Previously in Pokémon: The Lost Child When Prinplup and Grovyle were practicing, they stumbled across an old familiar face. It was Magmar, from the village they went to, who was very beaten up. He came with a story about how his village was destroyed before the evil assassin Aegislash, working for The Brotherhood, showed up to finish what he started. Aegislash killed Magmar, but Prinplup evolved into Empoleon, and now with Magmar's death, Empoleon has a new level of hatred for this mysterious Brotherhood.
After a decent amount of time had passed, Empoleon was upset. He had lost someone, someone who had been nice to them. He was just killed by The Brotherhood. Empoleon started punching trees with his bare hands, getting a taste of his newfound power. It felt like he was unstoppable. Nothing could beat him now.
Grovyle sat by watching Empoleon take out his anger on a few trees. Grovyle was never concerned. He was upset at Magmar's death as well, but he wasn't sure if Empoleon should be doing this or not. Grovyle was handling this much better than he knew, but he didn't fully understand why. He did need to do something, though, and he had to approach this carefully.
"Please calm down, Empoleon. Look, I know you are mad and upset, but we need to take some time."
"It's just so unfair. He was such a nice person. He had already suffered so much, and then The Brotherhood killed him without a second thought."
"Life is unfortunately not always very fair. There isn't much we can do about it. We just need to try our best to work with what we have," Grovyle said.
"The Brotherhood needs to be taken down for what they have done," Empoleon stated.
"For once, I do understand why you feel that way, but we need to think rationally. We don't stand a chance against them," Grovyle said.
"How can you be sure about that? I have just evolved. I feel much stronger. I feel nearly unstoppable. It's like there is nothing I can't do," Empoleon responded.
"The power is getting to your head. Please stop and think," Grovyle said.
"I will prove to you that I am unstoppable. I will scale that mountain and take on whatever Pokémon I find at the top," Empoleon said.
"That is a horrible idea, Empoleon. You have no idea what you will find," Grovyle responded.
"I don't care, I need to do this," Empoleon stated before angrily trying to storm off.
"I can't let you do this. I will stop you in any way necessary," Grovyle said.
"You want to fight me over this?" Empoleon stated, somewhat surprised by this.
"I wish it didn't have to come to this, but you have given me no choice. I'm sorry."
Grovyle got out his leaf blades and charged at Empoleon. It was an unusual situation, two good friends fighting. This was not the first time they had battled, but it was always for practice rather than a genuine fight. This was more real, rawer.
Grovyle got out his leaf blades and started attacking Empoleon with them while Empoleon was countering back with his metal claw. Grovyle was able to sneak around Empoleon and get a good hit in with his leaf blade. Grovyle expected that to do the trick, but something was different this time. The leaf blade barely did any damage to Empoleon, it was like he was no longer weak to it, Grovyle didn't understand, and neither did Empoleon. Empoleon countered back with a water gun, which did hit Grovyle, but it didn't do much damage, though it was still more than Grovyle expected. There was a power boost, for sure.
"I will admit you have gotten quite the strength upgrade, but you still have no idea what awaits on the top of the mountain. You need to think about this rationally. There is no reason to put yourself at this much risk," Grovyle said.
"Magmar's death must be avenged. Please don't stand in my way," Empoleon said.
"I can't let you do this. Even if you succeed in this, it will be a path to going on a suicide mission. We are not ready to take these people on," Grovyle said.
Empoleon was still refusing to listen, so he ran up and attacked Grovyle with his metal claw. Grovyle jumped up in the air and landed behind Empoleon, getting out his leaf blade to hit Empoleon with. However, Empoleon used his metal claw, which managed to break through Grovyle's leaf blade, hitting him with a powerful force that sent Grovyle flying back towards a tree.
"That hurt me so much more than I expected," Grovyle said as he was struggling to get back up.
Grovyle tried to get back up, but Empoleon started walking off to the mountain, ready to take on whatever he could find up there.
When Empoleon was walking up the mountain, it was rather surreal. It was very windy, yet there was almost nothing there. Empoleon was looking for a Pokémon to battle, but there seemed to be nothing here at all. But Empoleon wasn't going to give up. He kept climbing the mountain, and he wouldn't stop until he got up. The constant wind made it difficult to climb. Fortunately, there was nothing else to worry about, but the wind was strong and made it much more difficult to get through than he had anticipated.
