Mamoswine's march led them to a rocky area. Under the hot sun the place would have been scorching. But with the cool weather, it was slightly damp and even refreshing. It was the sort of calm feeling you would get from rock gardens. Still they hadn't gone in more than a few meters into the new area and the Twin Tusk Pokemon suddenly stopped. Mirai peered over his head to see what was up and spotted a certain Pokemon native to her region.

"I know I said you'd get some action this time Mamo-kun, but not this opponent. I'm quite certain you'd have no problems taking it on but there's someone else I'd like to give a chance to for now. Thanks for your patience."

Mirai tossed up a Pokeball and out came Roserade, accentuating her entrance with a flourish. Her eyes locked on the the strange Pokemon before them.

"I'm sure neither of you have ever seen one before but that's a Binacle. Don't be fooled by how silly it looks. It's precisely because I know how threatening it could be if it wants to that I would like Roserade-kun to deal with it. First off, seal its movements! Stun Spore now!"

With the Thorn Pokemon spreading around the dangerous powder, Binacle suddenly found itself unable to move properly. Sometimes one head could move while the other could not. This seriously disrupted what would otherwise be flawless teamwork between them.

"Now Petal Blizzard!"

Kicking up even more powder, Roserade's tornado of flowers completely engulfed and smothered the Two-Handed Pokemon. It was super-effective and a single attack was enough to put it dangerously close to fainting. In a last ditch effort, Binacle mustered up the last of its power to charge up and attack with Ancient Power. The ball of energy was then sent hurtling at Roserade.

"Don't be nervous! This is the sort of thing we were practicing your manipulation for. Counter with Petal Blizzard and finish it off!"

Summoning up the tornado of flowers once more, the spiraling petals clashed with Ancient Power. While it wasn't enough to dissipate it, a testament to Binacle's real strength, it at least redirected the ball of energy elsewhere without hurting anyone. With the remnants of Petal Blizzard, Roserade once again manipulated the attack to smother the Two-Handed Pokemon, beating it once and for all.

Mamoswine grunted in approval, glad to see that his juniors wee getting pretty good. Meanwhile Roserade bowed in appreciation of his recognition. Mirai gave a soft clap as well before recalling her to her Pokeball. This was just the first of many battles today. The next one may not be as easy.

With Mamoswine's size, the pair avoided going through areas that were too narrow, though considering they were in a place littered with rocks and rocky formations, this was not as easy as it seemed. But neither of them were going to back down because of a minor inconvenience like that.

While passing by a certain narrow area, Mirai and Mamoswine suddenly found themselves under "assault" by a critter taking advantage of the small space. Snickering as it zipped around, an Emolga found it amusing that a huge Pokemon like Mamoswine was passing by there and decided to tease him for a bit. Meanwhile laughed slightly at the Sky Squirrel Pokemon's naivety. Well, she was thinking of capturing one anyway so this was as good a chance as any.

"Playful one isn't she? I'd say not to go too hard, but theren't much options considering our location. Let's start with a Tackle and go from there Mamo-kun."

Emolga was rather proud of her speed. In her eyes Mamoswine was a large fat slow Pokemon who couldn't keep up. This was entirely untrue though. From the opposite side of things, the Twin Tusk Pokemon wasn't having to tough a time following her with his eyes. Making a sudden turn, she suddenly dived down from the left to attack with Acrobatics but Mamoswine was ready. Shifting his weight to one side, he met her head one with a shoulder Tackle that knocked the Sky Squirrel Pokemon straight into a rock face. Her eyes widened with surprise as the jolt of pain woke her up from her playful state. Suddenly the Twin Tusk Pokemon started to look real scary to her.

"She's definitely not very sturdy. I'd rather not be a bully and end this quick. Ice Shard!"

Summoning chunks of ice, Emolga was pelted by Ice Shard. It seemed the small space wasn't in her favor either and the ice chunks were just too fast to avoid. Seeing the Pokemon weakened, Mirai reached for a Safari ball and threw it to attempt a capture.

Mirai patted Mamoswine on the back. A testament of being one of her veteran members, he came through that encounter without breaking a sweat. Her new partner was promising but lacked experience. She would have to whip her into shape once they got back home.

