Lilly walked up to the railing on the edge of the cliff and put her hands on it. She looked out at the large canyon below, and at the river that ran through it. On the other side of the canyon was a mid-sized town that had a big museum at its heart, and a fully-constructed Tyrantrum made of huge bones. "Wow... That's Dinohlr Town, I guess?"
Riley, too, looked over the cliff at the lowlands. It was weird seeing so much bare, deserted rock when he was so used to seeing grass and mountains and rivers and lakes. He was excited to get a closer and get what his adventure through Chinocko had coming for him!
"Riley," Lilly said, snapping the boy out of his sightseeing. "I'm..." She blushed and shook, before composing herself. "I'm... too scared to go down the cliff... on my own..."
Riley nodded. He would accompany Lilly down the cliffside until they reached the bottom. He, too, was intimidated by the dangerous rocky cliff, anyway. It would be helpful for him to go down with his best friend.
Riley took a step out onto the unrailed section of the cliff. There was a stairway made from rocks, but it was unsturdy and rocky dust chipped off when he stepped. Looking down the cliff, he saw that Derreck had already made it to the bottom. How had he made it down so quickly?
"You okay, Riley?" Lilly asked, taking her first step onto the cliff.
Riley nodded, walking down a semi-flat patch of rock face rather quickly as not to slip. He found himself approaching a position where he could no longer move forward.
"To your left, Riley," Lilly pointed out. "Turn left and go down."
Riley noticed that to his left was a brief give in the steep cliff that he could use to turn around and start going down further. He took the path, before coming across a piece of rock that had absolutely broken off, damaging the wooden bridge that had been constructed before him. Grabbing Lilly's hand, Riley carefully crossed the damaged wooden bridge with his partner.
There was a ladder on the other side, and Riley climbed down it, Lilly following. They were almost to the ground. They thankfully rested on a large rock that was safe to walk on. Unfortunately, it looked like there was a pair of Pokemon Trainers also sitting on the rock.
"You guys look tired. You tired as me, though?" asked the burly hiker who was lugging a big backpack on his shoulders and had a masculine, if not slightly messy beard.
"If you thought climbing down this cliff was hard, trying climbing up it!" groaned the accompanying female hiker, who wasn't carrying a backpack but was wearing cargo pants that had things overflowing from their pockets.
"A battle? Here? Oh, this can't be safe." Lilly chirped, scared.
"Well, our eyes've met," nodded the resting hiker. "So that means there's no turning down our battle!"
"I don't like it either, but it's the rules," murmured the smaller female hiker. She sent out her Pokemon, a majestic bird Pokemon that had a thick wooden stick in its mouth that looked like it had been fashioned into a sword.
"Corv!" it cawed.
The bigger, burlier of the hikers sent out a Machoke.
Lilly sent out Elelel. Riley sent Pupsky into battle!
"Ur-pup!" Pupsky barked, its tail wagging out of its eagerness to battle.
"Machoke, use Focus Blast!" ordered the manly hiker. His Pokemon closed its eyes and put its hands together, gaining focus.
"Corvekt," called the male hiker's partner. "Use Fly!" The black-feathered bird flew up into the air, far too high for any of the other Pokemon to reach it with an attack.
"Elelel, use Aqua Jet on Machoke!" As per Lilly's request, the small blue Pokemon powered up a water-type attack and ran its cold water jet into the muscular purple opponent.
Riley nodded and grunted to Pupsky. He clenched his fist and pointed at his adorable Pokemon with his index finger. Pupsky nodded back. It ran up to Machoke and chomped down tight, right on the front of the Machoke's garment. With a yelp, the Fighting-type Pokemon fainted, and the hiker called it back. He sent out another Pokemon, this one a Poison- and Rock-type Pokemon named Toxock. It had a shell of hard rock that was chipped in some places, revealing the plasmodial body inside. On the front of the rock shell, there appeared to be an image of a skull, complete with crossbones.
