Disclaimer: Pokemon and all related characters, moves and locations are copyrighted to Nintendo and Game Freak.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: The Cataclysm of Sinnoh
Chapter 1T
"Curses… How could I possibly lose to you?" A Gibile muttered before passing out on the makeshift dirt battlefield.
"You should ask yourself that." A Squirtle on the other side of the battlefield said while dusting off the front of his shell. "You're the one who challenged me after all."
The Squirtle then turns to his left and sees a large number of pokemon facing him. Some had fear in their eyes while others anger and determination. A confident smile creeps across the Squirtle's face.
"Who's next?" he says as he extends his right arm and makes a "Come at me" motion with his hand.
The nervous pokemon immediately fled back into the forests surrounding the makeshift battlefield. A male Ponyta and a female Girafarig immediately stepped forward.
"2-on-1, eh? While most would run away, I say BRING IT!" He said as his two new opponents took to the opposite side of the battlefield.
Most of the other pokemon grumbled a bit, missing their chance to defeat the cocky Squirtle and put him in his place. Others began to silently cheer for the two challengers and a few others went so far as to bet some berries on which side would win this 'round'. A Lombre bystander picked up and carried off the knocked out Gibile. Both sides squared off for a minute.
"Since you're by yourself, we'll let you make the first move." The Girafarig said smiling.
"Like being by myself is a bad thing." The Squirtle spat back before throwing out a Bubble attack from his mouth.
"Wow, little slow bubbles. Is that all?" the Ponyta spoke up, holding in a chuckle.
The Girafarig next to him couldn't help but giggle at the comment. The Squirtle then did something that shocked them both. He started a Rapid Spin in place with his shell, causing the bubbles to circle around and over him like a cyclone. He then sped off toward the two opponents, who were still slightly in shock. The Ponyta managed to snap himself out and dodge the fast-moving cyclone of bubbles, while the Girafarig was hit.
"Ungh." The Girafarig said as she was pushed back from the attack. "Little brat. Take this!" she said as she recovered and fired a Psybeam from her horns.
The Psybeam impacted the cyclone of bubbles, destroying a fair few, but failed to penetrate to the rapidly spinning shell in the center.
"Alright, that's it." Ponyta said before unleashing a Flamethrower toward the bottom of the cyclone.
The stronger Flamethrower easily engulfed the bottom and continued out the other side. Once the attack dissipated, though, they both noticed the spinning Squirtle shell wasn't there anymore. The Ponyta chuckled to himself.
"Guess my fire was too much for him." He said, not noticing that the cyclone was still going strong.
"I wouldn't know, because you missed me." The Squirtle's voice rang out, much to the opponents' shock.
The Squirtle's spinning shell then rose out of the top of the cyclone and stopped, sending Bubble flying in all directions. Both Ponyta and Girafarig lowered their front ends, closed their eyes, and braced themselves for the hits. Both were hit by a salvo of the water-type attack and both were slightly pushed by it. Squirtle followed immediately by firing a Water Gun from his mouth, hitting the Ponyta square on the head.
"Arrrrrrrrrghhh!" The Ponyta yelled as the super-effective stream of water took its toll on the fire horse.
"Ponyta!" The Girafarig called out before using Psybeam again to intercept the Water Gun.
Squirtle stopped his attack at that and watched to see what they would do next. Girafarig ran over to the injured Ponyta and helped him up. The Ponyta coughed out some flames to heat himself back up before glaring at the Squirtle.
"You got lucky, punk." The Ponyta spat before getting back into a battle stance.
"Please." The Squirtle calmly replied, "I thought we were battling."
"We're just getting started." The Girafarig defended.
"Oh, really?" Squirtle taunted, "Because it looks like that was all you could do."
"Oh, that's IT you little…" The Ponyta shouted as he took off running at the Squirtle, leading with his head.
Squirtle then noticed the Girafarig begin running behind the rushing Ponyta. He began running at the rushing fire horse, then withdrew into his shell (actual Withdraw) as he slid underneath. When he reemerged from his shell, Girafarig was right on top of him ready to slam her glowing tail onto him. Squirtle reacted quickly by jumping over the Girafarig and letting loose a Bubble attack in midair to her back, putting her front knees on the ground. He then landed behind the Girafarig and immediately followed up with another Rapid Spin attack, striking all of her legs, causing her to fall onto her side. The Ponyta finally had turned back around and began charging at Squirtle again. Squirtle simply stood behind the fallen Girafarig and hit his lowered head with another Water Gun, which knocked him onto his back and K.O.'d him. The same Lombre bystander from before walked onto the battlefield and carried the Ponyta away as the Girafarig got back up. She said nothing as she walked, one leg limping, after the fallen Ponyta and Lombre. The Squirtle laughed to himself.
"Come on, there's got to be somebody that can give me a challenge." He proudly said to the crowd of pokemon.
Many of them began stepping onto the battlefield, many not caring who else walked out. They were now completely set on taking the cocky turtle down. Squirtle took a step back, not expecting so many to fight at the same time before going into his own battle stance with a smile on his face.
Meanwhile, a lone Swampert was making his way through the woods, himself hearing the commotion and battles. He found a small clearing and saw a Gibile just standing up and rub his head. Next to him, a Lombre was setting a knocked out Ponyta on the ground while a Girafarig limped behind them. The Swampert quickly approached the Lombre.
