Chapter 16

Down With the Dark Core

The next morning, dewott wakes up first. After seeing that everyone is asleep he stands up. He looks at Dash and Penny egg free. He then looks at servine. He checks the inventory. "Ten oran berries. Three sitrus berries. Two lum berries. Twenty apples. Lots of water. A map that shows where their objectives are. And that's it. Is this enough? I guess we can find more food if the time comes. But will we have enough time to be able to pick more?"

Dash sits up and looks at dewott curiously. Dewott, not noticing that Dash is awake now keeps talking, "We should go to the dark core first. They have a strong dark magic base and not a strong light magic force. Of course they still have a strong light magic troop too but we can weaken them a lot by destroying the dark core first. We'll do more damage by destroying the dark core first rather than destroying the light core first. Of course attacking the light core may be easier to attack. Grrr... Which do we attack?"

"I think we should attack the harder of the two first," Dash said.

"So the dark core?" dewott asked.

"If that's the harder of the two then yes."

"It is. But why?"

"Because if they'll probably be split between the two. So once we destroy one, they'll all move to the other one. If we can weaken most of them before they can all gather together then that'll be the best option."

"Yeah..."

"Are we going to do it that way?"

"Well, there is really no other choice that has makes as much sense that I can think of."

Dash and dewott wait for Penny and servine to wake up. They exchange little words after that. They both were very disconnected with each other. Servine and Penny woke up within minutes of each other.

After giving them a few minutes to wake up, dewott starts talking about the plan. "So we're going to attack the dark core first. The dark core will be underground unlike the light core being up in the hills. This will be a long trip. Now, we have a map that will make this easier. This dark core will be hard to see. We'll need a light to be able to see it. Servine with her light magic can be used to see it."

"What does it look like?" Penny asks, interrupting dewott.

"It's a dark ball. Now this is not black. This is darker then that. It will actually 'eat up' any light that comes near it. So it'll be hard to see it. Come on. Let's walk there and talk." They all start walking to the cave where the dark core is. Servine keeps an eye on the map to make sure they're going the right way. "Now this may be a powerful object but it is actually pretty fragile. We need to go in close to use a physical attack. We can't use any of our long range attacks because it'll be reflected by an invisible energy shield."

"Energy shield?" Dash asked.

"Yes. These shields have an electrical charge to them. Dark core has a positive charge and the light core has a negative charge. These charges create the shield. With these cores growing, these charges are getting stronger, thus causing them to get closer to each other. If we let them, they will come together and combine into one big core which will be very dangerous. The substance will become unstable and the amount of energy that these two cores have will be very deadly to the region."

"What will happen?" Penny asked.

"The cores will collapse and they will disappear. Now le-"

"How is that dangerous?" Dash interrupts.

"Well, light core and dark core are very important to the land. They bring balance to the land. The right amount of rain for us water types and to have the plants grow around for grass types. There is enough lightning to light the fires for the fire types. However without them, there is no energy in the system thus making the ecosystems basically die in this region causing massive range of death by hunger and dehydration."

"But aren't we destroying them?" Penny asks.

"Only temporarily. If they combine, they'll be gone for hundreds of years. The way we're destroying them, they'll be gone for a few days."

"How far in the future are you two from?" Dash asked.

"About ten years."

"So that means that we have ten years to destroy the cores." Dash concluded.

"No we don't."

"Why not?"

"Because as more discover about the expanding cores preventing them from cost, the more pokemon that want to protect them so that they gain power. So we don't have the time to lay around. The more powerful we get, the more corrupt we become."

"I see."

"Any who, back on topic, I think Servine and I will deal with any enemies that get in our way at the core and you two can go in and destroy the core. Just one good physical attack and it'll be destroyed and if we destroy the other one in time then their size will be reset to their original forms."

"About four centimeters radius," dewott motions about how big the ball would be with his hands, "but it will grow to about twelve centimeters." again, he motions with his hands. "It'll stop at that size until they start to over grow like they are now."

"This has happened before?" Penny asked.

"Yes. It happens about every two hundred years. Every time so far, they have been destroyed. However this is the first time that we failed the first attempt."

"Wait. Can't we just go back to this time again and again to retry infinite times?"

"No."

"Well why not?"

"No is really too sure. There are theories out there but no one can really prove it. For some reason we only get to time travel once. Some how some other force that is greater than light and dark magic blocks us from reentering the time zone that allows us to move to different times and this affect goes to our present selves."

