Chapter 10: Disaster at Mahogany
Everyone continued to stare at the beast in awe, unsure of what to make of it. Its features were very off-putting to the group as some of them didn't seem to go together. Its rage was also rather unnatural to see, as no Pokemon is known for destruction on this scale. Sure, some Pokemon are naturally angry, but not enough to commit to this level of rage.
The creature turned its head towards the group, as if it were noticing them, causing the team of six to hide behind a nearby building. They didn't want whatever the thing was to target them. After a few seconds of nothing happening, the group cautiously poked their heads out from the side of the building to see if they were still being watched. Thankfully, the creature had lost interest in them.
Lyra and Khoury simultaneously took out their Pokedexes and scanned the creature. Both devices took a couple of seconds to gather data, then Khoury's pulled up the information.
"Lucario, the Aura Pokemon, and the evolved form of Riolu. It is said that no foe can remain invisible to this Fighting/Steel-type, since it can detect auras. Even foes it could not otherwise see." The Pokedex recited.
The group was a little confused by the picture shown for Lucario. While the creature bore a few resemblances to the Aura Pokemon, there were still quite a few abnormalities. It's face looked nothing like the one shown in the picture, and it was colored a little differently. The electric blue veins shown on the creature were not present on the picture for Lucario either.
Lyra was about to put away her own Pokedex since it wasn't needed anymore, but then it pulled up some new data that surprised her.
"Conkeldurr, the Muscular Pokemon, and the final evolved form of Timburr. It is thought that Conkeldurr taught humans how to make concrete more than 2,000 years ago."
This put a shocked expression on everyone else as they crowded around Lyra's Pokedex to get a look at Conkeldurr. Comparing it to the creature, all of the abnormal features fit into the description of the Muscular Pokemon. The only thing that neither species had were the electric blue veins, but Conkeldurr did have red vein-like protrusions on its body, so maybe it was some sort of mutation.
"That Pokemon almost looks like a Lucario and a Conkeldurr mashed together." Khoury observed, though wanting to not believe what he was saying.
"But how could that possibly happen?" Casey wondered.
Khoury tried to think of a hypothesis; "Maybe a Conkeldurr and a Lucario mated, and instead of their child being one or the other, it mutated and became both? That's all I can come up with."
"We can figure out what it is later." Jimmy said to everyone; "But for now, we need to stop this thing, it took out the Pokemon center after all. We have to make sure it doesn't do anymore damage.
Marina agreed with him; "Jimmy's right. Everyone, send out a Pokemon that will do well against the Fighting or Steel type."
"That type combo is weak to Fire, Fighting, and Ground, so go off of that everyone." Khoury offered his knowledge to help out.
"Good to know Khoury. Next, we need a strategy, and fast." Jimmy nodded at the younger boy.
"We should lure it away from the town, that way, it can't do more damage." Casey said, pitching in her own idea.
"Good thinking, and we should also see if anyone in town would like to help us out, namely the gym leader." Jimmy said.
"Since I'm the worst battler in the group, I can do that, I'll try to get back to you guys as soon as I can." Khoury offered.
Jimmy nodded in appreciation; "Thanks, you should probably do that now."
"Will do." Khoury said before rushing off to find some trainers to aid his friends
"Good luck Khoury!" Lyra called out to her friend.
As Khoury went off, the friends continued formulating a plan to defeat the beast. Vincent eventually came up with an idea; "Does anyone have any Pokemon that can specifically grab this guy's attention? Maybe a move like Taunt or Follow Me?"
When Vincent said this, Lyra immediately facepalmed; "I'm pretty sure Khoury's Sneasel knows Taunt. Oh well."
"It's fine, my Jigglypuff knows Attract anyway, so I'll just use that." Marina said.
"But it may not work, your Jigglypuff is male, and we don't know what gender this Conkelcario is." Vincent commented, pointing out a potential flaw.
Lyra gave him a confused look; "Conkelcario? Who said you could name it?"
"Does it matter? We have much more important things to think about and you're worried about what I named it?" Vincent said, a little exasperated.
Vincent's reply caused Lyra to shrink back in embarrassment; "I guess not..."
"Attract is worth a try, even if it doesn't work, Jigglypuff should still be able to grab its attention." Marina said, justifying her plan to use Attract.
"I think it's a good idea. Other than that, has everyone selected what Pokemon they want to use." Jimmy said, with everyone nodding afterward. The boy smiled confidently; "Alright, let's take down this hybrid freak."
The group found a route that would lead the monster out of the city and got into their positions. Marina took Jigglypuff out of its pokeball while everyone else found a place to stay hidden. Marina came out from the corner of the building
Marina took a deep breath and called out to get the creature's attention; "Hey you!"
Intrigued, the creature turned its head towards the blue-haired girl. Seeing this, Marina whispered to Jigglypuff; "Okay Jigglypuff, time to use Attract."
