her.

“You mean you were in another space battle and didn’t tell me?!”

“Well it was less of a battle and more just running away,” Shane explained.

“Aww,” Alex pouted. “I wanted to see a battle up close.”

As Shane returned to speaking with Minerva, Morgan walked over to Alex. “So were you able to do anything with those balls?” she asked her.

“Uh … yeah,” Alex replied, attempting to stifle a snicker.

“Oh, come on,” Morgan said calmly. “You know what I meant,”.

“Sorry,” Alex giggled. “Check it out, though!” The girl held up a modified Pokeball and then threw it down on the floor. There was a brief flash as the ball released its contents and out popped … A table!

Alex caught the Pokeball as it bounced back to her and a big grin flashed on her face.

“You put that … inside a Pokeball?” Morgan asked in surprise.

Alex nodded, seeming proud of herself. “Mhm.”

“I think H will be impressed.”

“Wait … where did that come from?” Shane asked after finishing his conversation with Minerva, noticing the table that wasn’t there before.

“Shane, it came out of the Pokeball,” Morgan told him. “She can put things inside Pokeballs.”

“Well then …” Shane trailed off as his jaw dropped. “That’s … That’s impressive. That being said, this is the bridge and you might want to put that away.”

“Okay,” said Alex, who was still sporting a giant grin. She fired the ball’s recall beam at the table, “capturing” it again.

“We really need to show this to H,” Morgan said.

“Yeah,” Shane agreed.

After a brief search, they located H in the Pokeball workshop, where he apparently had been working since regaining consciousness. Morgan motioned for Alex to wait outside, then entered the workshop alone. H may have agreed to back off, but she wasn’t sure if seeing Alex would set him off. “H, we have something to show you,” she said as she entered.

“Hm?” H grunted, staying focused on his work.

“I think it will make you like that Alex girl a lot more,” Morgan continued, causing H to look up from his work.

“One shot,” he told her, still sounding quite annoyed about Alex being allowed to stay.

Morgan waved for Alex to enter and the girl stepped into the room with Shane. She threw the modified Pokeball again and the table popped, right in front of H. He just stood there staring, completely dumbfounded.

“I … Uh … Wha …” he stuttered after a moment. “Welcome aboard!”

“I assume there will be no more problems from now on?” Morgan asked the cyborg.

“Hmm, for the moment,” he told her. Then, turning to Alex, he said, “Just keep your hands off my stuff. You can mess around in here, but do not touch anything else. Especially the Genesect. Those are off limits for a reason.”

“Fine,” Alex told him bluntly, as she continued to eye him suspiciously.

“Look, just don’t touch his stuff and you should be fine,” Morgan told her.

“That doesn’t mean I have to like him.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Morgan agreed.

“It doesn’t mean any of us have to,” Shane chimed in, giving H an annoyed glance.

---

When the Helix dropped out of warp space on the far end of Sector 18, the crew gathered on the bridge to assess the situation. Based on the nav charts, they appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in between systems.

“Well it’s not the middle of a sun,” Minerva said. “That’s good. So where are we going now?”

“We need to see if we can narrow down where we need to go,” Morgan told her. “There’s only so many systems out here, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Let’s see what the scanners can find.” She took a seat at the sensor control terminal and fired up the deep space scanners in hopes of finding anything that might give them a clue.

“Hey, if you need to take a break after that, feel free,” Shane told Minerva in the meantime.

“First day combat is not usually the way to get your average pilot to settle in,” the new pilot replied. “Fortunately for you, I’m not your average pilot.”

“Hey, it wasn’t really combat,” Morgan said as she waited on the scan. “Nobody got shot.”

“It was melee combat in space,” Minerva insisted. “I normally charge extra for melee combat in space.”

Morgan just rolled her eyes and returned her focus to the terminal screen.

Several hours passed without the scanners turning up much of interest. The members of the crew came and went as they waited. Morgan was beginning to question the decision to come out this far without figuring out exactly where they were going when something blipped on the scanner readout.

“Here. I think I got something,” Morgan spoke up. “The Astaranth System. It’s a slim chance, but this one is giving the most favorable readings.”

“How so?” Shane asked as he walked over.

“Well it’s the only system out here with a remotely habitable planet,” Morgan explained. “That’s gotta be worth checking out, right?”

