Chapter 8

Defeating Ducklett Again

The doors creaked loudly as I opened them up to enter the tower. All three of us were ecstatic to finally solve this legend and go home. The three of us bolted up the stairs to the seventh floor. We had to take a break on the third though, because we ran out of breath. When we regained our stamina, we began going up again. We had to stop at the sixth floor to again catch our breath. We then continued to the seventh floor.

We were at the peak of the stairs. "Darkrai!" I called elatedly. "Oshawott and Sylveon have been cured! We…" My joy turned to worry as I noticed that Darkrai was lying on the ground. "Darkrai?"

The three of us slowly went over to him. He groaned a bit and his eyes were shut tight.

"Darkrai!" shouted Sylveon. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Darkrai slowly opened up his eyes. "Ah, you three…" he said. "It's Ducklett… he's here…"

"Ducklett?" I asked shocked. "Why would Ducklett be here?"

"I don't know," said Darkrai hoarsely. "But he took the demonic energy from both Sylveon and Oshawott… and he's huge."

"But how?" asked Oshawott, trying to figure out.

I was trying to think of the possibilities of what could have happened. Maybe the legends book will tell me something? I thought.

"Darkrai, where did you put my satchel?" I asked

"It's on the altar," he replied with weakness.

I went for the altar and sure enough, the satchel was there. I opened it up and pulled out the book. I flipped to the page that had the legend of the Tower of the Demonic Pokémon. I didn't see anything that caught my eye, so I kept flipping through the pages. I found a section called "Extra Facts" and decided to look there. I saw something that read:

NOTE: Sometimes, parts of legends can combine. Example: A Pokémon can become a giant and become a demon at the same time.

"Sylveon, Oshawott!" I called without lifting my head from the book. "I think I found something!" The two scampered over.

"What is it?" asked Oshawott with a lot of hope.

"It says here in the book that legends can combine, or, at least the effects of the legends," I explained. "The example it gives is that a Pokémon can become a giant as well as they can become a demon."

"But where did Ducklett the power to become a giant?" said Sylveon.

I thought about that for a second. "I'm just going to go out on a limb here, but maybe when Groudon took Ducklett underground, he stored the power for later use," I said.

"That does sound a bit farfetched, but you're usually right when you say you're 'just going to go out on a limb,' Froakie," said Sylveon.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" blurted Oshawott. "We have to defeat Ducklett in order to get the next key thingy!"

"You're right," I said. "Let's get a move on."

Darkrai came in, but very weakly. "May I help you save some time by teleporting you to the doors of the tower?"

"If you don't mind, then we'd be happy if you did that," said Sylveon.

"I agree," I said.

"As long as we get there, it'll be fine," said Oshawott.

"Okay, get ready," said Darkrai. His voice was extremely hoarse now. He closed his eyes, and then we were instantly teleported outside the tower.

"I hope he'll be alright," I said with worry. "His voice was bad and he seemed very weak."

"I'm sure he'll be fine," said Sylveon. "Legendary Pokémon don't die, I don't think."

"Either way, let's get going," Oshawott said with determination. "This legend won't solve itself, you know."

"You're right," I told Oshawott. I put on a face of confidence. I looked to the town and I saw Ducklett there. His colors had turned from light blue and navy blue to black and red respectively. He was demolishing buildings. "Let's go before he ruins the town," I said. We then began our way back to town.

We heard Ducklett laugh maliciously as we came into the town. We were behind him, so he didn't notice us. Quite a bit of the buildings were rubble now, and they were steaming. Some of the buildings were more worn out than before with a few holes in them. Only a few were still standing. The smoothie shop happened to be one of them.

We were now right behind Ducklett and he still hadn't noticed. He was mumbling in another language. He was also stomping around. He then made a loud screech that pierced my hearing. I was deaf for a few seconds. At first, none of us knew what to do.

Oshawott decided to make a move and yelled at him, "Hey, you fat duck! Turn around and show your ugly mug! We're not afraid of you at all!"

Ducklett stopped banging his feet in the ground. He slowly turned around and looked down at us. His expression of evil was turned into a sly smirk. "Oh, looks like Froakie and the other two bugs came to try to solve the legend of this province. And one of them is trying to threaten me!" He then began acting scared. "Oh no! These words have pierced my soul!" Ducklett went back to his sly look. "But… I'm a demon, therefore I have no soul. Wow, I just fooled you guys without you even try—"

"SHUT UP!" roared Oshawott. "No one likes to hear you talk! It's like listening to metal being dragged across a chalkboard! I'd rather be forced to listen to terrible music on a high volume!"