The Balloon Pokemon winked at the mutant, causing the aforementioned to switch its focus to Jigglypuff. However, the Attract did not have the desired effect and only caused the 'Conkelcario' to cock its head to the side in confusion.
Marina sighed, dissapointed that it didn't work; "Guess it's time for plan B... use Thunder Wave Jigglypuff!"
The Normal/Fairy-type's body started crackling with electricity before releasing a thin bolt of lightning at the amalgamation. The electricity snaked around its body, paralyzing it. This time, Marina's endeavor succeeded and grabbed the creature attention. Angered by its destruction being interrupted, the mutant raced over to them and leaped up. Before Marina could respond, the Conkelcario landed a High Horsepower kick on the Balloon Pokemon.
"Jigglypuff!" Marina cried out in worry as her faithful Pokemon skidded a few feet away and struggled to get up.
Marina was about to rush over to aid her fallen Pokemon before Jimmy called out: "Marina watch out!"
The blue-haired girl whipped around and saw the monster rearing its right fist with flaming energy emanating from it. Marina ducked out of the way of the Fire Punch just in the nick of time, getting her clothes a little singed.
"Hey! That was uncalled for!" Marina taunted as the Conkelcario angrily turned its attention back to her and prepared both of its hands for a Close Combat attack.
Marina took out a pokeball and released its contents, "I need your assistance Mismagius!" Out came a floating purple creature with a hat-like protrusion on its head.
The blue-haired girl moved out of the way and the mutant raced towards the Ghost-type, hoping to take it out so that it could focus on the girl.
Unfortunately, Conkelcario had forgotten its Pokemon type knowledge, so the Close Combat phased right through the Magical Pokemon. Angry and confused, the Muscular/Aura Pokemon turned around and gave Mismagius a death stare.
Marina smirked, glad that the mutant's intelligence was limited; "Now use Mystical Fire!"
The Magical Pokemon opened its mouth and breathed out a magical, hot fire, which hit the hybrid directly. The Conkelcario grimaced in pain from the super-effective attack, but it didn't look too hurt from it.
Meanwhile, Marina rushed over to check on Jigglypuff, who had now successfully stood up. "Are you okay Jigglypuff?" Marina asked, earning a nod from the Balloon Pokemon. The blue-haired girl looked at the mutant that was desperately trying to hit Mismagius and frowned, Jigglypuff may not be the strongest member of her team, but he could take a lot of hits from opponents before fainting. This thing had almost taken him out in one hit, which made Marina scared for her friends when they would eventually send out their own Pokemon to battle the beast. She was especially scared for Lyra, who was the least experienced out of the five. Khoury was even less experienced, but he was busy finding help at the moment.
Eventually, Marina pushed away these thoughts and ordered Mismagius to lead the creature over towards them. The Magical Pokemon nodded and started leading the mutant to the place where Marina's friends would ambush the latter.
After a few minutes of Mismagius taunting Conkelcario and Marina staying far enough away to not get targeted, the destination was reached. They were now outside of Mahogany Town, where they could take the thing out once and for all.
Everyone jumped out of their hiding places and released their Pokemon. Jimmy released his Camerupt, which he chose for its fire-type moves. Vincent let out his Quagsire, which he picked for its ground-type moves and ability to take attacks well. Casey let out her Sandslash, which she selected for its ground-type moves, much like Vincent. Lastly, Lyra has selected Cubone for its Ground-type attacks, and because it was anxious to battle.
The mutant analyzed the situation and decided to take a different course of action. It summoned four sword-shaped projections that started to dance around it, when they dissipated, the Conkelcario suddenly felt much more powerful. Everyone grimaced when they saw the creature use Swords Dance, as they now knew that its attacks would now be hitting twice as hard as they were before.
Casey wasn't dismayed by this though; "C'mon everyone! we have strength in numbers! Use Drill Run Sandslash!"
Casey's Mouse Pokemon leaped up and started spinning with its claws outstretched making the formation look like a drill. When it hit, the Conkelcario grimaced in pain once again from taking another super-effective attack. After the attack finished, the Ground-type leaped out of the way and landed in front of the purple-haired girl.
Jimmy smiled at her confidence; "She's right everyone! Attack at full force! Use Eruption Camerupt!"
Lyra followed after him; "Use Bonemerang!"
"Power-up Punch!" Vincent commanded the Water Fish Pokemon.
Marina was the last to attack; "Use Sunny Day Jigglypuff! Then use Thunderbolt Mismagius!"
All of the Pokemon unleashed their respective attacks with Jigglypuff calling upon the suns rays, the group would need the sun to maximize the power of their Fire-type moves. But the mutant slammed its fists to the ground, causing huge rock formations to surround it. The Stone Edge attack protected the Aura/Muscular Pokemon from the Thunderbolt, Bonemerang, and Eruption, while Quagsire's Power-Up Punch slammed through the rocks and hit the Conkelcario with its attack, dealing super-effective damage, and also powering Quagsire up so that its physical attacks would hit harder.