“Fair enough,” said Shane.

“Alright,” Minerva said. “Astaranth System it is.” She fired up the warp drive and took the Helix back into warp space.

“What are we looking for out here anyway?” Alex asked as they got underway.

“We’re looking for that Gilgamesh guy we asked you about,” Morgan told her.

“And he’s here?”

“Probably,” said Morgan.

“You don’t even know?” Alex asked, sounding surprised.

“It’s the best we’ve got,” Morgan told her. “We went to Vandia and we didn’t know if he was there, but it gave us clues to where he might be.”

“It also gave us her …” H chimed in, glaring at Alex.

“Hey!” Alex shouted back at him. “You’re just a stupid … murderface!”

“Murderface, possibly. Murder is just something that must happen sometimes,” H said dismissively. “Stupid, I am not. By pure definition, as we have already gone over.”

“You’re weird.”

“Which is why I am perfect.”

Alex just shook her head and walked over to the viewport to look out at the flowing streaks of blue and purple warp energy outside the ship as it flew on its way to the Astaranth System. Morgan sighed, the two of them butting heads was clearly going to be a common occurrence, but at least H was no longer attempting to kill Alex. That had to count for something.

---

The Helix dropped out of warp space in the Astaranth System, which only contained a handful of planets. The one closest to Astaranth, the brightly burning star at the center, was a molten mass of rock that was most certainly not the location they were looking for. The second was a stormy, inhospitable ocean world with only a scattering of islands. Much further away from the star were a large gas giant and a small frozen rock.

A quick scan confirmed that the only life signs in the system are located on the ocean world, which the nav computer identified as Messina. According to the nav data, Messina’s atmosphere was full of charged particles, resulting in constant lightning storms. If that wasn’t enough, the gravitational pull of the planet’s two moons, dubbed Scylla and Charybdis by space travelers, on the massive ocean caused unpredictable tidal currents and turbulent waves.

“Sounds like a lovely place,” Minerva observed as Morgan read the information on the screen to the rest of the crew.

“Well it’s where we need to go,” Morgan told the pilot.

“Alright,” she nodded back.

Minerva flew the Helix down through the planet’s volatile atmosphere, breaking through the dark clouds, but staying well above the choppy waters below. Spotting an island large enough to fit the Helix, Morgan instructed Minerva to land there and the pilot set the ship down.

“Most of the life signs appear to be in some sort of underground cave network,” Morgan informed the crew. “If Gilgamesh were here, I bet that’s where he’d be. There seems to be an entrance connected underwater.”

“So there are air pockets down there?” Shane asked.

“Yes,” Morgan answered. “We should be able to breathe in the caves.”

“How do we get there?” Alex asked.

“I have a Gyarados,” Dmitri told her.

Alex’s next question pointed out the obvious dilemma: “But how are we supposed to breathe underwater?”

“Good question,” Shane said. “I don’t need to, but the rest of you do, and it’s not like we have scuba equipment on hand.”

“Wait, what?” Alex asked, confused by his statement.

“I’ll explain later,” Shane told her.

“I have an idea,” Morgan spoke up as a thought occurred to her. “While we don’t have scuba gear, we do have an oxygenation solution in the med bay,” Morgan responds. “If we inject ourselves with it, we should be able to survive underwater long enough to get to the cavern.”

“Is that safe?” Alex asked.

“It should be,” Morgan said. “Let’s get going.”

---

After injecting themselves with the oxygenation solution, the crew disembarked from the Helix and headed for the shore of the island. Morgan watched as Dmitri released his Gyarados into the ocean. The large water Pokemon dove down briefly, then rose up out of the waves, awaiting instruction from his trainer.

“Ness, we need you to give us a lift,” Dmitri told his Gyarados before hopping onto his back. “Everyone get on.”

The rest of the team mounted up and then Dmitri told his Pokemon where they needed to go. “Hold on everyone,” he said before commanding Ness to dive down into the sea.

The Gyarados was a strong swimmer and it only took him a few minutes to reach the underground cavern. Thanks to the oxygenation solution, the were all able to hold their breath for the duration of the journey, but the salty seawater stung their unprotected faces pretty harshly.

“Ow, my eyes!” Alex blurted out when they reached the surface inside the dark cavern.

