It was late afternoon when Lucy burst through the last few layers of treeline to stumble onto Route 216. Or, at least a relatively wide dirt path that would lead her to it if she followed it for long enough. She shivers as a cold wind rushes by... open path or not, the Eterna Forest is ominous, even this close to the edge. No pokémon even bothered to try and stop her mad dash through the woods after the first while.
... Why? Lucy thinks to herself as she catches her breath. Absentmindedly she reaches for her pack, some small part in the back of her brain screaming at her to revive her fainted pokémon. ... She turns around, slowly.
"Chim. Hey."
Ah, right. Chimecho must've come out sometime during her scramble. She releases the KOd Yamper with a sigh, and starts addressing him.
"Hey, hey buddy? Revive...?" she waves the item in front of his nose. It twitches, and she quickly shoves the medicinal polyhedron down his throat. The dog suddenly shoots up, coughing before looking around wildly.
"YAMPYAMPYAMPYAMPYAMPYAMPYAMP— W-w-w-what where's the ghost?! There was a ghost, right?" he yips, looking up at Chimecho. "YAMPYAMPYAMPYampyampyamp... Is everyone okay?! Where's the other guys?"
Lucy coos and pets him, trying to get her puppy baby to calm down as Chimecho sighs and shivers. As much as she doesn't want to admit it, her life as a trained pokémon has been rather... pampering... and the chill of the north is unfamiliar. She dreads what climatic horrors the winter would bring her, if the group was still up here by then.
"Chuuuuumecho. I think we should get ready to camp for the night. We definitely won't be reaching a town before then, and... and..." her words slip into silence when she sees Lucy's blank stare. ... Damn, the communication barrier. Perhaps she should put effort into that rather than battling?
Either way, Lucy manages to get the gist of it after a few seconds of thought. They all look tired, after all. Did they really run for like, an hour? "Let's go find a spot to relax, m'kay Yamper?" The Puppy Pokémon squirms out of his owner's arms and hops a few paces forwards before looking back, panting with excitement. "Heh." Even Chimecho can't help but smile a bit.
...
"Tch! Where is everything? Why is this path just empty except for this one boulder?!"
"Chim. There IS a small tree up ahead."
A pair of shining eyes glowers at the party making its way down the path towards their owner. Making their way down his path. The path it carved out to funnel pokémon into its clutches. You see, Freeboot was a thief. This massively long, massively featureless path was his trap!
He had come from a long ways away, and was very scared in the forest at first. The area and its resources were unfamiliar – and also filled with ghosts, that didn't help. But with his brilliant mind and knowledge gleaned from time spent among 'trainers', he eventually came up with a dastardly plan.
One – pin a target behind cover with a bullet-like Move.
Two – extort them for items. If they try to run or charge, start shooting.
He never planned for this, though. A human?! Don't they usually take the path along the mountains? They have terrifying magic, unholy mechanisms with which they can manipulate the very fabric of a pokémon's soul! He should know, stealing one of their artifacts is how he learned Zap Cannon.
This once-meadowy strip of forest was the perfect hunting grounds – he cut it all down and razed the flora, of course. It lead to Route 216, so desperate traveling pokémon would walk it. The trees were extremely dense around it, and filled to the brim with voracious victreebel and ariados just out of sight. True, he had to be careful himself, but Freeboot had faith in his abilities to deal with those ruffians.
He did not, however, have faith in his abilities to resist the pull of a Poké Ball.
What is this mysterious thief? Is Freeboot a sniveling sneasel, murkrow, or thievul? A sneaky scraggy or malicious malamar?!
No. No, Freeboot is a jigglypuff. A jigglypuff in a berry tree in the middle of a road surrounded by monsters.
"Do you guys think we could stop here?" Lucy asks, gesturing to the boulder. It's pretty strange – but mighty convenient. The rock is very large, easily wide enough for five people to lay down besides. And that doesn't even cover the overhanging outcrop! Oh, oh, it's like it was made to sleep in! Chimecho and Yamper nod, and the two Pokémon crawl under the rock to tear away the spinarak webs and claim a spot. Lucy has to crouch pretty low to follow, but that's fine. Just means something like a pinsir won't be able to get in, heh heh. Grabbing the upper lip of the overhang with her right hand, she–
The wild Jigglypuff used Zap Cannon!