But Empoleon had been made much heavier by evolution, though, and that was helping him get up. Empoleon didn't fully realize how much heavier he was, more than most Pokémon were when evolving. There was something unique about Empoleon that had changed as a result of his evolution, but he had no idea what it was.
After around thirty minutes of nothing but climbing this mountain, Empoleon finally made it to the top.
"Hello, is anyone on top of this, anyone at all?" Empoleon shouted into the distance. At first, he got no response, so he decided to shout the same thing again.
"Who disturbs my peaceful slumber," It was a Pokémon who was unlike any Empoleon had seen before. He no longer had Grovyle to identify Pokémon for him.
"I am Empoleon. I am here to challenge you to a battle."
"I am Hippowdon. I don't care about your challenge, I just want to be left alone."
"You will fight me by force if needed. I did not come up this mountain for nothing," Empoleon responded.
"Trust me, you do not want to mess with me. I am being merciful by giving you a chance to turn back despite interrupting my sleep," Hippowdon responded.
"I do not turn back, you hear me," Empoleon shouted.
"I wish that things didn't have to come to this," Hippowdon responded.
Empoleon charged forward, using its new aqua jet to charge into Hippowdon at a fast speed. Hippowdon, despite being weak to it, tanked it easily and then slacked off, restoring all the damage it sustained from that aqua jet.
"I am being very generous not attacking right now. Leave while you still have the chance," Hippowdon shouted.
Empoleon didn't listen though, and he started launching his water gun at Hippowdon, which hurt it much more than the aqua jet did. Hippowdon was left with no choice. He was gearing up to perform an attack.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Grovyle had gotten enough rest that he was able to get back up. He, however, needed to get to the top of the mountain as quickly as possible as he knew Empoleon was about to do something really stupid. Grovyle got up and started running as fast as he could. He was always the better runner, so he could get up quicker than Empoleon could. The winds were hard for him, but he was able to manage.
Empoleon, meanwhile, was still fighting Hippowdon, with him attacking and Hippowdon healing off whatever attack he threw at him. Grovyle eventually made it to the top and jumped into the battle.
"Empoleon, you are not safe fighting this Pokémon."
"I feel like I am about to win. Just give me some more time," Empoleon responded.
As Empoleon started talking, though, a massive earthquake began. The two of them could feel it instantly and they could tell it was coming from Hippowdon. The earthquake barely hurt Grovyle, but it was heavily damaging Empoleon, and he could feel it gradually getting weaker and weaker.
"Why is this hurting me so badly?" Empoleon says as he wails in pain from the earthquake.
"When you evolved into Empoleon, you also gained partial steel typing, which is weak to ground-based attacks, and resistant to grass," Grovyle realized that is why his attacks weren't hurting Empoleon as much.
"This is what you get for interrupting my precious sleep. I will enjoy seeing you punished," Hippowdon said.
As Empoleon was getting weaker from the earthquake, Grovyle tried to press on, but he was struggling despite his resistance to the earthquake. Grovyle, at that moment, started glowing. He knew what was about to happen. After a few seconds, he transformed now much taller with longer blades and a massive leaf tail. He was now Sceptile.
Despite this evolution, Hippowdon dismissed Sceptile as not enough of a threat and kept attacking. Sceptile jumped up into the air, launching his newly created tail of leaves into a massive leaf storm that hit Hippowdon with a level of power he did not see coming. It managed to knock out Hippowdon in one hit. Sceptile felt his power level getting much weaker from using that, but he dismissed it for now. Sceptile helped Empoleon get back to the ground of the mountain as Empoleon was still heavily weakened.
After resting for a bit, Empoleon and Sceptile were both recharged enough to talk it out.
"How are you feeling, Empoleon?" Sceptile asked.
"I am feeling better thanks for that and good job on evolving."
"Look, we need to talk about what happened now," Sceptile said.
"Alright, I admit what I did was reckless and dumb. I shouldn't have done it and I wasn't thinking properly," Empoleon responded.
"Admitting that you messed up is a good thing. Look, I do understand why you are feeling this way, but we can't make more irrational decisions like this."
"Think before I act is the lesson I need to take," Empoleon said.
"You got that right," Sceptile responded.