Pokemon Legends: Sinnoh Saga
Chapter 10
Going Under
Exiting the front door of the hotel, Dawn looked around cautiously. She had eaten breakfast in the hotel restaurant that morning, or had planned to at least but had spotted her old arch-nemesis there. She was sure he didn't see her when she briefly retreated to her room to eat, and she didn't encounter him on the way out again either. Still, she was going to remain cautious. The coast seemed to be clear so Dawn finally decided to step outside.
"Phew! Managed to make it out without running into..."
"DAWN!" Dawn froze and shuddered when she heard the voice. She had been so careful, scanning outside the front door before she left, but never thought he might still be inside. Barry had managed to come up from behind her and had a wide grin on his face when she turned around to face him.
"Heh heh heh! You tried to escape, didn't you?" Barry asked her with a smug grin on his face.
'Tried' being the operative word! Dawn thought bitterly, grinding her teeth together. "What do you want, Barry?"
"Hey now! Is that any way to treat a friend?" he asked, still wearing a smug grin. Dawn's attitude didn't put him off at all. "So, hey! Have you seen that statue in the northern end of the city?"
"Statue?" Dawn repeated, blinking. "Barry...why would you be interested in a statue?"
"Because it's a really cool statue of a really cool pokemon!" Barry replied, then quickly grabbed Dawn by the wrist. "Come on, let's go! You have to see it!" Barry pulled her by the wrist, dragging her off to see the statue. Dawn let out a sigh and didn't even bother trying to resist. By now, she realized the futility of it.
A short while later, being dragged through the city the entire way, Dawn found herself face to face with the statue in question. It looked like some sort of centauric creature, lower body like that of a horse with metal plates and spikes. The upper torso didn't really seem to fit at all, though. It bore large, circular shoulders, clawed hands, and an elongated neck.
"Barry...this statue is not cool no matter what way you look at it," Dawn said in dismay. "It just looks like some kind of weird...thing."
"Exactly! That's what makes it cool!" Barry replied excitedly. "It's got the lower body of one pokemon and the upper body of another! I bet they used to be separate pokemon but were fused together somehow! Like with some kinda dance or something!"
Dawn rolled her eyes. Only you, Barry. Only you...
"Excuse me. Please step aside." Dawn and Barry turned around and then immediately stepped out of the way when they saw the imposing, blue-haired man standing behind them. The man walked past them to take a closer look at the statue.
After examining the man's outfit for a moment, and taking a look at the statue again, Dawn nodded. Yep. My foreshadowing senses are tingling.
"This statue depicts the beings of time and space as one. A symbolic representation of the balance between them, no doubt," the man mumbled, furrowing his eyebrows as he studied the structure.
"Eh. I don't get this guy at all," Barry said. Shrugging, he turned to Dawn and said, "Oh well. I just wanted to show you that statue. I don't have time to waste around here, there's badges to be had!" Barry pumped his fist into the air and said, "I'm going to be the best trainer there is and don't you forget it!"
"You'll probably remind me plenty anyway," Dawn said, rolling her eyes.
"Catch ya later then!" Barry said to her before finally running off. Dawn watched him for a moment before she caught a glimpse of the strange man out of he corner of her eye. He also seemed to have his gaze focused intently on Barry, briefly turning to Dawn when he realized she was looking at him and then looking back at the statue.
Weirdo too. Figures, Dawn thought and then shook her head. Whatever! I have a bike to get, and then I have to find Cynthia to get whatever it was she was going to give me!
Dawn then ran off as well. The strange man watched as she left, face devoid of any emotion.
It was a fairly long run for Dawn to get to the southern end of the city where the bike shop was. It was early morning, though, so Dawn still had energy to spare by the time she got there. To her surprise, she found someone else waiting outside the bike shop as well. Cynthia was leaning near the building, next to the entrance. Dawn wondered if Cynthia was waiting for her. Her suspicions were confirmed when the blonde-haired woman spotted her and then pushed off from the wall and approached Dawn.
"I had a feeling you might show up here," Cynthia said to her. "I was talking to Gardenia and she mentioned that Mr. Rickshaw wanted to give you a bike as thanks."
"You know, we probably should have made arrangements to meet somewhere," Dawn said, rubbing the back of her neck in embarassment.