When a human is hit by a pokémon's Move, they are not affected in the same way that a fellow pokémon would be most of the time. Unless they are true Aura Users or powerful psychics, their levels of aura are so low compared to even the lowest leveled pokémon that most moves affect them quite strangely. Many a wild pokémon has been absolutely astonished to see their would-be prey be completely unaffected by Mean Look and immediately run for the hills. In turn, a pokémon unfamiliar with animals has often by shocked when their wacky idea to hit that two-legged weirdo with a little Twineedle ended up punching holes right through their torso.
Sometimes, by virtue of having been so thoroughly outcompeted that your kind is almost nonexistent, you can just hang on by virtue of no one knowing how the hell do deal with you when you show up.
And sometimes you can have your goddamn fingers seared off by aura-generated ball lightning. A strangled shriek is choked on as Lucy's body convluses from the current, throwing her onto her back and smacking her head into the dirt. Chimecho stares in horror at her shorn appendages and quickly covers Yamper's eyes, to cover up both the state of her hand and the ground under her, stained with blood.
Lucy fainted!
"CHIM?! What?! What happened?"
"Y-yamp! I-I felt my hair standing up on end... I think someone used an Electric-type attack on her!"
Chimecho grimaces, and lowers her tail on the condition that "Chimecho, echo? You look away, got it?" She then slowly reaches out into the open and wraps her tail around Lucy's leg before dragging her in. Yamper quickly crawls to her side, whimpering.
A sizzling sound suddenly rings out, causing some dust to start falling. Another Zap Cannon must have hit their shelter.
Okay, okay, time to grab this tauros by the horns. Chimecho slowly, slowly sticks her head over the lip of rock and immediately ducks again when a Zap Cannon whistles past her head. Maybe Yamper... no, he's too small and weak. Even being immune to Paralysis, he would KO over on the spot. At least the attacker should be almost out of Zap Cannons by now...
"Jiggly! JIGGLY! Come out with your hands raised! Turn over all your items and I'll let you pass!" Freeboot shouts at the top of his tiny lungs, filled with confidence. There's no way they can get out of this! The human is definitely down... the manner of her defeat was, if he was honest with himself, a bit disturbing – pokémon never had, ah, that much damage occur from a little jolt. But he wasn't being honest with himself, he was being greedy. "Jigglypuff! I repeat - turn over all your items, and you will be allowed to pass!"
A tiny head pops up from behind the rock. He can barely make it out; the tree he is sitting in is only a dozen meters or so away, but pokémon are tiny.
"Chim! No!"
Well, she definitely heard him. The wild Jigglypuff used Zap Cannon! Chimecho avoided the attack! Tch! He fires his last Zapper at the boulder. Sparks fly out from the impact a second later, and he can just barely hear the whimper of the second, younger pokémon.
"That was the last one!"
The Windchime Pokémon surges out of cover, dashing through the space between her cover and–!
The wild Jigglypuff used Zap Cannon...! Chimecho was Paralyzed!
The shocked girl plummets to the ground, kicking up dirt as she bounces from the impact. Freeboot guffaws at the display, and arrogantly throws the remains of an item down for her to see.
Is that... a Leppa Berry?!
The wild Jigglypuff ate its Leppa Berry! Jigglypuff restored Zap Cannon's PP using its Leppa Berry!
"Chim... Oh, no..."
"JIGGLY! Oh YES!" he shouts, hopping down. "Jigglypuff? Puff. Puff puff jiggly. You're down now, you hear me? I gave you a shot, man, I did. Hand over your items. If you resist, I'll punt you over to the hungry victreebel in the forest."
"Chim... Chimecho? You know... you know I can still levitate, right? You just hit me off guard, is all." True to her word, Chimecho slowly lifts off the ground. While her speed is impaired and any real Moves may cause her to freeze up, basic movement is not a problem with Paralysis.
"Jiggly! Please, you're a sitting duck!" He waves a stubby arm at her, smirking evilly. "Jiggly? Jiggly? Want me to hit you with that lightning again? Or hit you and let my cute charm do its thing?"
"Chimecho...? You... you have Cute Charm?"
"Jiggly? Jiggly~? Well, isn't it obvious? Don't my cute lil' face just radiate it~?" Chimecho shudders as Freeboot struts around, flexing his stubby little limbs like some kind of bodybuilder. It's obvious this guy isn't from an advanced society. He must've heard the term 'cute charm' from eavesdropping on humans, but he must have no concept of Moves or Abilities for what they really are.
"Jiggly... If you don't hand over your berries, I'm just gonna..."
"CHIMECHO. DON'T. TOUCH. ME."