Ness swam over to the nearby land and let the crew dismount. Dmitri then recalled his Pokemon.

“I can’t see a damn thing,” Alex grumbled as the crew got their bearings

It was, in fact, quite dark in the cavern. Even Morgan’s cybernetic eye wasn’t able to see much, but it wasn’t capable of night vision.

“I can see just fine,” H said.

“Yeah right,” Alex laughed at him, oblivious to the fact that he had fancy cybernetic eyes that allowed him to see in the dark. “Lumiera, light the cave up!” she called out as she released her Lampent. The Lamp Pokemon’s ghostly blue flame illuminated the immediate area, reflecting off crystalline formations along the walls of the cave. A narrow tunnel extended from the water’s edge, deeper into the underground network of caverns.

“These crystal formations are fascinating,” H said as the crew began to walk down the tunnel. He touched one of them, which caused electricity to start sparking out of it. It sent out a pulse and soon the nearby crystals followed suit, causing a chain reaction.

“H, what did you … do?” Shane asked as he watched in amazement.

“Don’t know,” H replied as water started rising around them. It was soon up to their knees. “Don’t know!”

Suddenly, a group of Tynamos and Chinchous started swimming down the flooded tunnel toward them. They seemed to be agitated and kind of freaked out. H jumped up and stuck his feet to the ceiling of the tunnel using a string shot grenade to avoid going into augmentation shock. Everyone proceeded to send out their Pokemon in preparation to defend themselves from the enraged Pokemon.

“Yvonne, use Future Sight!” Morgan commanded her Espeon. The Sun Pokemon focused intently, summoning up a powerful blast of psychic energy to strike in the future.

“Wilhelm, Shadow Ball,” Dmitri instructed his Haunter, pointing at one of the Tynamos. The Gas Pokemon created a ball of shadowy energy in his hands and lobbed it at the Tynamo. The EleFish Pokemon sent out blasts of electricity in response to the pain.

Even more riled up now, the group of angry Tynamos sent out beams of electricity in all directions, hitting Shane’s Klefki, Morgan’s Espeon, and Dmitri’s Haunter. The Haunter dodged out of the way, but the other two Pokemon were not as lucky. Fortunately, the Tynamos didn’t seem that powerful.

“K.E.Y.S., use Flash Cannon!” Shane instructed his Klefki. A blinding light shot out from the small Key Ring Pokemon and hit another of the Tynamos.

“#8, hit those Chinchou with Icy Wind!” H shouted to his Snorunt from above. The Snow Hat Pokemon sent a cold blast of air at the two Chinchous, but they didn’t seem to be that injured. The attack did little more than enrage them further. They both started sending out beams from their antennae towards the Snorunt. “#8, quickly, use Protect!” H called out to his Pokemon. The Snorunt threw up an energy shield in front of himself and deflected the incoming attack.

“Anubis, hit that Chinchou with Force Palm!” Alex commanded her Lucario. The Aura Pokemon nodded, then charged forward, slamming one of the Chinchous with his raised palm. The Chinchou went flying backwards and crashed into the wall of the tunnel.

“Alright, let’s capture this thing,” Shane said, pulling out a Great Ball. He chucked it at one of the injured Tynamos, catching it with not so much as a struggle.

“This is how you catch a Pokemon!” H then shouted as he pulled out his Pokeball cannon. He lined up a shot and fired a Great Ball at the Chinchou that Alex’s Lucario had knocked into the wall, capturing it easily as well.

“I want to catch something too!” Alex shouted. She pulled a Great Ball out of her bag and threw it at the other injured Tynamo. The ball slammed shut before the EleFish Pokemon even knew what happened, capturing it instantly.

At this point, the tunnel started rumbling and the water began rising even more. The remaining wild Pokemon seemed to be even more agitated than before. The sole remaining Tynamo seemed to be the most agitated as it swam back and forth rapidly. Suddenly, Yvonne’s Future Sight attack blasted into it and knocked it into the wall.

“Might as well catch it,” Morgan muttered. She pulled out a Pokeball and threw it at the Tynamo, capturing it with ease.

“Wilhelm, Shadow Ball,” Dmitri then instructed his Haunter. Wilhelm sent out another ball of ghostly energy at the remaining Chinchou, leaving it pretty hurt.