The mutant angrily turned towards the Water/Ground-type and reared its fist, with freezing energy gathering around it.
Vincent panicked as he didn't know how hard the attack would hit; "Get out of there Quagsire!" Unfortunately, Quagsire was slow and couldn't get away in time, so it received a punch right to its chest. The punch knocked Quagsire back a few feet, and shards of ice had begun to form in the place where the Mud Fish Pokemon was punched. Quagsire managed to stay upright, but he still felt a little woozy after taking an unnatural amount of damage.
Marina was shocked after seeing the creature use Ice Punch. Didn't she already see what four moves it had when she was luring it in? She decided that it was just her imagination and focused on battling.
Jimmy took the opportunity to strike where the creature least expected: From above. "Use Eruption again Camerupt!" He commanded as the Eruption Pokemon aimed one of the miniature volcanoes on its back towards the shield of rocks, mortar style. Then it fired a stream of liquid fire from it which arced and landed in the middle of Conkelcario's defense, causing it to take massive damage and quickly escape from his fort.
Lyra took an opportunity while the creature was distracted; "Use Bonemerang!"
Casey assumed that the creature would focus on Cubone, so she took the chance to power up; "Use Swords Dance Sandslash!"
Cubone readied its bone and threw it in a spinning fashion towards the monster. The Ground-type attack hit its mark causing the creature to grimace in pain again and glare at Cubone. Meanwhile, the Mouse Pokemon had summoned four sword-shaped projections that spun around it for 10 seconds before disappearing.
During that time, the Conkelcario had remembered that the Bonemerang that Cubone threw would come back and try to hit it again, so it attempted to move out of the way. Unfortunately for it, electric streaks ran across its body when it tried to move, rendering it immobile for a few seconds. Cubone's bone came back and smacked the hybrid in the jaw, causing it to stumble in pain.
When Sandslash's Swords Dance finished, Casey commanded it to use Shadow Claw. The Mouse Pokemon obeyed and rushed up to the creature while it was recovering from the Bonemerang. Sandslash's ghostly claws slammed against Conkelcario, causing the beast to stumble back.
"Everyone attack now! it's getting weaker!" Jimmy called out to everyone, hoping that they could take the beast out if they all attacked together.
Marina nodded in agreement; "Alright! Mismagius, use Mystical Fire!"
"Sandslash use Drill Run!" Casey commanded, following suit.
"Smack it with an Aqua Tail Quagsire!" Vincent ordered the Water Fish Pokemon
"Fire Punch it!" Lyra said, aiming for super-effective damage.
"After their attacks hit, I need you to use Earth Power Camerupt." Jimmy said to his Eruption Pokemon, who nodded.
All four attacks managed to hit the monster, causing it to cry out in pain. After they hit, Camerupt mooed and slammed its feet on the ground. A large shard of earth came up and slammed into Conkelcario's face. The Aura/Muscle Pokemon stummbled backwards a few times before letting out a roar and falling to the ground, shaking the ground in the process.
Everyone stared in awe at the defeated beast and all celebrated at once.
"Yeah! We beat that thing!" Casey exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement.
"Yeah we did! And we didn't need any help! We're awesome!" Lyra said loudly, also jumping like a little kid.
The other three laughed at the two girls, but they were really happy too.
"It's a shame that we didn't need Khoury though, he went through the trouble to find help for us. Oh well, at least we defeated it quickly." Marina said.
Jimmy nodded in agreement; "Yeah, I guess we can call him now and tell him that everything is under control."
As soon as he said this though, the group heard a noise behind them. All of them whipped around to see the mutant sitting up, looking extremely angry. It narrowed its eyes towards the group and gave a loud roar, the electricity that was paralyzing it had now escaped from its body. The hybrid clenched its teeth in a hateful manner and summoned the sword projections again.
Everyone's eyes widened in fear when they saw Conkelcario use Swords Dance a second time, if it succeeded, its physical attacks would be hitting 3 times as hard as they normally would.
Casey didn't waste any time and tried to take it out before it could do any more serious damage; "Use Drill Run!"
Her Sandslash understood his trainer's urgent tone and raced towards the mutant as fast as it could. But the creature only grunted and slapped the Mouse Pokemon out of its way. The Swords Dance finished and gave the creature another boost in power. To show for this, it ran at an incredible speed since the paralysis wasn't affecting it anymore.
Before Jimmy could react, Conkelcario slammed into his Camerupt with its Close Combat attack. The Eruption Pokemon was thrown a few feet back before it crashed into the ground, unable to battle.
