[Current Time: Day 2 — 06:15 AM] [Point Balance: 5]
The morning air in the Resource Hub was thick with the smell of cheap coffee and medicinal spray. Zeth stood before the automated kiosk one last time before heading out. He needed to see the prices of the "tools of the trade" now that he understood the value of a single point.
"System, display the Capture-Tech inventory."
The screen flickered, revealing the grim reality of his situation.
[Team Rocket Capture Inventory - Sector 7]
Poké Ball (Standard): 150 Points. (The baseline for all recruits.)
Great Ball: 500 Points. (Reinforced energy-mesh; reserved for high-potential targets.)
Note: Ultra Balls and specialized variants are restricted to Senior-level personnel.
Zeth's eyes lingered on the 150-point price tag. He had exactly 5 points. A single Poké Ball was worth thirty human lives or fifteen wild culls away. He looked at Houndour, who was currently snapping at a stray Rattata near the waste bins. Catching another Pokémon wasn't just a distant dream; it was a tactical impossibility. He could barely afford to keep himself and his current partner fed.
"System," Zeth thought. "Explain the Ability mechanics in this world. If I'm stuck with this hound, I need to know every hidden gear in its biology."
[System Analysis: Ability Classification]
Passive Abilities: Every Pokémon is born with a primary biological trait (e.g., Houndour's Early Bird or Flash Fire). These dictate 60% of combat style.
The Hidden Gene (HA): A rare genetic sequence (e.g., Houndour's Justified). Only 3% of wild Pokémon are born with this sequence active.
The Mastery Trial: A Hidden Ability is "dormant" at birth. To unlock it, the Pokémon must undergo a specific environmental or psychological stressor—a Trial of Awakening.
Zeth absorbed the data. Houndour had the Justified gene, but it was useless to him right now. It was a dormant string of code. To awaken it, he would need to push the dog to a breaking point he wasn't sure it—or he—was ready for.
He closed the menu. He had 5 points left—just enough for a single ration bar. He bought it, ate half, and gave the other half to the hound.
"Let's move, brat," Zeth said. "We're going to the Crags."
The Stardust Crags were located on the western edge of the 50% Desert Zone. It was a landscape of jagged white limestone and glittering quartz that acted like a thousand mirrors, magnifying the sun's heat until the air itself seemed to vibrate.
[Current Time: 10:34 AM — High Sun] [Temperature: 41°C]
Zeth moved through the canyons with his cloth mask pulled tight. Every breath felt like inhaling fine glass. His survivalist training kept him moving in the shadows of the pillars, but the heat was a constant, leaching drain on his stamina.
"Stop," Zeth whispered.
He didn't need the System. He could see the "shimmer" in the air. About fifty yards ahead, a small cluster of blue, crystalline dust was swirling in the center of a stone circle. This was the 'Stardust'—meteoric iron remnants highly valued by Rocket scientists.
But it wasn't the dust that caught Zeth's attention. It was the danger surrounding it.
A pack of wild Sandshrew were burrowed near the dust, their armored backs mimicking the surrounding stones. They weren't high level, but there were five of them.
[Scanning Targets...] [Species: Sandshrew (x5) | Levels: 8-11 | Potential: Grey/Red] [Warning: Proximity to Rank E Gate Anomaly detected.]
Zeth noticed a purple distortion in the air behind the rocks—a "Gate." It wasn't fully open, just a rift leaking a strange, cold energy that made the sand around it turn a sickly violet. The Sandshrew were huddled near it, their behavior erratic and aggressive.
"This is the mission," Zeth muttered. "Collect the dust, survive the cull."
He looked at Houndour. The pup was panting, the desert heat wearing it down. It wasn't ready for a 5-on-1 fight. But Zeth didn't have the points to buy better food or medicine. He had to win here, or they would both starve by tomorrow.
"Houndour, use Smog. Not at them—at the ground. We need to lure them out one by one."
The hound obeyed, spitting a thick, black cloud that settled into the low trenches of the canyon. The Sandshrew, agitated by the scent, began to hiss. One, a Level 11 with a scarred shell, rolled out of the group, charging blindly into the smoke.
"Snarl," Zeth commanded.
The sub-sonic vibration hit the Sandshrew mid-roll. It didn't do much physical damage, but the sheer frequency rattled the creature's inner ear, causing it to stumble and veer off course.
Zeth didn't wait. He moved into the smoke, his combat knife held in a reverse grip. As the Sandshrew tried to find its bearings, Zeth slammed his boot into its soft underbelly, flipping it over.
"Ember. Now!"
Houndour fired a needle-thin blast of flame directly into the Sandshrew's exposed stomach. The creature shrieked, its body convulsing before it went limp.
[Target Eliminated. Points Acquired: 5.]
Zeth didn't celebrate. The other four Sandshrew were now fully awake and burrowing toward them. The ground beneath Zeth's feet began to tremble.
"System! Predict the breach point!"
[Calculating...] [Error: Gate interference degrading sub-surface scans.] [Warning: Multiple signatures approaching from 360 degrees.]
"Useless," Zeth growled. He grabbed Houndour by the scruff and leaped onto a quartz pillar just as four sets of claws erupted from the spot he had been standing on.
The Sandshrew circled the pillar like sharks. They were coordinated, driven by a hive-mind aggression that Zeth suspected was caused by the proximity to the Gate.
He was trapped. He had no Poké Balls to capture them, no points to heal, and his only Pokémon was reaching its thermal limit.
"Justified..." Zeth looked at the System's dormant HA entry for Houndour. "It needs a stressor."
Zeth looked at his own arm. He knew what he had to do, though the survivalist in him screamed against the risk. He stepped off the pillar, intentionally exposing his side.
One Sandshrew lunged, its claws raking across Zeth's ribs. Blood bloomed across his shirt, the sharp, copper scent filling the small canyon.
Houndour froze. It looked at the blood, then at the Sandshrew, and then at Zeth. Something in the pup's primitive brain snapped. The "Naughty" aggression vanished, replaced by a cold, focused heat.
[Alert: 'Justified' Gene Awakening.] [Houndour's Attack Stat is rising sharply in response to Host's injury.]
"Finish them," Zeth gasped, clutching his side.
Houndour didn't bark. It became a blur of black fur and white-hot flame. With the Justified boost, its Ember was no longer a needle; it was a torch. It tore through the remaining Sandshrew with a ferocity that bordered on madness, its teeth sinking into their shells and its flames melting the quartz around them.
[Current Time: 12:00 PM — Day 2]
When the silence returned, Zeth was sitting in the sand, his shirt stained red. Five dead Sandshrew lay around him.
[Mission Update: Stardust Samples (3/3) - Collected.] [Points Acquired: 45.] [Current Balance: 50.]
He reached out and gathered the blue dust into a small vial. He was still a long way from the 150 points needed for a single Poké Ball. The idea of adding a second team member felt like a joke—a dream for a boy who wasn't bleeding out in a desert.
"Good job, brat," Zeth whispered, leaning against the stone.
Houndour walked over, its fur still smoking. It didn't nudge his hand. It sat guard, staring at the purple Gate with a newfound, lethal intensity. It was Level 9 now, but the shackle of Level 20 felt like an ocean away.
Zeth closed his eyes for a moment, the System flickering in his vision. He had survive the first real hunt. But as the "Breeding" module flickered with a new, locked notification, he knew the real cost of strength was just beginning to be tallied.