Riley ran after the Roarbit who had escaped via the path it had made by knocking over the branch. He grasped the vine on the other side and climbed up it, then jumped off on the branch that was next to its upper half. He walked carefully across the branch until he encountered another branch that had fallen. This one was hollow, and Riley crawled through it like he was going through a fun tube at a playground.
He got up on the other side and stretched his back. Riley watched the Roarbit pick up the poison-drenched body of a Treedweller Darwing. The cruel venomous Pokemon dangled the paralyzed body of the bird in its hand structure before throwing it against the ground and kicking it to the side. Riley could swear he heard Roarbit laugh.
Every footprint the Roarbit made left a black mark, like it was burning through the wood. It walked into another hollow, spinning the medallion piece around in its hand. Riley had to follow it! And so he did! But first, he stopped to check on the Treedweller Darwing. Without a second thought, he offered it an Antidote, then coaxed the Moo Moo Milk that Maple had given him into the green bird's mouth.
"Wingar?" it chirped, looking up at Riley with its big, cute eyes. Its tail was fluffy, and its legs had thick feathers that made them look like baggy pants. Riley inspected its injuries, scanning it with the PokeDex as he picked it up and rubbed its forehead.
"Darwing. The Adapting Pokèmon Treedweller Form, one of Darwing's six forms. Grass- and Flying-type. Their sharp claws and long legs are a result of Darwing adapting to live in trees, since the ground and rocks had been taken by their other forms. They happily share the trees with their Leafprancer Form and Drill-Beak Form, as Tree Dweller Darwing populate the branches of trees exclusively. Their call is unique to only the Tree Dweller Form, and they feed on the bark of the branches in combination with small bug-type Pokèmon."
Riley took out an empty PokeBall and sat it in front of the injured Darwing. It looked it over, its wide neck craning cutely as it inspected the orb. It looked at Riley, smiled, then pecked the button on the PokeBall. The PokeBall, as usual, shook thrice, then glowed gold. Riley picked it up and grinned. He'd made a new friend.
Another Darwing came to investigate, too. No, not just one, two. Wait, there was an entire flock! They were all so tiny that they could fit in Riley's hand, but their bodies were incredibly detailed. They had many colours in their feathers and they looked as though they had tribal markings on their small bodies.
"Leafprancer Form, one of Darwing's six forms. Flying- and Fairy-type. Constantly dancing, Leafprancer Darwing are known for their melodical call. Some ancient cultures were known to copy the dances of Leafprancer Darwing as a method of sending prayers to the heavens, as they believed the happy birds had connections with the deities of the skies. They're light and small enough to sit on leaves, only ever stopping their dances to feed on the greenest leaves on the tree."
The poor Chinockan Pokemon that had to deal with that cruel Roarbit. If Roarbit wasn't exterminated from this area soon, Riley would be mad.
"Hey! Riley!" somebody called. The trainer looked around to see where the voice was coming from. It was the male Nurse Joy that had been not far below on the tree. "I'll take your Pokemon for you. Maybe it's not smart to walk into this with a full team, especially one not strong against Dragon- or Poison-type." Riley agreed. For the first time ever, he let Flaradillo get sent to the Virtual Paradise. He also sent Corvekt and Barksky to the Virtual Paradise, as well as the Treedweller Darwing he had just caught. When he was done making changes to his team, he was left with Bluntooth and Rawbbit on his team.
"Thanks for your service. Sir Kit will take great care of your beloved Pokemon, I'm sure. Have no worries."
One of the cute pink and green Darwing, in their Flying- and Fairy-type Leafprancer form, hopped up on Riley's shoulder. Was it looking to be a partner of his? He watched as it hopped down the strap of his bag and pulled around inside his bag until he saw a PokeBall roll out. Soon after, the bird popped out too, and landed on the ground. Unfortunately, though, it tripped and landed on its chin. It got back up unfazed, though, and flapped over to the PokeBall. It balanced on it like a ball-balancing Seel and waited for Riley to clue in.
It wanted to help him! He tickle its chin with his fingernail and it chirped adorably in reaction. Riley picked up the PokeBall that the Darwing was standing on and slowly pried it open. The Darwing flapped its wings, keeping itself in the air before it was turned into white light and dragged into the PokeBall. The round device skittered lightly in Riley's palm, but then glowed. Leafprancer Darwing was caught! What a cutie!