Just then, Corvekt came crashing down, running its sword right into Elelel. Elelel flew back, in pain, but swam through the air back to where it had been standing. "Elelel, counter that attack with Water Gun!"
Elelel launched a powerful Water Gun at the Flying-type Pokemon opposing it. It took a decent amount of damage, but it wasn't even bothered by the pain it was supposedly in. It just sat back and awaited its trainer's orders.
Toxock floated over to Pupsky and attempted to use Toxic on it, but its attack missed the swift, fluffy Pokemon! Pupsky, using its closeness to Toxock to its advantage, used Tackle on the Pokemon, knocking it back!
But Toxock was hardly damaged by Pupsky's weak Normal-type attack. It spun around in the air, its gelatinous insides reaching out to its rocky shell to keep it in proper shape. It targeted Elelel for its next attack, which was Rock Smash!
It floated in the air over to Elelel and opened up its rock shell, sliding its cellular body around Elelel before smashing its shell back into place, damaging Elelel critically by landing a critical hit!
To avenge Elelel, Pupsky used Bite, and landed a critical hit of its own on Toxock! But Toxock's Ability, Sturdy, prevented it from fainting by allowing it to hold on with just barely any health left.
Corvekt drew its neck back, and obeyed its Trainer's command. "Use Slash!" It swung its neck, causing the wooden sword in its beak to hit Pupsky. The grey fur-covered Pokemon yelped, the sword making a loud smack-like noise upon contact with Pupsky.
"Stoath, you're up!" Lilly called, sending out the evolved version of Stoaf. "Use Tackle on Toxock!" It did, using great speed. It smashed its shoulder right into Toxock, causing Toxock to faint.
Pupsky jumped onto Corvekt's chest, holding on with its claws, and used Bite, biting down hard on the base of the bird's neck. Corvekt fainted! "No!" the hiking woman shrieked. "My only Pokemon!"
"Don't worry, dear. I've still got one more," smiled the big hiker man.
"Zock-zock!" it chittered. It was another Toxock, but this one had a red core and a glossy black shell, unlike its predecessor that had an uneven, grey shell and a purple core.
Riley was curious, and aimed his PokeDex at the oddly-pigmented Toxock. "Toxock. Igneous Form, one of Toxock's three forms. Rock- and Fire-type. Toxock create shells from the rocks that are found in their habitats. Depending on the type of rock found in the habitat where a Toxock makes its home, it will have different properties because of the differing minerals in the rocks it uses as a shell."
The Toxock from before had been in its Metamorphic Form, and was Rock- and Poison-type. That's what the information Riley read on his PokeDex said, at least.
Toxock used Ember on Stoath, but Stoath had just used Protect! It took no damage! Pupsky took this opportunity to use Bite! Like the previous Toxock, Pupsky landed a critical hit on this one! Except, also like the previous Toxock, this one had Sturdy as its Ability. Thankfully, though, Stoath used Scratch. It swung its claw-tipped tail at the Toxock, making it faint!
"Yes!" Lilly cheered. "We did it, Riley! Great work!"
"Yes, great work ind-!" The female hiker began, but gasped! Pupsky was glowing with a bright white light!
"Pup-pup!" it barked, excited as it could possibly be! The white light surrounding it engulfed it, and all of the trainers had to block their eyes with their arms so it didn't blind them. Riley could see through his fingers that Pupsky was rapidly growing and changing behind the curtain of white light. Its frame was growing bigger, and sleeker, and stronger-looking!
When the light cleared, in Pupsky's place was a majestic dog-like Pokemon with a pair of on-edge upright ears, long, swift-looking, muscular legs, two fluffy tails, broad shoulders that matched well with its huge chest muscles, and a mane of fur around its neck that looked like a large, fluffy scarf. "Bark!" it howled. "Barksky!" Its eyes were even more beautiful than they were in the Pokemon's Pupsky state, one a rich chocolate brown and the other an icy blue.