Continuing on their trek, they finally exited the rocky place and into a location that had a lot more greenery in it. It seemed to be a forest area though fortunately not that dense. Mamoswine could still pass through without too much difficulty though he still brushed along some trees along the way. One such tree would end up sprinkling leaves on a Turtwig walking by it. The Tiny Leaf Pokemon would look up and get startled by the large appearance of Mamoswine as it backed away a few steps. There would be a stare down for a few seconds before the Turtwig finally managed to regain its composure and face the Twin Tusk Pokemon with renewed courage.

"Would you like to battle?"

Mirai's voice would call out from on top of Mamoswine, catching the Turtwig off guard again as it looked up to find the source. Mirai waved back at it and it understood that she was probably Mamoswine's trainer. It seemed the Tiny Leaf Pokemon was easily startled by unexpected things but was willing to stand its ground once it had a better grasp of the situation. It growled to acknowledge Mirai's challenge and summoned a large quantity of leaves spinning around its vicinity. Mirai recognized the move as Leaf Storm and figured Turtwig wanted to settle this with one big all out attack.

"We should answer in kind Mamo-kun. Blow it away with Blizzard!"

Snow and leaves clashed but one side was clearly more powerful than the other. Turtwig's eyes widened with surprise as its wall of leaves were disperse by the raw strength of Blizzard and the Tiny Leaf Pokemon literally got blown away by the still strong attack. A small section of the forest was flash frozen too.

It was a familiar sight. Mirai remembered the first time she and Mamoswine tried out Blizzard. He was still a Swinub back then but he also froze a section of trees in the park. This was on a larger scale though. She looked around for signs of the Turtwig and finally spotted it leaning against a tree and frozen stiff. It didn't look like it would be able to continue.

"It seems every time I battle with you, we're always changing the weather or landscape in some way."

Mamoswine was very much at home in the cold. This was the general feeling as they traversed the small area that the Twin Tusk Pokemon had frozen. In hindsight, it wasn't a very good idea to go crazy like that considering how these environments had been prepared to accommodate the rare Pokemon that couldn't normally be found in the region.

"This was my mistake for encouraging it. I think for now you'll need to stay out of trouble in the meantime and just watch."

Mamoswine couldn't really complain. He got a bit of action as promised and even got to go all out that one time. Any other battles he would get into today were just a bonus. As a Pokemon whose natural environment was the cold, he could also understand the difficulties of an environment different from what one was used to considering most parts of Johto aren't cold at all and Mirai was traveling around all the time.

As the pair moved on, they chanced upon another interesting Pokemon who seemed to be dumbfounded at the sudden change in the environment. Twirling around a piece of wood, it struck a frozen tree, causing the point of impact to shatter. For one reason or another, it seemed to enjoy seeing the bits and pieces sparkling like that as well as the general feel of its blows. It almost didn't notice Mamoswine until they were already pretty close. It wasn't too startled though. Sizing up the Twin Tusk Pokemon, it pointed its piece of wood at them, likely issuing a challenge.

"We don't mind. But your opponent will be Roserade-kun!"

Appearing in a flash of light from Mirai's Pokeball, Roserade once again entered the stage. After striking a pose, she shivered slightly, realizing they were in a cold environment.

"Sorry about that Roserade-kun. Mamo-kun ended up overdoing it a little."

The Bouquet Pokemon was amazed at the power of her senior but focused on the opponent before them. It was a Timburr, a Pokemon not native to the region. It looked a little disappointed though thinking that Roserade looked frail.

"Don't judge a book by its cover! Petal Blizzard!"

Normally Mirai would have started with a status inducing move, but Timburr was one of those rare Pokemon that took advantage of status effects. Thus the better move was to attack head-on. The Muscular Pokemon twirled its piece of wood around to defend itself from the attack, but the blizzard of flowers was just too strong. It got swept away, tossed and turned before the attack finally dissipated. Tired and weakened but not yet down for the count, it then attempted to rush at Roserade for a last ditch attack.

"Don't guard Roserade-kun. We've got him right where we want him. Giga Drain!"

There really wasn't any need to do anything fancy. Timburr had the disadvantage of not having any long range attacks and so Roserade could easily pick it off from a distance. That was exactly what happened here. Despite the Muscular Pokemon's mad dash, the red tendrils of energy easily zapped it and drained it of all of its energy. Timburr slumped on the ground knocked out before it could even get close.

Finally nearing the end of the forest area, they came upon a small clearing and Mirai thought this was a good spot to stop for lunch. She signaled Mamoswine to let her down by patting him on the head and she reached for her Pokeballs to call out everyone. Roserade, Floette, Altaria, Delphox and Gengar all appeared in a flash of light and made themselves comfortable. Meanwhile Mirai opened her bag to take out the lunchboxes they had prepared earlier on.