“Great. Now it’s my turn!” Alex shouted. She pulled out another Great Ball and threw it at the Chinchou. The ball pulled the Angler Pokemon inside, shook a few times, then fell still. “Awesome! Two at once!”

Suddenly, even more water began rushing up the tunnel. The water was well past waist level now and it was getting even harder to resist the current. The tunnel started rumbling even more frequently as the water continued to rise. The crew recalled their Pokemon so that they weren’t washed away.

“I think something bad is coming,” Shane said as the crystals along the wall started sparking again.

“Let’s find out what it is!” Alex shouted. She stopped resisting and let the current pull her along. “Weeee!!” her voice echoed back to the rest of the crew as she floated away.

“Goddamn it …” Shane sighed. He stopped resisting the current as well and allowed the water to pull him after Alex.

Seeing this, H cut himself down and dropped into the water. The current dragged him after the others. Dmitri followed soon afterward. Morgan, however, tried to fight, but the current was too strong. It knocked her over and pulled her along with everyone else.

---

The walls of the tunnel began crumbling as the water dragged Alex and her new crewmates along. This was undoubtedly the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her. It seemed dangerous, but she didn’t care.

As they all flowed with the current, faster and faster, they were soon faced with a small opening at what seemed to be the end of the tunnel. Just before she slammed into it, Alex watched as the hole opened up, allowing her and the others to pass through unharmed. The current spat them out into a massive pool of water inside a gigantic open cavern which extended way up above their heads. Despite the cavern being closed off to the sky, Storm clouds swirled around near the top, pouring rain down into the pool below. Several large electric crystals protruded from the walls, some low enough for the crew to climb up on.

As she took it all in with a sense of awe and wonder, Alex suddenly noticed something massive moving deep below her in the depths of the pool. It was a giant black creature with glowing bands of light lining its massive form, a leviathan rising from the deep, dark bowels of Messina.

“What is that?!” Alex called out to the others, drawing their attention to the creature.

“I don’t know, but hurry!” Morgan shouted. “We need to get out of the water!”

The crew quickly scattered to the edges of the cavern and they climbed up on the electric crystals. Unfortunately for H, as soon as he touched one, his cybernetic augmentations started shorting out. He quickly let go before they shut down completely.

“Dmitri, I have an idea!” the cyborg shouted to his nearby Romanov companion who had climbed up onto the crystal he fell from. “Send out your Metang!”

Dmitri released his Metang and directed it to get H. H climbed up on top of the Iron Claw Pokemon, then it floated back up to the crystal where it acted as a platform for him. Safe from the electricity of the crystal, H sent out his Helioptile.

Seeing the others send out their Pokemon as well now that they had climbed up onto crystals of their own, Alex sent out her Umbreon beside her on her own crystal. She was just in time too; the rain intensified as the massive sea beast broke the surface of the pool and surrounded itself in a veil of water.

“#6, use Mud-Slap!” H commanded his Helioptile and the electric lizard launched mud at the giant creature. The Helioptile’s attack didn’t appear to affect the leviathan much, but he did succeed in obscuring its vision by getting mud in its eyes.

“Jean, use Thunder Wave and immobilize it!” Morgan shouted. Her Pikachu shots out a burst of electricity at the sea monster, causing sparks to flow along its body.

“Maine, Flash Cannon!” Dmitri then ordered his Metang. While it couldn’t move very far with H on top of it, the Metang could still attack the leviathan from a distance. The Iron Claw Pokemon launched a brilliantly bright beam at the giant creature in the center of the chamber, lightly grazing its hide.

“S.P.I.K.E., use Leech Seed!” Shane instructed his Cacnea next. The Cactus Pokemon fired a batch of seeds at the sea monster, but they fell short and landed in the water.

“Alright, Ebony, use Assurance and hit that thing hard!” Alex shouted from her crystal perch immediately in front of the leviathan. Her Umbreon leapt into the air and slammed down on the creature, dealing a pretty heavy blow, then rebounded off of it, back onto the crystal.

H then started charging up electricity in his arms, preparing to blast the giant beast with all his might. His eyes started glowing and his body started sparking off electricity as he prepared his attack. “#6! Mud-Slap it again!” the cyborg shouted as he continued to charge. His Helioptile launched another blast of mud at the beast, further obfuscating its vision.

