Disclaimer: Although the severely warped and twisted imagination is my own, Pokemon and its characters belong to Satoshi Tajiri and the various license holding companies that are responsible for manufacturing video games that have consumed hundreds of hours of my life in the blink of an eye. The Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series produced by Chunsoft in particular is responsible for what you are about to witness.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Enigmatic Origin - Chapter 4
The mission that Taki had picked out for them sounded simple enough. Their client, an Umbreon, had misplaced an item of some importance to them, although Crystal really wasn't sure what use an Umbreon would have for a jar of nacho cheese, and wanted someone to go into the dungeon to find it and would be waiting on the bottom floor of the dungeon for the item to be delivered to them. The dungeon in question, labeled as Magnet Swamp, had a swampy landscape with metallic towers covered in numerous different sized magnets protruding from the terrain in various places. The atmosphere was warm and muggy, a factor that Crystal quickly realized would probably hinder the effectiveness of her fire type attacks. This proved to be somewhat problematic when many of the pokemon in the dungeon would have ordinarily been much more vulnerable to fire.
The going was painstakingly slow as the Cyndaquil and Buizel had to carefully inspect every room on every floor of the dungeon in search of the missing item while fighting off any pokemon that got in their way. In the beginning this wasn't so difficult since they mostly encountered Tangelas, Grimers and Gulpins with the occasional Carnivine, Magnemite or Magneton to contend with. Fortunately, Crystal and Taki were able to keep their energy up by snacking on the apples and oran berries that they found along the way. However, things did become more difficult once they traveled deeper into the dungeon.
The Magnemites and Magnetons became more common. Tangrowths, Muks and Swalots began to appear in place of their un-evolved counterparts. Carnivines remained reasonably scarce, but there was also the occasional Magnezone to worry about. The journey alone was beginning to take its toll on the two explorers and they still hadn't managed to find the missing item they were supposed to be searching for. This continued until they finally reached the end of the dungeon.
Sure enough, the Umbreon was there waiting accompanied by a fearsome looking Luxray. By then, Crystal and Taki were already pretty exhausted so they really weren't prepared for what happened next.
"So you're the thieves who stole my nacho cheese," the Umbreon accused them haughtily. It sounded distinctly feminine. "I knew you would return to the scene of the crime!"
Crystal and Taki exchanged mutually puzzled glances at each other.
"We're not thieves," Crystal started defensively.
Taki was more obstinate about it, "We're the exploration team that came here to find it for you!" The Buizel shook a fist at the Umbreon for emphasis. This proved to be a mistake.
Electricity rippled from the Luxray's fangs and struck the ground at Taki's feet. The Buizel quickly took a step back.
"Wait," Crystal tried to mediate the situation. "We didn't come here for a fight!"
The Umbreon wasn't listening. "That's right Luxray, you punish those thieves. We can take my nacho cheese back from them once they're unconscious!"
Taki glanced at Crystal, "I don't think they're giving us a choice."
Crystal nodded. Taki was at an obvious disadvantage against such a strong electric type. That meant that Crystal was going to have to pick up the slack if they wanted to make it out of this in one piece. She had already learned from dealing with all those Magnemites, Magnetons and Magnezones that getting hit by electric attacks seriously hurt.
"We should hit them hard," Taki advised. "Let's use that new combination we learned while we were exploring the dungeon."
Crystal knew exactly what Taki was thinking of. During their progress through the dungeon they had both ended up learning to use Swift. It was even more effective when they both used it together. The Cyndaquil and the Buizel both unleashed their own steady beams of shooting stars on the Luxray simultaneously. Unfortunately, the Luxray shrugged it off like he barely even felt it. In the next instant Crystal and Taki collapsed as electricity coursed through both their bodies from a perfectly executed Discharge attack.
Crystal managed to get back on her feet to see Taki struggling to do the same. That electric weakness was really giving him a hard time. If this kept up, Crystal would end up having to fight by herself. She decided to buy Taki some time by using her Smokescreen attack to exhale a shroud of black smoke to keep the Luxray occupied for a little while. While Taki used this time to gobble down an oran berry to restore some of his vitality, Crystal pelted the Luxray with another Swift attack. If they were lucky, that would divert the Luxray's attention to her to give Taki enough time to recover a little.
It seemed to work because once the Luxray managed to make his way out of the Smokescreen he came at Crystal with his fangs bared ready to crush her with a Crunch attack. Fortunately, Crystal was small and agile to get around it by leaping into the air and slamming into the Luxray's back with a Quick Attack. Meanwhile, Taki was back on his feet and managed to propel a blade of wind off his twin tails to smack the Luxray in the side with a Sonicboom attack.