Cynthia chuckled. "You're probably right. But it worked out regardless." Cynthia then removed what looked like a backpack from her body and placed it on the ground. "This is what I wanted you to have," she says as she opens the top of the backpack, revealing a white egg with many different color designs and patterns all around it.
"A pokemon egg?" Dawn asked, blinking in disbelief. It made sense after she had a moment to think about it, though, as she recalled Cynthia specifically saying it would help her with her pokedex. Adding a page for whatever pokemon hatched from it would help, naturally.
"Yes, and one of my own pokemon is the father," Cynthia said to her, then closed the backpack again. "You should take the backpack as well so it will be easier to carry around, unless you have room in your travel bag?"
That egg looks like it's about the same size as that jar of honey, actually, Dawn thought, frowning slightly. Ok, which do I want more? Pokemon egg or sweet honey? On one hand, I could use another pokemon, and one hatched from an egg would actually be loyal rather than trying to kill me or hating me. On the other hand I... Dawn blinked. Wait, I don't actually have any use for that sweet honey. So this must be some kind of flag to trade it off.
"I might have room...do you have any use for sweet honey?" Dawn asked Cynthia.
"Umm..." Cynthia blinked in confusion and said, "Not really, but why don't you just keep it and take the backpack?"
"K-keep it!?" Dawn staggered back in shock. But...but I don't get it! Shouldn't this have been a flag to trade my sweet honey for the pokemon egg? It was leading up to it so perfectly but...
Seeing Dawn's strange reaction, Cynthia raised an eyebrow at her. "I don't understand what you are getting so upset over, but if it means that much to you then I will take the sweet honey..."
"Oh...oh, alright..." Dawn turned her back to Cynthia while she opened her bag to retrieve the honey, hiding a smile from her. She had started to actually doubt her perception of the world for a moment, but everything had been set right again. After retrieving the honey, Dawn turned around again and handed the jar to Cynthia.
That's a pretty big jar, I wonder what she was lugging that around for? Cynthia thought as she took the jar of honey from Dawn. She set the jar down on the ground while she took the pokemon egg out of the backpack and handed it to Dawn. Once the backpack was empty, Cynthia put the jar of honey inside. Maybe the herb shop around here would have a use for it?
Upon receiving the egg, Dawn held it up to her ear. She couldn't hear anything, though. "So...what's going to hatch from this anyway?" she asked Cynthia.
Cynthia winked. "You'll just have to wait and see." Cynthia then picked up the backpack and slung it around her shoulders. "Perhaps the next time we meet it will already have hatched. Until then, farewell Dawn." Cynthia offered a soft smile as she walked past Dawn and then headed north into the city.
"Well! That leaves only one thing left to do before I can leave!" Dawn opened her travel bag and placed the egg inside, then headed into the bike shop. The shop's owner, Rad Rickshaw, was at the desk when she went inside and a pink bike set aside next to it.
"Ah! You're here bright and early!" Rad said, smiling, then gestured toward the bike. "You wanted a pink one, right?" Dawn's eyes widened when she saw the bike. She was expecting a fairly cheap, basic bike since she was getting it for free. The bike he had brought out for her, though, had different gears to allow greater control over one's speed.
Dawn grinned to herself. Now THIS is how you reward a hero!
"YAHOO!" Dawn yelled excitedly, racing down cycling road. Another biker only narrowly avoided getting plowed through by her as she barreled down the road at a breakneck pace.
"Wow! At this rate, I'll reach the end of cycling road in no time! WOO-HOO!" At Dawn's excited yelling, several more bikers further down moved out of her way. They were all looking at Dawn like she was insane, but Dawn was paying no attention to them as she sped past. "There's nothing that can stop me now!"
Of course, of all people, Dawn should realize the implication of saying such a thing. Further down, flying alone above the cycling road was a lone gligar. It was flying along fine at first, riding the air currents, but then suddenly started to have trouble. It wobbled in the air, trying to remain steady, until it started to drop out of the air on a direct collision course with Dawn, clawed hands flailing frantically to try to stay in the air.
Dawn did not see the gligar coming. The wild pokemon plowed into her from the side and she let out a shriek as the impact steered her toward the guard rail. As if her statement had somehow placed some kind of curse upon her, the situation got even worse from there as the section of the rail that she hit was already weakened. Dawn and her bike broke through it and plummeted to the ground below while the wild gligar safely glided away, breathing a sigh of relief and continuing on its way.