“Jean, Electro Ball!” Morgan then commanded her Pokemon. The electric mouse charged up a ball of electricity and flung it at the sea beast, but it went flying off into the wall, causing some rocks to fall down into the pool.

Sensing the buildup of electricity, the monster turns to face H. It let out a mighty roar as a giant bolt of lightning shot down from the clouds above and crashed down upon H. The blast instantly knocked out Maine and #6, and sent H into a massive augmentation shock. He fell forward and landed in the cold water, his unconscious body floating in the waves.

Dmitri quickly recalled his fainted Metang and sent out his Haunter. “Wilhelm, Shadow Ball!” he instructed him. The ghostly being launched a blast of shadowy energy at the leviathan. He landed a direct hit on the beast, which now looked to be wearing down a bit.

“S.P.I.K.E., use Leech Seed again!” Shane shouted. This time the Cacnea landed the seeds on the giant creature, allowing him to start draining energy from it.

“Ebony, you know what to do!” Alex called out to her Pokemon. “Hit it with Assurance again!” The Umbreon once again leapt at the leviathan and landed another hit.

“Jean, Volt Tackle it!” Morgan then commanded. Her Pikachu started sprinting, charging up electricity as he went. Jean leapt off the crystal, and slammed into the sea monster. There was a loud crash as the Mouse Pokemon made contact. The creature let out another roar, then sent a massive blast of water from the pool into the Pikachu. It collided with such force that it sent Jean flying into the wall, knocking him out. Morgan, who had managed to protect herself with a psionic energy shield, quickly recalled her injured Pokemon.

“Ebony, use Assurance again!” Alex then commanded her own Pokemon. The Umbreon landed one more hit, but this time the beast didn’t seem to be as hurt from the attack.

Before anyone could do anything else, though, the beast reared its head, then dove down, deep into the depths of the pool, granting the crew a temporary respite. However, Alex had the feeling that the leviathan would soon return.

Acting quickly in the interim, Dmitri pulled out a fishing rod and attempted to reel H to safety. Meanwhile, Morgan and Shane took the time to switch out their Pokemon.

Failing his first attempt, Dmitri cast out the line again. This time, it landed on H, but it slid off. As it started to sink, the line suddenly pulled taught; something had been hooked. Whatever it was, it was massive and Dmitri struggled to reel it in.

Suddenly, a Wailord breached the surface, flying several feet above the surface of the water. Before anyone even had a moment to react, the leviathan flew out of the water at incredible speed, swallowing the Wailord whole! The force of the leviathan pulled Dmitri into the water as the rod was ripped from his hands.

Dmitri swam over to H, then started pulling him towards the edge of the pool so he could get him out. Before he attempted to climb out, Dmitri commanded his Haunter to attack the leviathan, “Wilhelm, Shadow Ball!” The Haunter lobbed another ball of ghostly energy at the beast, which appeared to weaken it even further.

Ignoring the Haunter, the massive sea creature set its sights on the Umbreon that had been slowly whittling away at it instead. It roared as it summoned a lightning strike from the clouds. The bolt landed squarely in the middle of the crystal Alex and Ebony were standing on. Not again! The thought raced through Alex’s mind as volts of electricity coursed through her and her Pokemon. At least she was still standing this time. Everything hurt, though, and Ebony was in a similar state.

“K.E.Y.S., use Flash Cannon!”

“Frederic, use Absorb!”

Shane and Morgan commanded their Pokemon in unison. Both Shane’s Klefki and Morgan’s Grovyle launched their attacks, but the leviathan didn’t seem that bothered by them.

“Ebony! Use Assurance!” Alex managed to shout, still recovering from the hit she took. Her Umbreon leapt at the leviathan once more, but, due to her injuries, missed the mark and landed in the water. “Good job, girl. That’s enough for now!” Alex said as she recalled her Pokemon. “It’s your turn now Okuma!” She threw out another Pokeball, releasing her Joltik to carry on the fight.

“Wilhelm, help me up!” Dmitri commanded his Pokemon while the others kept the beast occupied. The Haunter helped pull his trainer, who was holding onto the cliff edge, up, but Dmitri lost his grip on H in the process. The unconscious cyborg fell into the water again and started to sink.