Riley walked into the hollow, ready to take on his croaking opponent. He practically growled as he entered. The stench of dead things was immediate when he entered the hollow. Turned-over Pokemon effectively lined the Roarbit's den. There was even a Pupsky that was decaying in the corner. Did Roarbit purposefully surround itself by the bodies of those it had killed? How sadistic could one be!?
The Roarbit was still playing with Riley's medallion piece. It spun it around on its webbed fingers. Its purple-liquid-emitting tongue was juggling an Aractric that it had killed and was debating eating. Both of its shoulders had air sacks on them that puffed up and down in the same rhythm as its chest-based air sack. It had what almost looked to be a crown-type structure on its head that was black and covered in indigo slime.
It was revolting, but it had an air of regalness- no, arrogance- to it that was very intimidating. It was looking at Riley with its hideous yellow and indigo eyes as if it had been expecting him.
"Roooooooaaaakkkk!" it screeched, leaving Riley's ears ringing.
"Blunt-bluntooth!" Bluntooth hissed, taking its position as the first to face Roarbit!
"Roarrobi-it!"
Riley clenched his fist. Roarbit used Dragon Claw! The indigo aura that seemed, to Riley, to be linked to draconic force in some way, formed scary-looking claws on the ends of Roarbit's webbed fingers that it slashed Bluntooth with, but the attack did little damage to Bluntooth because it was Ice-type!
It attacked back with Ice Fang! It bit with ice-coated fangs into the air sack on Roarbit's shoulder! The attack was super effective, but Roarbit was just so defensively strong that it did little damage anyway. And to add to the misfortune, Bluntooth had become poisoned!
Quickly, Riley used one of his two remaining Antidotes on Bluntooth, but not before Roarbit could land a Dynamic Punch on it! It was super effective, but Bluntooth held on, just barely! It used Ice Beam, hitting Roarbit right on its crown structure! The Roarbit took the same amount of damage as it had from Bluntooth's previous Ice Fang, and it counterattacked with another Dynamic Punch! This one caused Bluntooth to faint! And Roarbit was only about a quarter less healthy than it had been starting the battle!
Riley opted to quickly use Darwing's power! The bird's feathers glowed purple as it unleashed a flurry of blinding rainbow lights into the air. Roarbit was caught off guard! It became so confused by the lights that it slipped, doing damage to itself! But not much. It got back up and tried to regain its balance, but it was still teetering on its feet when it stood back up.
Darwing prepared a Future Sight. It foresaw a strong attack hitting Roarbit, and focused its mind on that attack. Roarbit used Poison Beam, but its attack missed because of its confused state! But then it shook its head and regained its focus. Darwing used Moonblast, hoping its Fairy-type attributes would damage Roarbit significantly, but hadn't noticed that Roarbit was also part Poison-type. It damaged it as much as any other regular attack would.
"Biiiit!" Roarbit croaked, its voice low and disgusting to the ears. Riley just wanted it to never make a sound again. Never take a breath again. He wanted it to never hurt another Pokemon again! He wanted it dead! Dead as the Concealpillar that it had pushed a branch onto! Dead as the rotting dead Pupsky in the corner of its den! Dead as the Ledian that had cracked its exoskeleton by falling from such a height because the Roarbit had paralyzed it! He wanted it to rot! He wanted all wild Roarbit to rot!
Roarbit used Poison Beam on Riley's Leafprancer Darwing! The bird nearly fainted, but held on! It remained focused on the Future Sight attack, but used Fly! It flew into the air where Roarbit couldn't reach it! Roarbit attempted to use Poison Beam, but the beam dissipated before it could reach Darwing because it was so high in the air.
"Riley!" Riley heard. What? Who said that? Eric was standing in the entranceway of the tree's hollow. "That Roarbit appears to be an Ultra Pokemon!" He was panting. What was he doing all the way up here? "I'll explain more after it's taken care of!"
Riley nodded to Eric. Eric had confirmed that he wasn't a trainer, but maybe his Lucario would help take care of Roarbit? It was Steel-type, after all. He'd have to ask later. Maybe when things were more desperate.
Darwing clawed Roarbit's tongue with its sharp claws as it shot down from the sky like an arrow. At the same time, Roarbit's body started glowing purple-pink! The Future Sight attack! The light consumed Roarbit and he took significant damage!
It used Dragon Claw on Darwing! Its Dragon-type attack wasn't very effective on the Fairy-type bird, but it was filled with so much rage that it landed a critical hit, causing Darwing to faint!