However, just as it seemed like they were starting to turn things around, both Crystal and Taki felt themselves being electrocuted by the Luxray's powerful Discharge attack again. Crystal fought to remain conscious. Her body ached all over. As a pokemon trainer, it made her wonder how even after sustaining substantial damage her own pokemon could still manage to get back up to continue the battle. However, right now she wasn't a trainer. She was a Cyndaquil. As much as being struck by that attack had hurt her, for Taki it must have been even more agonizing. He still needed her help.
Crystal forced herself back onto her feet. The flames on her back exploded to life. By now her vitality must have been pretty low which meant it would have activated her Blaze ability raising the power of her fire type moves. She could see that the Luxray had Taki pinned under his front paw as if he had already won.
"Taki," Crystal shouted in a commanding tone that the Buizel hadn't previously heard from her. "Don't move." For once, Taki did as he was told.
A red-orange fiery glow surrounded Crystal's body. She rushed forward and rammed the Luxray with as much strength as she could manage using her Flame Wheel attack in a last ditch effort to deal some damage. She succeeded at shoving the larger pokemon away from Taki. However, the fatigue from the day's journey and the damage her small body had sustained from being electrocuted during the battle was quickly adding up which was readily apparent from Crystal's heavy breathing.
"Finish them off," she heard the Umbreon declare. The Umbreon, who had stepped back to allow the Luxray room to do the fighting, clearly had no sympathy for them. The Luxray got back on his feet to carry out the request having already recovered from Crystal's power boosted Flame Wheel attack.
Crystal braced herself. She knew instinctively that her body couldn't withstand another Discharge attack. Another part of her knew that Taki was fighting his hardest just to remain conscious even though he could barely move. They really would be finished if they took another hit like that.
"Enough," came a booming voice. The voice was like thunder, if thunder could form words. Crystal's vision was starting to get blurry, but she could recognize the silhouette of Raikou, the legendary beast of thunder, standing between her and the Luxray whose attack had yet to come. Did that mean that Raikou had come to save them?
"What's the big idea getting in the middle of our fight?" the Umbreon sounded indignant.
"This is a misunderstanding," Raikou's voice boomed again. He raised a forepaw to point behind the unreasonable dark type pokemon. "The item you seek was never stolen."
The Umbreon was hesitant, but she still looked to where Raikou had indicated. A Plusle was scurrying along behind a Minun that was carrying a glass jar marked with the face of a Miltank labeled with the words "nacho cheese" filled with the gooey yellow liquid cheese that had presumably gone missing. Recognition seemed to dawn on the Umbreon as she seemed to be familiar with the two small, electric type pokemon.
"Oh," she murmured in embarrassment. "So that's what happened."
The flames on Crystal's back extinguished themselves as the Cyndaquil finally collapsed from exhaustion. The Luxray looked to the Umbreon for further instructions.
"I think they've had enough," the Umbreon finally decided. "Don't you?"
The Luxray shrugged, but agreed to stand down. The Minun set the jar of nacho cheese down in front of the Umbreon. She considered the Minun and the Plusle for a moment until she thought of something.
"Why don't you little troublemakers go fetch some oran berries for our guests?" the Umbreon instructed them. They quickly scurried off to find some. The Umbreon ventured over and gently prodded the Cyndaquil with the tip of her nose, "Don't worry. Help is coming."
"My work here is done," Raikou announced as he fled the scene.
The Plusle and Minun eventually returned with a generous supply of oran berries. The Umbreon instructed them to feed the berries to the Cyndaquil and the Buizel since they were clearly too far-gone to feed themselves at the moment. The Umbreon was satisfied when the two small pokemon finally started to come around.
"You feeling better?" she asked hopefully. Her attitude toward them had changed completely.
Crystal tried to find her voice. She finally managed to mumble, "Just tired..."
"I'm alright," Taki was fairing better. He'd been knocked out faster so he hadn't pushed himself nearly as hard. Crystal's injuries hadn't been nearly as bad as her physical exhaustion.
The Umbreon observed the Cyndaquil appreciatively, "She's a strong little squish isn't she?"
"You wouldn't know it just by looking at her though," Taki had to agree. In the two days he had traveled with the Cyndaquil he had been surprised by the way it seemed like she always had something up her sleeve to turn the tide of a battle. She didn't necessarily carry herself like a fighter, but she definitely had the innate skills to be a great one.
The Umbreon pawed around in a satchel that hung around her neck, something the Buizel and his companion hadn't taken the time to notice when they had encountered her, and eventually succeeded at removing what looked like a pair of goggles. Then, with the extraordinary effort of one lacking both hands and opposable thumbs, the Umbreon slid the goggles around the Cyndaquil's neck. Crystal was already out cold again.
"I get the feeling that both of you still have a long journey ahead of you," the Umbreon mused. "You should probably take her back to the guild for a good rest."
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Good grief, it sure took me long enough to actually get around to writing this chapter. Hopefully the next one won't take so long.