The chamber then began to cool off as a blue light started to glow in the beast’s mouth. A massive torrent of snow and ice blasted out of its gaping jaws, but the attack blew up in its face. The water surrounding the leviathan froze over, trapping it in place.

“Yes,” Shane says, excited by this stroke of luck. “K.E.Y.S., hit it with Fairy Wind while it’s trapped!” His Klefki sent a blast of wind at the frozen leviathan, which could do nothing to avoid the attack. Shane then recalled his Pokemon and sent out his Clefable.

“Okuma, use Electroweb!” Alex then commanded her Joltik. The furry little electric bug shot out an electrified web at the trapped beast, covering the top of the creature. Sparks flew out of the web, further wearing down the leviathan.

“Wilhelm, Confuse Ray!” Dmitri instructed his Haunter. Beams of flashing light flew out of the ghost’s eyes and struck the creature. It’s eyes started darting around in confusion, but it couldn’t do much in its current state.

“Okuma, now use String Shot!” Alex called out. The bug launched even more webbing at the leviathan, trapping it even further in a shell of ice and webbing.

“R.A.G.E., use Dazzling Gleam!” Shane then instructed his Clefable. The Fairy Pokemon sent out a brilliant light that further damages the beast. It looked very worn out at this point.

“Just go down already!” Morgan shouted as she blasted the creature with psychic energy.

“Night, night,” Dmitri said, using his psychic powers to put the leviathan to sleep. “And now for the capture.” He pulled a Great Ball out and threw it at the creature. The ball shook violently for several seconds before the leviathan popped out again. 

“Now it’s all mine!” Alex declared as she pulled out a modified Great Ball. “I made this thing just for a time like this!” One of the first tricks she had learned was tinkering with the casing of a Pokeball to improve its effectiveness and it had paid off several times before. Today was going to be her lucky day; she could feel it. Alex lobbed the ball as hard as she could. It flew through the air and struck the leviathan dead on, pulling it inside. The ball shook a couple times before falling still on the ice.

“WOOOOOOOOOO!!” Alex shouted at the top of her lungs, throwing her hands up in the air in victory. She then jumped down onto the ice and claimed her prize. “Oh my God, that was AWESOME!” she exclaimed in an almost sing-songy fashion. “Did you guys see that!? I caught that thing!”

“Yes. Very good,” Shane told her, sounding a bit disappointed that he didn’t get the chance to catch it himself. “But someone really needs to get H out of there.” 

“Ness, get H out of the water!” Dmitri shouted, throwing out his Gyarados. He jumped on his back and rode the Pokemon down to pick up H. “I’ll take him back to the ship, you guys go find Gilgamesh,” Dmitri told his comrades upon returning to the surface. “Ness found a way back to the open water from down there.”

---

With the leviathan captured, the electricity pulsing through the crystals started to dissipate. The cracks in the walls began to seal themselves shut again and the water level lowered substantially. However, the way the crew came in had sealed itself as well. Just as it seemed that they were trapped, a new tunnel opened on the other end of the chamber.

“I guess we’re going this way,” Shane said, leading Morgan and Alex into the tunnel.

After a few feet, the tunnel started leading upward with what seems to be a staircase. Shane couldn’t quite tell if the steps were a natural formation or if someone had created them. The trio spent several minutes ascending before the tunnel led to a branching pathway. Shane noticed that daylight seemed to be emanating from two of them, while the third remained dark.

“There was a surface entrance!?” Morgan shouted, clearly frustrated. “We could have entered through here?!”

“But then I wouldn’t have caught that sea monster!” Alex exclaimed. “It was totally worth it.”

“No use dwelling on it now,” Shane told Morgan. “Now, which way do we go?”

“This way!” Alex declared as she started walking down the dark tunnel. “Clearly if this Gilgamesh guy was here, he would have gone this way.” Shane looked at Morgan and shrugged. Alex’s reasoning seemed to be pretty sound so he followed her deeper into the caves with Morgan just behind him.

After several minutes, the tunnel opened up into a large chamber. A bald man in black robes sat cross-legged at the far end of the chamber, looking up at what appears to be a large stone door carved into the rock face. Shane recognized him immediately as the man they were searching for. Gilgamesh. Glowing runes shimmered along the door’s surface, but they suddenly started to dim and the glow faded away. Gilgamesh, who had been sitting quite still, showed a noticeable reaction. He did not appear to have expected that to happen.