No farther words were passed between any of them. They did not stop to rest because dewott wanted to get there as quickly as they could. Dash and Penny's feet starts to get really soar. They haven't walked this far so quickly in a long time. Not only that it took them two steps to complete the same distance as one of dewott or servine's step. Still, they kept on moving at the same pace as the group afraid of the consequences of what would happen if they failed. The familiar forest ended after a few hours of walking. It was a slow change too. First the trees were becoming more spread out. Then the grass started to change. It was becoming taller. Eventually, Dash and Penny couldn't see over the grass even if they jumped. They were walking blindly following dewott and servine. This was no place for them. When the sun hit half way between horizons, the heat started beating them all down. With no tree to hide from this life giving evil, they all walk with no verbal complains. Servine passes water around to everyone before we all died from our stupidity. "Glad we were packed well." everyone was thinking. They reach the cave which was basically a hole in the ground with a slight inclined. They all walk in to retreat from this heat. Dewott and servine finally stop to rest. Dash and Penny lay on the cool and moist rocks. Although it was the worst place to lay because of the hard ground, but for them they were very comfortable. They were happy to trade the uncomforts of the grasslands for the uncomforts of the cave. Dewott grabs everyone an apple. Everyone happily eats their respective apple. The moist apple helped counter act the dry conditions out in the grass land. Dewott stands up and looks at everyone. Servine stands up next and looks at Penny and Dash. "Guess that was the signal to start going again." Penny thought. Penny stands and Dash does the same. Dewott nods and heads into the cave. Servine walks next to dewott and makes a light ball which illuminates the path way ahead. The ball of light didn't flicker. Not once. There was a lot of signs of life but nothing alive was seen. The cave narrowed so much where everyone had to walk in a line. The light ball that servine had made was the same brightness but the light wasn't traveling as far. Soon, the light ball wasn't helping at all. Dash and Penny, walking in the back, couldn't see more than the pokemon in front of them. Dash grabs and holds Penny's tail so he doesn't get lost. Dewott turns sideways because the walls have become so narrow that he needs to turn sideways to continue. The random drips of water from the ceiling echo through the cave. They couldn't tell which direction each drop were coming from. The pathway opens up. Everyone stops at the opening of the room. Their eyes adjust a little to the dark. The walls and air are pitch black but something near the end of the room was darker. Penny and Dash assumed that this ark thing was the dark core. Dewott and servine start walking towards the core with Dash and Penny following closely. Figures lighter than the dark core walk around the core.

"We can't allow you to complete your mission." said one of the figures.

This voice was very familiar to Dash but he keeps to himself. Dewott grabs both scalchops and servine makes these daggers of light. These daggers were bright but the light from these daggers were not even touching the walls. They dimly lit the floor around her.

"Why would you want to attack these?" said the other figure, "These cores give you power. Imagine teleporting to where ever you want and visiting any time without fear of any cost."

Dash starts to second guess this trip here. "Why an I here?" Dash thought "Am I here to help the region? Or am I hurting it? Is this dewott and servine our future selves and are they truly the good party here? Then again why would the skunktank and scrafty attack me earlier if at the time I was no threat to them? Wouldn't they try to sway Penny and I away from servine and dewott if they were the evil one and skunktank and scrafty were the good ones?"

"Because we fight for the better future." dewott said, "Sure, we'll see the cost now but the future in the very end will be better."

"That's right." Dash thought, "If we get rid of the problem now we will deal with less consequence and give us a higher chance of stopping these cores next time they blow up again because they wouldn't have moved as close to each other."

One of the figures fires a shadow ball which was almost impossible to see. The shadow flies at dewott who blocks it in the last second of reaction. Finally, dewott's, servine's, Penny's, and, Dash's eyes had adjusted enough to see the skunktank and scrafty in the darkness. No one was really surprised but Penny becomes very angry. "So it was you that attacked Dash!" Penny said. Penny runs at skunktank and scrafty with leaf blades in hands but she is held back by dewott and servine. "I'm going to kill you for what you two did!"

Skunktank and servine laugh. "You really think a little snivy like you can take on both scrafty and I."

"No. But that's why I have Dash, servine and dewott to help."

"It's two against four. Give up. You can't win."

"You really think that just because you have the advantage in numbers that you'll have the advantage in the battle. That's only one of the small factors into this battle."

"Something else is at play," Dash thought, "They're acting pretty calm even though we clearly have the upper hand. Maybe they realize that it is easier to defend something rather than attack something."