Luckily for Dawn, the section she fell off at was above a slight hill and made for a relatively short fall. It still hurt like hell and knocked the wind out of her, leaving her with little motivation to move for a while after landing, but managed to get by with just scraped knees. After a minute she groaned and sat up to survey her surroundings.
"What just...hit me?" she muttered, looking around half-dazed and rubbing her head. Her bike had landed a few feet behind her and her travel bag was lying next to her. She gasped when she remembered her recently received package and immediately opened the bag to check on it. To her relief the egg, and everything else in her bag, was perfectly fine.
"Wow, that egg must be pretty durable," Dawn said in disbelief, then looked up at the road she fell from. "Guess I should be careful from now on. I think I used up all my good and bad luck in the same fall..."
"Excuse me, miss?" Dawn blinked, surprised to hear someone's voice down below the cycling path. When she turned to the source of the voice she saw a fat man dressed in hiking gear. "You uh...you aren't Dawn by any chance, are you?"
"Err...how do you know my name?"
The hiker scratched the back of his head, a confused look on his face. "It's the strangest thing. This young girl dressed in purple said a girl by the name of Dawn was going to fall off the cycling road today. She also said to tell you that another young girl has been lead deep into the Wayward Cave with promises of candy."
This sounds like a sidequest. A sidequest that reeks of Dusk, Dawn thought, frowning at the hiker. "Where's the cave?"
"Just back that way," the hiker replied, pointing north. "Be careful, though. The cave's dark and full of..."
"I know, I know. Zubat and geodude..." Dawn sighed. "I can handle them, they're just annoying to deal with." Dawn walked over to her bike. After a brief inspection, she stood it up, sat down on it, and positioned her travel bag behind her to balance out the weight. "Thanks, then. I'll be off," she said, then rode off in the direction of Wayward Cave.
Once Dawn was out of sight, the hiker's visage shimmered and disappeared, leaving a young cloaked girl carrying a cracked rock in his place. "Zubats and geodudes will be the least of your worries, Dawn," Dusk said to herself, a grin spreading across her face. "In that cave...there be sharks."
After departing from the hiker, it didn't take long for Dawn to find the entrance to the Wayward Cave. Soon enough she was standing outside on her bike, feet on the ground to maintain balance, and Conker the pachirisu perched on her handlebars. Dawn had a smug grin on her face as she looked into the darkness of the cave.
"Ok, this combination is unbeatable!" Dawn declared. "With you producing sparks we'll be able to see in the cave, and with this bike we can outrun those zubat too! We'll find that girl in no time at all!"
"-Almost makes it too easy!-" Conker said, then began to produce the necessary sparks from his cheeks. Dawn then started peddaling, moving into the cave. The darkness inside was lit up by Conker's sparks.
Even with just this small amount of electricity we're able to light up the tunnels in this cave! Dawn thought to herself. Conker, meanwhile, focused the electricity into an arc in front of him to aim light further ahead in the tunnel. This allowed Dawn to see what was ahead of them better and avoid obstacles at high speeds.
Dawn didn't need to go much further into the cave to find her first such obstacle. Shortly after Conker had extended the light from his electricity, they encountered a small group of zubat hanging from the ceiling. Startled by the light, the zubat dropped down to attack Dawn and Conker. Speeding up, Dawn easily drove her bike past them. The zubat turned to give chase but soon gave up, deciding it wasn't worth the effort.
"They gave up pretty easily!" Dawn said, looking back at the zubat but losing sight of them with Conker's light facing away now. When she looked ahead again she had to quickly swirve to avoid hitting a geodude burried in the ground.
"Almost forgot about the geodude," Dawn mumbled. "Well at least this shouldn't take too long," Dawn said. As she spoke, she came across a fork in the cave tunnels. She turned down the left path and immediately came upon a dead end. "Or maybe I spoke too soon," she mumbled, letting out an exasperated sigh.
Continuing through the cave, Dawn would find the obstacles she came across repeating. More zubats startled by the light, more geodude burried in the ground, and more dead ends. It was almost refreshing when she almost drove face-first into a large, floating gear as the strange pokemon made for a change in scenery at least.