It was Rawbbit's turn to show its fealty! Riley had the Rawbbit use Dragon Pulse! It created its draconic fangs out of the aura surrounding it and created a shock wave of indigo aura. It honed in on Roarbit and did significant damage to it! Roarbit was in critical condition! It became vengeful!
It summoned a sword out of the indigo dragon aura around it and rushed at Rawbbit with nearly invisible speed! Rawbbit would faint! Riley would have to forfeit!
"Carr!" something meowed.
Riley gasped!
Eric's Lucario was holding back Roarbit's Slayer attack with its own Bone Rush attack! They collided, causing sparks to fly! "Rio!" it called, looking back to Rawbbit for a brief moment.
"Bi-bit!" Rawbbit nodded. It jumped high into the air and focused a Dragon Tail on Roarbit! It formed a draconic tail from the indigo force and slammed it into Roarbit's forehead with all the force it could muster! Roarbit finally fainted!
The medallion piece fell to the ground and rolled a little bit like a coin on the floor. Riley reached his hand out for it. A hand wearing the same fingerless glove as him also reached for it, but it wasn't his own hand.
"Oh," Eric said, pulling his hand back. "Is this yours?"
Riley nodded.
"My apologies. I thought it was ownerless. You did well fighting that Roarbit, you know. As promised, I will explain about Ultra Pokemon." He took a deep breath and began, "Ultra Pokemon are extremely strong members of a Pokemon species that functions as a hierarchy. For example, Rawbbit and Roarbit have a hierarchy. This particular Roarbit was the Ultra, apparently."
The Pokemon Conservationist breathed again, and continued, "That may sound pretty unimportant, but it's more important than you think. The evolved form of the Pokemon species that the Ultra Pokemon belongs to won't appear to a trainer that hasn't encountered their Ultra before. And the unevolved forms won't evolve for their trainer in that instance either. And furthermore, traded members of that species will refuse to obey the trainer unless they have encountered their Ultra before in Chinocko.
"At this point, science suggests that there are about four or five Ultra Pokemon in Chinocko. Many Chinockan Pokemon Trainers make it one of their goals to fight each of the Ultra Pokemon they can find. You seem like the kind of Pokemon Trainer that would pursue that kind of goal, no?
"Anyway, I came up here to let you know that our project is ending for the day. We've made an enormous amount of progress, our team of five."
That's when Rawbbit interrupted Eric. Its body was glowing with pure white light. Riley walked up to it, knowing what this meant! It was evolving into Roarbit now that it had witnessed its trainer's victory over its Ultra Roarbit!
The white light engulfed its body and it became no more than a silhouette. Its round body quickly and somewhat morbidly evolved into a humanoid stature and its shoulders puffed up with air sacs that made it look like it was wearing shoulderplates. It grew much sleeker in build and a vestigial crown structure sprouted on top of its sharp ovoid head. Its eyes were the first thing to be seen after the light cleared. They were the same as Ultra Roarbit's, but they were hiding an evolved heart, not a rotten, sadistic one. And it made them beautiful.
"Here, Riley," Eric began. He held out a red-orange-topped PokeBall that looked to be specialized for the Pokemon Caller. "This is a Charizard that is optimized for using Charizard Glide. I've raised it since it was a Charmander, but I think it would be happy to serve you as well."
Riley accepted the gift from the Pokemon Conservationist. He used Charizard to gently glide down the tree. It was breathtaking seeing the huge tree go by so quickly as he flew down it at the speed of a bullet. Eric followed behind on his own Charizard, his black-scaled while Riley's was orange.
They both landed at the base of the tree. Riley could use this Charizard to take him back to any location he had already been to in a fraction of the time it would take to walk. He would have used it to soar to new areas, but he was scared of getting lost and opted that he would simply explore Chinocko as it occurred to him.
"Welcome back!" Professor Maple waved. "Lilly and Lillie both went to Torutara Town to rest in the motel there. I suggest you do too. Here, I'll take you there."
With that, Professor Maple gently grabbed hold of Riley's hand and directed him back to Torutara Town just outside of the forest. "See you later, good Riley," Eric said, waving as he watched Riley walk away. "And honourable Professor Maple! I'd come with you, but a Pokemon Conservationist's work is never done." He turned around and walked the other way before hopping on his Charizard's back.