"Jiggly jiggly! Jiiiiiiiiiiiigglypu–phpp! Geez, calm down! We're not even in the same Egg Group – I was just gonna threaten your buddies back ther-GACK!"
Yamper smacks the shit out of Freeboot out of nowhere. He must've been sneaking up and fired up a Quick Attack at the last second. Level difference or no, a lightweight balloon like jigglypuff is gonna be sent flying by an unexpected blow like that. Freeboot careens down the path, cursing and flailing his limbs wildly as he eventually rolls to a stop several dozen meters away. He gets up and glares - no, stares bloody murder in the direction of his would-be-prey, but it seems Yamper has managed to drag his partner back behind cover. Chimecho's vibes settle down considerably once she gets a dose of Paralyze Heal, courtesy of Yamper; but chorus of Zap Cannon impacts disrupts their regrouping
"Yamp? C-chimecho? How do we get past this guy?"
She thinks to herself. "Hm... he has Cute Charm, which means me attacking him directly is risky. And I can't show myself for too long or he might tag me with a Zap Cannon. I'm going to take it for granted that he knows Sing." Damn. "Chimecho. Yamper, I think we should focus on making sure Lucy is okay. Jiggly is probably going to be up there a while." Flurries of sparks shower around the boulder, thrown around by more impacts – what the hell, are we up to 17 Zap Cannons fired?
A strategy is needed...
But first, a Super Potion for Lucy. ... Or at least some bandages.
...
The wild Jigglypuff used Recycle! Jigglypuff recycled its Leppa Berry! The wild Jigglypuff ate its Leppa Berry! Jigglypuff restored Zap Cannon's PP using its Leppa Berry!
Freeboot growls, watching the boulder intently. Tch, he didn't account for the other major difference in this group – there's two of them! And the second one looked so weak, too... never again! He raises a stumpy and starts charging another Zap Cannon. All the better to suddenly fire next time they pop out. And it's not like he was to worry about running out of PP...
Wait, is that the damn dog? Is it sitting on top of the boulder? "YAMPER! Hey! Bully!" The orb winks out of existence as Freeboot's mind tries to register what is happening here. Is that stupid dog... Wait. It's yellow – it must be a lightning elemental! Er, Electric-type. Whatever. No wonder it's just standing there – Zap Cannon wouldn't do anything! In reality it would probably OHKO the poor dog, but Freeboot doesn't know that. "Yamper! Leave us alone! O-or our buddy will beat you up!"
"Jigglypuff? What 'buddy'?"
Instead of answering, Yamper howls. Not uses Howl, he howls, shrieking with everything his tiny little lungs can manage. Freeboot cringes, trying to cover its ears to no avail – its arms cannot reach the top of its head.
It doesn't even notice when a tired-looking humanoid touches down on the boulder, having heard the puppy's cry from quite a distance away. A saiyan's passive hearing is not much better than a humans, but when they concentrate, and I mean really concentrate, they can pick out quite a bit from their surroundings.
Yamper seems a bit shocked by Gohan's condition. He's huffing and puffing, and there's some crackling around him... he must have been Paralyzed! Uh oh. Well, whatever. The Puppy Pokémon coughs and points his nose at the jigglypuff, who now realizes that the horrific sound has faded and seems a bit shocked by the new arrival. Where did he come from?
...
Gohan is Paralyzed! He can't move!
The wild Jigglypuff used Sing! But it failed!
Gohan is Paralyzed! He can't move!
The wild Jigglypuff used Zap Cannon! Gohan is already Paralyzed!
Gohan used Mach Punch! Gohan's attack missed!
Freeboot blinks as the wind buffets him; after his eyes refocus, he – wait, where did the new kid go?
There's heavy breathing next to him.
Uh oh.
Gohan used Brutal Swing! It's not very effective... The wild Jigglypuff is blasting off!
Dark Matter: the Negative Entity
Class: Demon
Ability: Blowback
Signature Move: Shadow Casting
Type: Unknown
Height: 10 m
Weight: 750 kg
Dark Matter is a demon spoken in legends of distant regions, specifically the islands clustered around Mistia. It is said to have been born out of the negative feelings of all the pokémon in the world, and as soon as it came into existence it started rampaging. The legend says that it took an entire army of pokémon to defeat it, as for every pokémon it defeated it grew stronger. Dark Matter supposedly has no Type, and this may very well be true due to its supernatural nature. However, with the recent reemergence of behemoths such as Groudon and Dialga, we may find the answer to any questions about it soon enough.