Eventually, the scenery made an even more dramatic shift as Dawn came across an unusually well-lit area of cave. It was just before she would have rounded another bend, the curious light source shining on the wall ahead from the cave corridor perpendicular to the one Dawn was going down. Dawn stopped her bike and stared in disbelief. In the resulting silence she heard a pair of very soft footfalls approaching.
The footsteps turned out to belong to a young girl, who cautiously poked her head out from the other corridor when she noticed the light from Conker. She gasped in surprise when she saw Dawn and immediately ran up to her, a fox-like psychic pokemon with a thick tail floating behind her.
"E-excuse me! Do you know the way out of here?" the girl asked Dawn. "My name's Mira and some mean girl lead me all the way in here and then left me here!"
"...Yeah, I have a pretty good idea actually," Dawn replied, thinking to herself that it was turning out to be a rather easy sidequest in spite of Dusk's involvement.
"Are you sure you'll be able to get out, even then?" A voice asked from the darkness behind Dawn. Dawn quickly turned her bike around, pointing Conker toward the darkness, and Mira's kadabra joined him while shining a light from the spoon it held. Their combined light lit up the tunnel rather well, revealing Dusk from the darkness.
"You! You're the one that lead me in here!" Mira yelled, pointing a finger at Dusk angrily. "That was really mean, you know!"
"I apologize. I was merely using you as bait for this one," Dusk replied, gesturing toward Dawn.
"For her?" Mira blinked in disbelief and looked over at Dawn. "I don't get it, did I get caught up in some cruel prank or something?"
"It's a long story," Dawn said to her, then turned to glare at Dusk. "Just what are you going to try this time, anyway!?"
"Nothing I haven't already succeeded with," Dusk replied flatly. "By the way...Mario is a fat, lazy slob. Any real hero would put him in his place within seconds."
"WHAT?!" Dawn shrieked, a seething anger building up within her. In a rage, she started peddaling her bike toward Dusk. "YOU TAKE THAT BACK!"
"Dawn! Wait!" Mira called out after her as her and the two pokemon ran to catch up with her. As they were all rushing toward Dusk they soon felt the ground beneath their feet shaking and came to a stop. Before anyone could ask what was going on the ground beneath their feet began to crumble away, sending Dawn, Mira, Conker, and Kadabra plummeting down to the basement level.
"DUSK YOU CHEATERRRRRR!" Dawn yelled before the impact with the ground below silenced her. Dusk herself had been standing on the collapsing ground but was left floating in the air instead of following. The pokemon responsible, a dusknoir, faded into view shortly after.
"You're far too easy to read, Dawn. Not to mention guilable," Dusk said, snickering. "Well, hope you have fun down there!"
Dawn was lucky enough for her second fall that day to also land her on top of a hill, but at this point she was betting Dusk planned for that. Whether or not it was Dusk's intention for Dawn to fall down, hit the side of the hill, and roll all the way to the bottom was another matter. The fall still left Dawn more battered and bruised due to the rocky terrain, and having her bike manage to land on her legs didn't help matters either.
"I'm going to be way too sore to get up tomorrow at this rate," Dawn groaned as she sat up, pushing her bike off her legs and rubbing her sore backside. She first looked around to see how everyone else fared. Conker, like one might expect of a pokemon, shook off the fall like it was nothing. Mira's kadabra landed just fine as well by teleporting itself to the ground, after which it used its psychic powers to ensure Mira landed safely as well. In the end, only Dawn seemed to be getting hurt. Even the pokemon egg in her travel bag was unharmed.
I wonder if Dusk is just a little upset after that last encounter? Dawn thought, grimacing.
"Hey, are you ok? You look like you hit pretty hard," Mira said to Dawn once her kadabra had lowered her to the ground.
"I'm fine, really!" Dawn replied, quickly standing up only to nearly fall over again. Her legs were in pain and her whole body was still shaken from the fall. She took a moment to brace herself and straighten up, then turned to Mira and grinned. "See? Perfectly fine!"
"If you say so," Mira replied, shrugging. "What's that girl's deal with you anyway? What made her think you'd come in here looking for me? I mean, I don't even know you!"