It felt great having a nice peaceful meal with her team outdoors. Somehow it made the food taste better eating with friends like that. Unfortunately their enjoyable meal time would be interrupted bu the sound of rustling bushes and her Pokemon suddenly perking up alert. It seemed they had been surrounded. Encircling the clearing was a swarm of Durant. Mirai's team immediately formed a defensive circle themselves around their trainer who in her mind applauded them for their quick action while also keeping cool enough to await her instructions. One of the Durant, slightly bigger than the others stepped forward to make their intentions clear. To be honest Mirai already had a good idea seeing as they had a lot of food out. Sadly charity was not something they could afford. At least not with this many mouths to feed. She felt a bit bad but they would have to look elsewhere and leave them alone.

"I'm afraid we just don't have enough to share with all of you. But I doubt you'll leave us alone with just that. So let's have a quick battle to settle things."

Mirai looked to Delphox who got her cue, and stepped forward. The leader Durant probably saw this coming as well and preemptively attacked with Metal Sound to lower their defenses. Mirai covered her ears but the Fox Pokemon stood his ground. With his style, sacrificing a bit of defense wasn't going to hinder him much at all.

"They've probably never seen a Pokemon like you before Delphox-kun, hence their brazenness. But this first move should change their minds. Mystical Fire followed by Flamethrower!"

Delphox twirled his stick around in a circle and unleashed a blast of blue flames. Durant's eyes widened with surprise and immediately use Iron Defense to try and protect itself but it did little against the blue fire that completely engulfed it. The Fox Pokemon then increased the intensity with Flamethrower. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Durant was utterly roasted by the time the flames dissipated. The other Durant clicked their jaws loudly as they saw their leader fall. But rather than attack in revenge, they simply walked over to pick up his unconscious body and left as quickly as they could. It seemed Mirai's assumptions were right.

"Durant have a natural enemy in a Pokemon called Heatmor. By extension they are extremely wary of fighting against Fire types. Good job Delhpox-kun. That display of power was perfect."

Their interruption gone, Mirai and her team went back to enjoying the rest of their meal.

They had managed to finish the rest of their meal in peace. With everyone helping out on the clean up, it didn't take long until they were back on the road again. The next area appeared to be a sort of wetlands. The dry sturdy paths they could take were limited. The rest of the place was littered with ponds and the like. Mirai couldn't recall entering an environment like this before from her previous safari trips so this was a new refreshing scenery.

After walking along the path for some time, Mamoswine stepped on a portion of soil that was soft and wet, causing him to partially slip. His right foot fell in the water and created a big splash. If Mirai wasn't holding on, she might have slipped off his back too.

"Perhaps we should slow down our pace. Even when trying to be careful, it's really difficult to tell at a glance if the ground we're stepping on is actually solid."

As Mamoswine listened to Mirai's suggestion, they suddenly heard the sound of crackling not too far from them. Something was emitting sparks in the patch of grass just slightly ahead of the Twin Tusk Pokemon. This was part of the area that got soaked when Mamoswine made that big splash. Jumping on top of a reed to make itself more visible, the source of the sparks appeared to be a Joltik. And it wasn't too happy about getting wet.

"Oh dear. Believe it or not, that's actually quite a dangerous match-up for you Mamo-kun. With its size, once it clings on to you, you'd never be able to shake it off. It's likely our fault that its angry, but we can't afford to let that hold us back from battling seriously."

At this point Mamoswine didn't really fully grasp yet the threat Mirai described. But she had never been wrong before about this sort of thing. The best he could do was trust her.

"The best timing would be to catch it while it's in midair. let's start with a gentle Blizzard Mamo-kun, then finish it off with Ancient Power!"

The Twin Tusk Pokemon blew a cold wind that began to freeze up the area in front of them. Not wanting to get frozen, Joltik predictably jumped up out of the way of the cold air. This was what Mirai was waiting for. The Attaching Pokemon was quick on its feet but that was only true if it had a foothold. In the air, it was a sitting duck. Mamoswine charged up his Ancient Power and the humongous ball of energy caught Joltik mid-jump, dealing super effective damage. It fell back down somewhere in the grass and didn't get back up again.

With that threat out of the way, they could proceed forward.