“Hey!” Alex yelled across the chamber, as she walked further in. Morgan just shook her head and followed. Shane assumed she had wanted to spend at least a few minutes observing Gilgamesh to see what he was doing. It was too late for that now, though. Shane shrugged and followed as well.

Gilgamesh glanced back and laid eyes on the trio that had just entered the chamber. He silently nodded at them and stood up as they approached.

“Hey. We were looking for you,” Morgan told him as they reached conversing distance.

“Oh?” Gilgamesh asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Well you came here because of the inscription on Vandia right?” Morgan asked.

“Yes,” Gilgamesh told her. “And it appears that you followed my trail.”

“Yeah … well there are some things we wanted to ask you … and we were hoping to maybe get a badge while we were here.”

“I see … So you’re looking for a gym challenge then?”

“Not at this exact moment, but yes,” said Morgan.

“So what is this thing?” Alex blurted out, pointing at the massive door behind Gilgamesh.

“Until now it had been sealed … but it would appear that the mysterious force that protects this place has been removed. I assume that you may have … had something to do with that? The legends speak of an ancient and powerful Pokemon. The Storm Leviathan, they call it.”

“Umm … I may have … caught it,” Alex told the monk.

“I see …”

“Aren’t you gonna open it?” Alex asked.

“I will … in time.”

“Can that time be now?” Shane asked.

“Let us see if you are worthy first,” Gilgamesh said as he began walking toward the exit. “Come.”

Before following, Shane walked up to the door and pushed against it with all his might. He grunted and groaned as he strained against it, but nothing seemed to happen.

“You’re an idiot,” Alex giggled at him before turning and leaving the room to follow Gilgamesh with Morgan. At that, Shane gave up and followed Alex and Morgan as they left.

---

Session Notes: I caught a Primal Kyogre. I caught a Primal Kyogre~. It’s Shiny and type-shifted Water/Electric! We all wanted it, but I caught it! Good thing I have a class that allows me to improve my Pokeballs. And good thing I decided to modify some Great Balls before we came to this planet!

The whole encounter was completely unplanned too! When we entered the underwater cave network, H’s player rolled a nat 0 on the roll for wild Pokemon and since we were in such a thematically appropriate location … Shiny Primal Water/Electric Kyogre! What a battle it was! Paralyzed, frozen, confused, stuck, and asleep. Five status conditions. Five! That’s how you catch a legendary Pokemon, folks.

H’s player did all the silly things this time around! When I revealed the Pokeball that could store non-living matter, he legitimately walked away from the table. He had H trying to do that for months, as seen in chapter 0 a bit, but he never succeeded because, as a player, he didn’t think it was possible in this system. Everyone else knew it was in the book for the system! It’s in the sci-fi expansion specifically. As a Jailbreaker, a class that lets you modify Pokeballs, I was able to make it happen!

And of course, he caused the Kyogre encounter with that low roll! And you know what he did? He elected to go into major augmentation shock! DragonStorm was willing to let him just take a bit of damage from the crystals so he wouldn’t die but he said no. And then he decided that he fell into the water even after DragonStorm said he could have just fallen onto the ground! How silly is that?

Update 10/18/21: Compared to the last chapter, this one didn’t need much work. Aside from the usual changes, it was really just adding some descriptions or extra bits of dialogue here and there to make everything flow better. There were a couple details here and there that needed slight alterations to fit with the lore a bit better, but nothing major. A funny thing I noticed on rereading was that as an electric shifted Pokemon, the Kyogre should have been immune to the paralysis condition and Thunder Wave shouldn’t have worked on it. Also, going off the canon of Spacemon, it had the Volt Absorb and Lightning Rod abilities and should have been immune to all electric attacks, but I don’t think DragonStorm gave it abilities until after I caught it.

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That does it for this chapter. As always the Spacemon gang and I will be monitoring the comments to foster discussion and answer any questions. Feel free to give feedback and critiques of the writing so I can improve it for the future, or just leave a comment with what you think about what went down in this chapter or what you think might happen next! You can also revisit past chapters, check out the rest of the Spacemon saga, join the Spacemon Discord server, or like our Facebook page to stay updated on all things Spacemon! Click here for the next exciting installment of Spacemon!