"It's...it's a long story..." Dawn replied nervously, then looked around at her surroundings. "Where did we end up anyway?" she asked. The area they were in now was a large, open cavern just under where they were before. It was fairly high, but there were also hills and slopes all over the place with some of the hills having wooden planks going between them. Torches on the walls nearby kept the area lit, though it looked like they were put there rather recently.
"I think I remember hearing about this once," Mira said, also looking around. "Some trainers came down here and started to build a bike course underground, but then they came across something that forced them to stop..."
"Something like what?" Dawn asked, starting to feel a little nervous being down there now. The situation was slowly becoming clear to her.
"-Something like that, perhaps?-" Kadabra said, interrupting them to point toward a group of pokemon with his spoon. Four pokemon in all, standing near four holes that they crawled out of themselves. The blue pokemon looked like a cross between a dinosaur and a shark, sharp teeth bared and a wild look in their eyes.
"G-g-g-GABITES!" Mira shrieked, pointing at the wild pokemon fearfully. "They must have evolved from the gibles that chased off those trainers!"
"Not a very original name," Dawn said, frowning. Of course, she now fully understood the situation Dusk had set her up for. Somehow she had forced the wild pokemon to weaken the floor above enough to collapse with the combined weight of the girls on it, while having an escape for herself prepared. Dawn would be forced to face these pokemon herself, though she wasn't sure if getting Mira involved this far in was Dusk's plan or not.
"Well either way, we've got no choice but to fight these things I guess!" Dawn called out, then pointed a finger at the nearest gabite. "Conker, attack that one with Spark!"
"-Got it!-" Conker called back, charging electricity around his body. He charged at one of the wild gabites and threw his body into it. The gabite barely flinched from the hit and didn't seem to feel the electricity at all, then casually knocked Conker aside with one of its claw-tipped fins.
"Ground-type pokemon? Should have guessed," Dawn grumbled, taking a pair of pokeballs from her belt. "Bowser! Jax! Go!" The pokeballs opened in Dawn's hands, releasing Bowser and Jax only a few feet from the gabite. Jax immediately slid into a fighting stance and Bowser grinned, eager to show off his newest attack. They were soon joined by an upset Conker, wanting to take another shot at the gabites after they had shrugged off his Spark attack. Three of the four gabites lined up, picking their targets and growling. The fourth, finding itself without an immediate target, was eying Mira's kadabra.
"W-we can't fight these things, Dawn! They're dragons!" Mira said, waving her arms frantically. "They're evolved dragons! They're way tougher than any of our pokemon and I only have Kadabra!"
"How tough could they be?" Dawn replied. She would soon get her answer as the gabites made their attack. Letting out a loud roar, each fired a burst of blue flames at their intended targets. Bowser, Jax, and Conker cried out in agony as the flames struck and briefly engulfed them. The attacks inflicted a great amount of damage on them and Conker went down instantly. Kadabra, however, quickly grabbed Mira and teleported a few feet away to avoid the attack.
Dawn winced, taking out Conker's pokeball. "Ok, that looked painful," she said, recalling Conker. She returned the pokeball to her belt and then took another one in her hand. "Captain Falcon! Go! We need all the help we can get!" Captain Falcon materialized behind Bowser and Jax and gulped nervously when she saw what they were up against.
"Bowser, use..."
"-WAAAAIIIIIT!-" a loud voice suddenly roared, cutting off Dawn as she was about to call out her attacks. A pokemon looking similar to the four they were fighting suddenly impacted the ground face first between the two groups of pokemon, sending the gabites scattering briefly. The pokemon's face was stuck in the ground from the impact but it quickly pulled itself out and turned to face the group of gabites. The new arrival stood only half their height at just over two feet tall and had a particularly large mouth.
"-Just who do you think you are, ganging up on trainers like this!?-" the pokemon yelled at the gabites, pointing a finger at them. "-You used to be GIBLES! We're better than this!-" Getting only a series of angered growls from the other pokemon, the gible frowned. "-I see...you are not yourselves. Then I have no choice! I will dig deep into those thick skulls of your's and drag out the real you!-"
"-Huh, this one's got a lot of spunk.-" Bowser noted, blinking.