"What's going on here? I'm hearing a lot of fighting." He said in a deep voice.
"Oh, finally an official R.T. member." The Lombre replied in a slightly nasally voice, "There's a lone Squirtle out there just asking for fights. He's really strong, this Ponyta is his fourth consecutive challenger and he's still going."
"You his friend?" The Swampert asked.
"No, I just help out the injured wild pokemon that fight in that arena further in the forest. Being so close to Veilstone City, it's a popular spot for competitions and for trainers. I am, however, nervous that the Squirtle out there is going to get himself badly injured. There's a good crowd out there wanting to defeat him."
"Alright, I'll check it out." The Swampert said while thinking *He may even prove useful in our organization.*
"Slap a little sense into that brat while you're at it." The Girafarig spoke up as Swampert began to leave.
He walked a little bit through the woods in the direction Lombre indicated and found a large opening and a large mass of wild pokemon forming a ring around something or somebody.
*Guess the Squirtle is in the middle* he thought to himself.
He managed to secure a spot in the ring before it closed and saw the Squirtle in the middle, rotating his body and looking out at the masses of pokemon anticipating an attack.
"Well, what are you all waiting for?" the Squirtle said to the encircling crowd, "BRING IT!"
That was the spark that set a handful of pokemon rushing into the ring. The rest of the ring followed a second later.
"Gonna have to make a move soon before there's no Squirtle left…" The Swampert whispered to himself.
The Swampert used his large back legs to leap over the converging crowd of pokemon and into the center right behind the Squirtle. Squirtle whipped his body around at the sound of a large 'thud' and saw the Swampert right in his face. Time seemed to slow for him.
"Tch." Was all Squirtle said before withdrawing into his shell and starting up a Rapid Spin.
Swampert was silent as he placed his giant hands on the spinning shell, picking up the turtle and jumping away just as the crowd converged in the center and began unknowingly fighting each other. Swampert landed outside the large scuffle. He ducked inside the forest before placing the Squirtle back onto the ground. He reemerged from his shell and immediately noticed that he was with the Swampert only, and he wasn't in the battlefield anymore.
"What the heck?" Squirtle said before facing the Swampert, "What happened? You trying to steal me or something?"
"Are you kidding?" Swampert calmly replied, "I just saved your life from that mob."
"I didn't need saving!" Squirtle shouted, "I would've beaten ALL of them if you didn't interfere!"
"Uh, no you wouldn't. You would've been taking more damage than you were giving." Swampert said before sighing. "Been there done that."
"Yeah, right." Squirtle replied, "I'm going back out there and beating all of them."
"Not before you hear what I have to say." Swampert said, blocking the little turtle's path.
"What, you going to yell at me for picking fights?" Squirtle spat, arms crossed.
"No, I'll just say that wasn't smart. First, I'd like to know if you have a name."
"Of course I have a name: Titan. Dad said he named me because I always acted like a tough guy."
"Well, Titan, names Marcus. You can call me Marc if you want. I lead a Rescue Team in this area. I heard all of the battling over here, and seeing some of the pokemon you faced, I'm impressed."
"Naturally. I'm going to be THE strongest pokemon around." Titan boasted.
"Alright. How about you join the Rescue division I'm a part of?" Marc said, slightly leaning towards the Squirtle.
"What's in it for me?"
"You can travel the whole area this division covers, maybe even further, and battle all sorts of pokemon to get stronger."
"I'm liking the sound of that. How do you sign up?"
"You gotta be recruited by a Team leader in the local division. Since I am one, just follow after me to the HQ."
Marcus began walking away from the scuffle still audible in the clearing. After he no longer heard the battle, he checked behind him to see Titan following right behind him. They cut across route 214 making sure to avoid all of the trainers and traveled to the east side of Veilstone City. A large cave loomed in front of them, and both entered without any hesitation. In the large well-lit room they immediately entered, they noticed a Garchomp with two scars over his left eye standing at the far end with an Ursaring, Granbull, and Machoke talking to him. Garchomp then dismissed them and turned and noticed the two water-types approaching him.
"Allow me to make introductions here." Marcus started, "This is Akula, the Rescue Division Leader. Leader, sir, this is Titan. He was in the middle of the disturbance at the other side of Veilstone. He has a lot of power for his size and I believe he can help us out."
"Titan, eh. It certainly is a fitting name." Akula said in a low growling voice. "Marcus knows strong pokemon when he sees them. He recruited you, didn't he?"
"Yeah." Titan answered, "I want to become the strongest pokemon around. He said I could get stronger faster through this Rescue Team stuff."
"Indeed you can." Akula said, "You will have to follow orders from Team Leaders, and some missions you may not fight at all, but everyone becomes much stronger in this organization. Are you interested?"
Titan lowered his head and closed his eyes in thought for a few seconds before looking directly into Akula's eyes. "Sign me up."
Author's Notes: Titan as a character was made by my little cousin, Nick. He originally went unnamed, but I came up with it after remembering the personality and movesets Nick picked out for him. The Division Leaders all have names as will a few Team Leaders, being significant characters, but their role in the story as a whole is minimal. Akula is the phonetic spelling for the Russian word for "Shark" (which a Garchomp is: a Land Shark). Team Leader Marcus is completely referenced from DA artist Pokediginut, whose OC trainer has a Swampert named Marcus, and thus, credit goes to him.