Ducklett was still playing around. He pretended to look like he was in despair. "Oh, dear Arceus, no! I've been struck with the pain of the little Pokémon's words again!" He then gave us a bored look. "Wait… I hate Arceus. What has he ever done for me? Groudon has gotten me this far, so I don't see a reason to give a care in the world about Arceus, am I wrong?"

"Yes," I retorted. "I can't believe what you said. Arceus has done tons upon tons of things for you."

"Like what?" asked Ducklett.

"Oh, I don't know," I said sarcastically. "He was the one who created you. In reality, he is the one who got you this far. I'm really surprised that he hasn't come down to get rid of you yet. But I shouldn't question him. After all, Arceus is our god."

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last word," said Ducklett. I was starting to get really annoyed.

"What are you," said Oshawott irritably, "selectively deaf? HE SAID GOD, YOU IDIOT!"

"Got?" said Ducklett.

"GOD! He said god!" Oshawott yelled back.

"Cod?"

"GOD!"

"Bod?"

Oshawott took a deep breath. "I don't even know why I'm even bothering," he said. His tone was unnervingly calm. "I'm going to exterminate you. Right here. Right now."

"Pft, good luck to you," said Ducklett without giving a care in the world as he turned his head to the side and closing his eyes.

Oshawott didn't hesitate at all. He took his scalchop off of his stomach and began to charge up a Razor Shell. He leaped into the air towards Ducklett. He got near Ducklett's face and then slashed a bunch of times. Ducklett was caught by surprise. His eyes opened up wide and he fell backwards on a building. He crushed it entirely.

Before he could get up, Sylveon leaped up and used Dazzling Gleam. Ducklett was pelted with sparkling bits of light. Ducklett got up quickly and smacked all three of us far back. I leaped up quickly and began throwing multiple Water Pulses at him. He deflected most of them with his wings. The rest of them hit him in the face. Sylveon got up and used Dazzling Gleam again. Ducklett avoided it entirely by flying up quickly. Oshawott charged up Razor Shell and threw it at Ducklett while I began to send out more Water Pulses. Most of the Water Pulse attacks landed on Ducklett, but they were ineffective. Oshawott's scalchop struck Ducklett hard on his right wing. The scalchop came back like a boomerang.

"You little pests!" yelled Ducklett. "How dare you defy me?" He swooped down and tried to hit us. He failed to strike us directly but the wind created by him going down blew us back a bit. Sylveon attempted Dazzling Gleam again. Some of it struck Ducklett. I leaped up in the air and used Hydro Pump. It was harder to control than I had originally thought, so my aim was sloppy and I missed entirely.

The fight kept going on for a while and we were all getting worn out. My limbs were aching and I was panting. Sylveon was sweating a bit and her limbs were trembling. Oshawott was still standing strong but was breathing really hard. Ducklett was panting. "You guys just don't want to give up, now don't you?" said Ducklett as he was gulping for air.

"Do you honestly think that we'd give up on fighting you?" retorted Oshawott, gasping for air in-between words.

Ducklett was silent except for his own breathing.

Sylveon stepped in. "I think it's time for me to end this!" She took a few shaky steps and planted her feet in the ground. A moon had risen above her and she began absorbing its energy. She had learned Moonblast. She released all of the energy she stored straight at Ducklett. It struck Ducklett right in the gut. He yowled in pain as his gigantic body fell to the ground. He began shrinking as the demon in him began coming out. His colors returned, and a giant dark orb was above him. It went straight for the tower and Ducklett was normal size.

"We…" Oshawott was still breathing heavily. "We won."

"I think Sylveon won that one for us," I said.

We heard a rumble from the ground. A fissure formed in the earth. Groudon busted out of the ground. "You little maggots…" he said in his deep, evil voice. "You will not live to restore time and evolution…" He grabbed Ducklett and went back underground. The fissure closed up.

"What in the name of Arceus just happened?" yelled Oshawott.

"I don't know," I told Oshawott. "But we can't let him scare us. We will restore time and evolution, no matter what he says."

Sylveon was shaking even more now. Her breathing was normal, and she wasn't sweating anymore. I walked over and asked her, "Hey, are you okay?"

She was hesitant to reply. "Y-Yea, I'm fine. It's just… that Moonblast took a lot of energy out of me…"

"Either way…" I began, "you saved us back there. We owe you a lot."

"Save the soft stuff for later, Froakie!" she said in her normal tone. "We gotta get that key fragment. We won't get it by just standing here, you know!"

I snickered a bit. "You're right. Come on, you two. Let's get back to the tower."