"-What good is it going to do him if he gets himself killed?-" Jax slammed his fists together. "-Come on! We're not just going to stand around and let him do all the work, are we!?-"
"-Guess we have no choice.-" Captain Falcon gulped nervously. "-Just once I'd like a battle with an easy escape route.-" Bowser looked back to say something to her, only then noticing that it wasn't a starly standing behind him.
"-Huh!? You evolved!?-" Bowser said in disbelief. Captain Falcon nodded. "-That doesn't seem fair somehow, Dawn only caught you recently and yet here I, her first pokemon, still haven't evolved...-"
"I think that wild gible is on our side." Mira said, blinking in disbelief.
"Ok! Then you just stand back!" Dawn said to Mira, putting on a brave face. "With that gible's help we'll fight these gabites on our own! Bowser, Seed Bomb! Jax, Captain Falcon, get in there and start hitting things with your Karate Chop and Wing Attack!"
Jax and Captain Falcon quickly moved forward, accompanied by Bowser's Seed Bomb attack flying past them. The seeds shot into a distant gabite and exploded on impact, knocking it to the ground. Two more gabites were soon attacked by by Jax and Captain Falcon, taking a Karate Chop and a Wing Attack to the side of the face. The fourth gabite was focused on the wild gible, firing a shockwave of blue flames from its mouth. The gible leapt high into the air to avoid it, though.
"-TAKE THIS!-" the gible shouted, doing a spin in the air until his large jaws were pointed down at the opposing gabite. "-FLAMES OF COURAGE! BURNING SPIRIT ATTACK!-" The gible fired off his own burst of blue flames, hitting the gabite hard and knocking it to the ground. The force of the blast exitting his mouth sent the gible spinning backwards through the air in an arch that brought him down only a few feet away from Dawn and Mira.
While the battle ensued below, Dusk and her dusknoir slowly floated down to the top of the hill that Dawn had rolled down. From there, she was able to observe the battle.
"Dawn's holding up surprisingly well, though I did not count on a wild gible getting involved," Dusk said to herself, sitting down at the edge of the hill. "This one seems pretty strong for a gible too."
It seems perhaps the evolved leader wasn't the strongest of this pack like you had thought, Dusk, a voice said to her. I imagine it matters little, though. That one is still plenty strong, but why not release it now?
"Simply put, I intend for this group to weaken Dawn's pokemon first before dropping the big one on her, so to speak," Dusk said, grinning to herself. "Dawn, you have no idea the effort I put into my trap this time. Even if you win this battle, victory will still be mine in the end. As we speak, my ghosts have a far more fearsome foe pinned just beneath your feet!"
You're not the least bit concerned about how such a strong gible evaded being noticed, are you?
"A gible's a gible, I've already got something better," Dusk replied.
Down below, the battle raged on. The wild gible actually stood back from the fight for a moment to watch how Dawn's pokemon were able to handle themselves. Jax and Captain Falcon landed another hit on the gabites they were fighting just as the two dragons tried to fire another Dragon Rage attack at them. Bowser wasn't so lucky and found one such attack coming his way. He only narrowly avoided it, taking a glancing blow as he rolled to the side.
"-Heh. Not bad for human-trained pokemon. You've got guts!-" the wild gible said with a toothy grin. Suddenly the gabite that he himself had attacked was picked up, surrounded by a blue glow, and thrown back. A dark aura could be seen rising from the gabite's body until it suddenly reverted to a gible. The gible then quickly fled, burrowing undergound.
"We'll fight too!" Mira boldly declared, looking at Dawn with a determined look on her face. "I don't know how much my kadabra can do, but we'll do what we can!" The kadabra standing in front of her nodded, still holding its spoon out toward the gabite it had attacked.
"-Well I'll just leave the rest to you two, then!-" Gible said.
"See? We'll beat these guys just fine!" Dawn said, nodding to her and then turning to her pokemon. She noticed a green glow around Bowser's body and the leaf on his head grew slightly. "Bowser! Finish that one with another Seed Bomb!" Dawn called out.
"-I'll finish this one at least,-" Bowser said determinedly. He opened his mouth and spat another round of seeds at the gabite that had attacked him. The seeds hit the gabite in the stomach and created a much larger explosion when they hit this time. The gabite crumpled to the ground and dark energy seeped from its body, reverting it back to a gible by the time it landed. The gible immediately dug away.