"Remember the plan." Dewott said. Dewott and servine run at skunktank and scrafty who were ready for them. Skunktank fires a smoke ball on the ground which causes smoke to go all around the room. Dewott and servine stop their advances and look around trying to see through the smoke. The smoke surrounds dewott, servine, Dash, and Penny. Dash gets pulled into the smoke. Penny see the dark hands pull Dash into the dark. Penny runs into the dark smoke following the sounds of scuffling in the smoke. She can't see more than an arms length in front of her. Dewott and servine stand ready for a surprise attack through the smoke. Penny trips over something in the smoke. The smoke clears out of the room. Penny looks at what she had tripped over and see that it was Dash laying on the ground. Dash sits up with scratches all over his body. Penny gets up and walks to Dash. Skunktank and scrafty are still standing in the same spot chucking. Dash looks around scared. "Where's my scalchop?" Dash said scared.

"You really think we were dumb enough to come alone?" scrafty said. A sablye drops down from a hole in the ceiling holding Dash's scalchop and lands perfectly next to skunktank. Sablye laughs, "I can sell this on the black market for high profit!"

Dash angrily looks at sablye and his own scalchop. "Give my scalchop back! It's mine! I need it!"

"Well maybe you should take better care of it. I'm sure its new owner will take better care of it than you."

Dash stands up. There is sharp pain from Dash's scratches. This pain is felt all over his body yet, Dash barely feels the scratches. "I take good care of my scalchop. It's one of the few things I still have. And you're not taking it!" Dash runs at sablye, forgetting that skunktank and scrafty was there too. Dewott grabs Dash with one paw and pulls him back from his charge. Dash falls backwards. Dash looks at dewott then at sablye. "I'm useless without my scalchop." Dash thought, "Look how big everyone is than me.I need my scalchop to even be a minor threat. Am I even helpful?" Dash stands up.

The sablye laughs and said, "You better get used to being scalchopless because you're not going to see it again."

Dewott fires a dark arrow towards skunktank, sablye, and scrafty. Servine followed this arrow even though the arrow was much faster than her. Skunktank and scrafty dodged to the left while sablye dodged to the right. Servine runs in between them, separating sablye from the group. Servine points a light blade at sablye and the "trouble duo." Dewott runs in next to servine standing back to back with her. Dash and Penny stand where they were left trying to figure out what to do.

Dash really wanted his scalchop back. That's really all he wanted. If they failed this mission, they can try again. Oshawotts only get one scalchop and that one scalchop is needed for them to live. They can always try again if they failed the first time around. Dash runs at sablye with Penny instantly following. Sablye looks at Dash and Penny running at him. He smiles as they got closer. Dash tries to tackle sablye. Sablye sidesteps Dash and hits him in the back with his own scalchop. Penny, not far behind Dash, swings leaf blades at sablye. Sabyle ducks under the blade and hit her with Dash's scalchop. Dash looks over at the dewott and them and see magic arrows flying everywhere wildly by them be reflected by their magic shields. Sabyle see Dash distracted and scratches Dash multiple times and very fast. Penny hits sablye off of Dash with a leaf blade. Sablye lands on his feet and jumps back, still holding on to Dash's scalchop. Dash turns at sablye with the look of revenge yet having the feeling of vanity. Penny runs at sablye again this time swing low. Sablye tries to duck under the blade but the blade is too low for him to duck under and he gets hit in the head. Sablye gets angry and runs at the "defenseless" Dash. Dash brasses himself as the sablye runs at him. Sablye scratches Dash with one angry powerful blow after another. Dash, with his blue marking across his face glowed while enduring the attacks of sablye, spawns a dark magic dagger in his hand and stabs sablye in the chest area with this dagger. Sablye backs away from Dash holding his wound. The dagger disappears in Dash's hand and his marking stops glowing. Sablye takes one final breath before falling to the ground. Dash's scalchop drops next to sablye. Dash, kind of surprised that he killed the sablye, walks over and grabs his scalchop. Penny looks at Dash not sure at how she should react. "Should I be happy that he got his scalchop back or perhaps a scared that he knows all this dark magic?" Penny thought. Penny didn't have a long time to think about it because Dash grabs her hand and said, "Let's go destroy the core while the other two are distracted." Penny nods and they both run at the cores dodging every wild dark and light arrows that went their way. Dash grabs his scalchop and Penny grabs her leaf blades. Dash running at full speed runs into an invisible barrier and gets knocked backwards to the ground but Penny runs right through the barrier without breaking it. She was so focused that she never realized that Dash had fallen. She slashes the dark core and the core shatters very easily. Skunktank and Scrafty, realizing that they lost this battle teleports away. Dash gets up slowly. Dewott keeps their victory celebrations short by reminding them that they still had one more core to destroy. They all rest at the mouth of the cave. Servine tends to everyone's wounds. They eat and talk for a little. After about an hour, they are ready to go again.