Metang, Magnemite, and Registeel

A foreign energy entered the dusty halls of the dungeon: light. It chased away the darkness, causing some shy Pokemon to scurry away before the brightness touched them. By the light's moving touch, one could see the yellow stone that had been carved away to form this place. Colorful pictures of life were on every wall space: strange letters, plants, Pokemon, humans, tools, landscapes. What had been recorded here? The builders had lived so very long ago.

As the light grew, its source appeared: a Pokemon of blue steel and four clawed hands. The Metang drifted along the halls, hardly making a sound. She floated off the ground with a combination of her psychic efforts and manipulation of magnetic fields. Occasionally glancing at the pictures, she made her way deeper into the tomb-like dungeon. Was it a tomb? Or was it something completely different? Whatever it was, some people had found it very important.

She felt a disturbance in her magnetic fields. Something was trying to draw her in the wrong direction. Pausing, she glanced down a hallway in time to see something come fling right at her. With a solid 'thonk', it struck just below her right eye.

It turned out to be a smaller metal Pokemon, a Magnemite composed of one large eye and two horseshoe magnets. He was trembling, twitching his free magnet in fight. "Zzzroh zah."

"Don't worry, little Magnemite," the Metang replied. "It would take a lot more than your minor weight to damage me. Besides, it wasn't entirely your fault. You seem to have the Magnet Pull ability and haven't mastered its use yet."

"Zzzzrrrr," he said, calming down but lowering his free magnet. He then attempted to break himself free by struggling away.

"That won't do," she said. "Manipulate your electromagnetic fields to push yourself away from me."

"Bzzt?" He looked clueless.

Pausing a moment, she willed herself not to get annoyed with this one. "You can do that. How old are you then, child?"

"Kzzt kzzibi." Just hatched today, he had said. His eyelid lowered, then perked up in glee. "Za zerrr Zot! Zeezee kzzzt kzzz."

That caused her to smile. "Ah, so you've named yourself Zot. That is clever. We are Ai-La."

The hatchling closed his eyes to focus on trying to get detached. "Brzzz zit."

"It's fine, you'll get it." She went back on her way. "It's probably better you stick by us. Where's your family?"

That question caused his focus to break some. Zot started explaining that he had hatched and found lots of egg shell pieces around him. To his view, he was fairly certain the others had hatched, but left him alone for some reason. Ai-La thought it could have been an egg-eater or some similar predator, but didn't want to upset him further.

"That's too bad, that they left you behind because you were a late hatcher," she told him instead. "But we've seen a group of your kind outside of this place. When we get out, we'll take you to them."

Zot cheered up to that and worked on getting himself free again. After a few more tries, he managed to push his magnetic fields against hers, causing him to float away. He still decided to tag along with her, asking where she was going among other questions.

"I'm searching for someone," she answered. "Deep in this dungeon, it is said that a metal Pokemon like us stays away from the world. It is an immortal and its strength greatly exceeds ours."

Twisting his magnets, Zot whistled in admiration. "Kzzzt?"

"Its name is Registeel. We hope that it is knowledgeable for we have some questions we want answers to. But we've not found another who could answer them."

"Zot? Kzzt zzzrr rit."

Ai-La blinked. "Yes, we are we. We were once two Beldum, Ai and La. When we evolved, we joined together. That is why our kind starts with short names, because they grow longer both in becoming a Metang and when we join with another Metang to form a Metagross. We will be four then. But that's one question we have. We were eager to evolve and become stronger, but then we wondered it we were too fast."

"Zzzzfit?"

"Yes, you will evolve too, in a similar fashion. You will join with two others to become a Magneton. So it would be good for you to come and listen, to know what lies ahead of you."

"Kzzzt? Zzzri zrk ziif."

Chuckling, she patted him. "What does it eat? We have no idea. It's an immortal Pokemon, but we don't know if it even eats. You could ask it that yourself."

The Magnemite seemed intrigued, so he followed her further into the dungeon. Down a flight of stairs, they came upon a single large room. Ai-La's Flash illuminated a great deal of space around them, but there was an edge of darkness where the light couldn't reach. Just beyond it, there was a large still figure. It had a round body with long flat arms and cylindrical legs. At the touch of the foreign light, a few small glows appeared on Registeel's body. It was alert to their presence.

"Bzzzzoo," Zot said in awe, but then his magnets started shaking. As his eye went wide, they forced him to shoot forward and collide into Registeel, much like he had with Ai-La earlier. But the resounding 'thock' had echoes and a hallow sound. It wasn't built the same as them. "Zrrrk," the Magnemite said meekly, then worked on getting himself free.

"You're not the first to do that," Registeel said calmly, in an odd voice that was as hollow and echo-y as his body. "You have both come a long ways to meet with me. Welcome."

Ai-La put her hands together. "Thank you for meeting with us, Master Registeel. We are Ai-La, and the hatchling here is Zot. We wanted to ask you some things, if it does not bother you."

"Go ahead," the immortal said, raising his arm up and patting the Magnemite child when he managed to get loose.

Pointing to herself, the Metang said, "We were two, but now we are one. But are we one individual or two? And is it really necessary for us, and Zot eventually, to assimilate another's individuality to grow stronger? It does not seem right, yet that is what is done."

"You are one individual with two histories," Registeel said. "It is not necessary for you to say 'we', for you have fused together. But it is necessary for this fusing to take place. The both of you, your kinds start off like pure metals, with potential but not as strong as you could be. Pure metal must be fused with another metal in order to become a stronger alloy. The personality alloy that you will eventually become will be stronger and better than that which you have started as."

"We…" Ai-La paused, "um, I had not thought of that. It still feels strange. Perhaps it just takes getting used to."

"Kzzzzoo kzzt zzzrt zzif?" Zot asked, blinking his eye.

"Your family?" Registeel asked. It was quiet for a moment, then answered, "They have gone down a long road which you cannot follow."

"Zzzzkt?" the Magnemite asked, sounding puzzled and not as spirited as before. His magnets drooped.

"You will be fine. Ai-La, would you watch over Zot? At least see him safely to his kind if you cannot take him in yourself."

Then the child's family was dead. Ai-La was impressed that Registeel knew his home so well that he knew of this. "I shall," she agreed. "Some of his kind were outside of this place; we'll talk about what to do after we find them."

Zot drifted over to Ai-La. "Kzzzoooo," he whispered, giving off a sparking tear.

…

Metang D/P/P entry: It is formed by two Beldum fusing together. Its steel body won't be scratched if it collides with a jet.

Magnemite Emerald entry: The units at its sides are extremely powerful magnets. They generate enough magnetism to draw in iron objects from over 300 feet away.

Ruby entry: Registeel has a body that is harder than any kind of metal. Its body is apparently hollow. No one has any idea what this Pokemon eats.

This was first requested as all three plus Shieldon, but I didn't want to accept a 4-'mon request. I split them up instead. However, these three came together nicely.

And yes, POS is run on requests, with me picking out a few for special days or at random inspirations like Marill. If you'd like to make a Pokemon request, please leave it in your review. Also, don't give me one I've already covered (I don't do repeats) and absolutely don't give me fifth gen requests. I can't do fifth gen requests until the Serebii database has them in English, so that'll be several months down the line. I keep a list of what's been requested in my profile; keep in mind that if that list is long, your request will take time to come. I do this in my spare time, after all.