"-Hmph. Cowards.-" the wild gible grumbled, watching another of his kind flee in terror. "-Is this all it takes to dispel your courage!?-"
Meanwhile, the last two gabites that had been knocked aside by Jax and Captain Falcon decided to take a direct approach this time. As Dawn's pokemon moved to make one more attack at them, the gabites threw themselves into them with a full-body tackle. Having been hit hard by the Dragon Rage attacks earlier, both of Dawn's pokemon were knocked out instantly. Dawn quickly took out their pokeballs to recall them before the gabites could try to attack them while they were down.
"Three pokemon down...these guys really are tough!" Dawn said, but didn't look too worried about it.
"-Just me and these two then...-" Bowser mumbled weakly as the two gabites turned toward him. "-You guys are pretty tough...but I won't go down...without a fight!-" A white glow then suddenly surrounded Bowser's body and he began to grow. His shell expanded to cover his head and back, tail growing out behind him, and bushes grew on both sides of his back. When it finally stopped, Bowser stood a full three feet tall as an evolved grotle. Shortly after the evolution, the bushes on his back grew slightly as his Overgrow ability was still being triggered.
"Hey! Bowser's evolved for real this time!" Dawn shouted excitedly. Realizing the wild gabites weren't going to stop just because Bowser had evolved, and were already moving toward him, Dawn called out an attack. "Bowser! Razor Leaf!"
"-With pleasure!-" Bowser said, his voice deeper now. Several sharp leaves fired from the bushes on his back, striking the charging gabites. The two gabites roared in pain and collapsed, immediately reverting into gibles and burrowing into the ground to escape. With all of the wild gabites defeated, the wild gible approached Bowser.
"-Taking on four gabites like that, you guys got guts!-" the gible said with a grin. "-Just keep in mind, they woulda won if they hadn't gone berserk!-"
"-Err...if you say so?-" Bowser said, raising an eye at him.
Their victory soon turned out to be short lived. As the wild gible and Bowser were talking, the ground began to shake and then suddenly burst open beneath them, flinging them aside. Another wild dragon pokemon emerged from the ground, this one standing at six feet tall and having a head like a hammerhead shark's.
"G-g-g-GARCHOMP!" Dawn and Mira shrieked, both recognizing the newcomer. Dawn hurriedly reached for another pokeball and released Bridget. Bridget materialized almost directly in front of the wild garchomp and looked up at it.
"-Well. You're a big one, aren't you?-" Bridget said flatly. The garchomp took a swipe at Bridget, claws glowing orange, but Bridget caught the pokemon's wrist between his ears. "-Don't try me,-" he said, pushing the clawed hand away.
"Wow...that buneary of your's is pretty tough to block that attack so easily," Mira said to Dawn.
"It's because of how much he hates me that he's so strong!" Dawn said with a smug grin, seemingly proud of that fact while Mira and her kadabra were staring at her in disbelief.
Meanwhile, the wild garchomp took another swipe at Bridget, but this time he simply hopped back to avoid it. A slight grin started to form on Bridget's face. "-Heh. I've got to say though, you've got a lot of guts attacking me. You and that big ugly mug of your's.-" Bridget then jumped up and aimed a kick at the garchomp's face, but the garchomp blocked the kick with its other hand and forced Bridget back down to the ground.
"-To hold his own against even a garchomp...this group is really something,-" the wild gible said, a grin spreading across his face again. "-I've decided then! I'm going to join you guys!-"
"-Great. Can we work on taking this guy down first?-" Bowser suggested, rolling back onto his feet after landing on his side. "-Bridget's holding his own, but that's about it.-" Nearby, Bridget and the wild garchomp continued to match blow for blow, neither seeming to gain an inch of ground on each other.
"-There's only one way to finish this now,-" Gible said with a glint in his eye. "-A combination attack! We'll hit him at the same time!-"
"-Works for me!-" Bowser replied with a nod. Bowser quickly moved to line up a shot at the garchomp from behind, and the gible jumped on top of him.
"-OUR SOULS BURN BRIGHTER TOGETHER! EAT THIS! OUR COMBINED ATTACK!-" Gible shouted, firing a blast of blue flames from his large mouth. Bowser didn't say anything as he joined in the attack, firing a barrage of seeds from his mouth. The two attacks collided, the seeds being pushed forward by the shockwave leading the flames.
"Did...did they really think up combining their attacks on their own!?" Dawn yelled in disbelief. "Does this mean Bowser and that wild pokemon learned some kind of dual tech then!?"
What's with her train of thought? Mira wondered.
The wild garchomp didn't see the attack coming, still locked in combat with Bridget. The seeds struck and exploded on its back first, but only by mere milliseconds before the blue flames burned across it. The garchomp growled in pain and staggered forward, heavily injured by the combined attack but not quite done yet. However, a swift kick to its jaw from Bridget finished it. The garchomp's head snapped back and it collapsed to the ground, reverting into a gabite. The wild gabite looked around in confusion and then quickly dug away.
"Alright! We won!" Dawn cheered.
"-Tch. I didn't need any help with that, you know,-" Bridget said to Bowser and Gible. "-Had that guy right where I wanted him.-" Dawn, Mira, and Mira's kadabra then suddenly ran past him toward Bowser and Gible.
"That was amazing, you two!" Dawn said to them.
"Yeah! I thought for sure we were finished when that garchomp showed up!" Mira added.
"-It was nothing at all!-" the wild gible said, a smug look on his face. Bowser, whom he was still standing on top of, rolled his eyes.
"You surprise me, Dawn." Everyone looked up and saw Dusk floating down nearby with her dusknoir, landing a fair distance to the right of the group. "I had expected that garchomp would surely have defeated you."
"Well you thought wrong!" Dawn yelled back, turning to face her with her fists clenched. "With these pokemon, you don't have a chance of beating me anymore!"
"-From that tone, I'd say she's already decided for herself that she's going to catch you.-" Bowser said to the wild gible, who nodded in agreement.
"Beat me?" Dusk shook her head. "No, after that last battle, I've changed my mind about you, Dawn. I want your help now."
"My...help?" Dawn blinked in disbelief. "What do you mean by that?"
"You see, Dawn, it is against my will that I am forced to fight you," Dusk said in a saddened tone. "I alone do not have the power to fight back against the dark master I serve. But now, now that I've seen your strength, I believe we can defeat it if we work together!" Dusk stretched out a hand toward Dawn. "Please! Help me!"
Dusk...I knew this was bound to happen eventually, Dawn thought, smiling to herself. She slowly started to walk toward Dusk, a smile on her face. Mira gasped when she noticed this.
"Dawn! Don't!" Mira called out, running after her. "It's just another trick!" Realizing Mira was likely correct, Bowser and Mira's kadabra ran after Dawn as well, bringing the wild gible along as it was still riding Bowser. At the moment they caught up with Dawn the ground suddenly gave out from under them, sending them plummeting down into another hole.
"DUSK YOU DIRTY LIARRRRRR!" Dawn shrieked, voice drowning out as she continued to plummet downward into a seemingly bottomless pit.
"I wish I could take some enjoyment in this, but outsmarting you is like using a legendary pokemon to beat up a Magikarp," Dusk said with a shrug. Her dusknoir then moved out in front of her suddenly, blocking a kick from Bridget and then grabbing him by the foot. "And don't think I've forgotten about you," Dusk then said to him.
"-Damn it...this one's tough...-" Bridget muttered. The dusknoir glared at him and then threw him into the hole in the ground.
"And that's that. I imagine being down there will keep her busy for a while, and the other ghosts should be making sure she isn't seriously injured by that fall. Nothing left to do here then," Dusk shrugged to herself and then looked around, spotting Dawn's bike nearby. Blinking, she slowly walked over to it and kneeled down next to it.
"A new bike, huh..." Dusk mumbled to herself. "She'll be wanting this back I bet..."
Author's Notes: I don't know what to think of this, but just this weekend I found myself falling down twice and narrowly avoiding a third. No landsharks though at any rate, so I'll chalk it up to coincidence...
Anyway, as should be obvious now, Dawn's got a gible even though she hasn't put it in a pokeball yet. The best nicknames I've been able to come up with are "King Fin" and just "Landshark" because, for some reason, every landshark in video games is just called a landshark. So any suggestions are welcome.
Bowser's likely going to be Dawn's last evolution for a while, depending on when I decide to have that Gible evolve. Her other pokemon don't evolve as early/easily.