Everyone gasped when this happened, Jimmy's Camerupt was a lot like Marina's Jigglypuff in that it could take hits very well, even if they were super effective. The idea of it being taken out in one hit was absurd on its own, so it was completely unbelievable when it actually happened that day.
Jimmy sighed and returned the Eruption Pokemon to its Pokeball; "Thanks Camerupt, take a rest." Then he took out the Pokeball of his other fire-type and opened it; "Typhlosion, come on out!"
The Volcano Pokemon analyzed its surroundings and prepared itself for battle.
Marina knew that they needed as much help as possible, so she decided to paralyze the Conkelcario again; "Jigglypuff, use Thunder Wave!"
The Balloon Pokemon's body crackled with electricity once again and fired another thin bolt towards the mutant, but the latter saw this coming and leaped out of the way. Then a purple spike formed on its arm and it raced towards the Fairy/Normal-type.
Marina identified the move as Poison Jab and panicked; "Jigglypuff watch ou-"
It was too late, the attack slammed into the Balloon Pokemon, causing it to fly backwards, skipping across the ground a few times before coming to a stop. After taking the super effective attack, Jigglypuff could no longer battle.
Marina solemnly returned him to his Pokeball; "You've done all that you can Jigglypuff, thank you."
Marina then realized that her earlier suspicions had been correct: Conkelcario's move set was clearly not bound to four like all other Pokemon. This thing was using way more than four moves, which made it unpredictable; "Guys, this thing is using more than four moves, keep your guards up!"
Vincent nodded at her; "I thought I noticed something out of the ordinary. Thanks for confirming that, we'll have to watch out now."
Marina turned to Mismagius and commanded it to use Mystical Fire, who obliged and breathed out swirling, magical flames that snaked around Conkelcario's body, causing it to grimace in pain. It angrily turned its attention to the Ghost-type and started running towards it with electrical energy starting to gather around its fist.
Then it felt a pain at its back, causing it to turn around and see Vincent's Quagsire, who had just used Power-up Punch. Angry, the mutant slammed its electric fist into Quagsire's chest.
Marina raised an eyebrow in confusion; "Is this thing really that forgetful? Or is it just stupid?"
The Thunder Punch didn't do a thing to the Water Fish Pokemon since its Ground-type made it immune to Electric-type attacks. Vincent smirked and decided to take advantage of the creature's confusion; "Use Iron Tail!"
Quagsire's tail hardened until its texture resembled that of steel, then it swung it at Conkelcario full-force. The hybrid took notice of this though, and leaped backward to avoid the attack. Then it smartened up and prepared to hit Quagsire with a Close Combat attack.
Vincent was actually glad that the beast had dodged the attack since it allowed Quagsire to use another, more powerful attack; "Use Stomping Tantrum!"
When everyone else heard him say this, they told their Pokemon to back away in order to not get caught in the attack. Quagsire stomped on the ground angrily, creating shockwaves that blew Conkelcario back a few feet, landing it on its back. Unfortunately, the creature just stood right back up, even angrier than before.
"What will it take to stop you?" Jimmy thought to himself, impressed by the creature's endurance. "Everyone, attack it all at once, and don't stop until its on the floor!"
The creature heard this and took action. Before anyone could utter a command, it slammed its fists to the ground which created stone pillars around it. But instead of using Stone Edge to protect itself, the mutant used them on all the Pokemon, knocking each of them backwards with extreme force. Each trainer scrabbled to their Pokemon to see if they were okay.
Jimmy's Typhlosion stood up first, it may have taken a super effective attack, but she wasn't one to be knocked out so easily.
Lyra's Cubone was next, Stone Edge wasn't very effective against him, so it would have been embarrassing if he was taken out by it.
Marina's Mismagius was next and was by far the most affected, there was no way it could take another attack from the monster without being knocked out.
Unfortunately, Casey's Sandslash and Vincent's Quagsire didn't get up, they were out of the battle. Their respective trainers returned and thanked them for their help. Both pulled out new Pokeballs and released their contents.
Casey's Pokeball revealed her Meganium, a very strong grass type that the purple-haired girl had selected for its ability to take hits well.
Vincent's choice for a Pokemon was his Pinsir, which was a smart choice since Bug-types resisted Fighting-type moves, but it would also limit his options for moves since both Fighting and Steel resisted Bug moves, so he would have to use other moves.
Conkelcario stared down all of its opponents, as if it were contemplating which Pokemon to attack first, then its eyes stopped at Meganium. Anticipating an attack, Casey decided to play defensive; "Use Reflect!"
Meganium's body glowed, creating a defensive barrier all around its body, now Conkelcario's physical attacks wouldn't be as effective.
Unfortunately, the mutant had decided to play it smart this time around as it quickly turned to Cubone and raced towards it as fast as it could. It readied its fist as chilling energy was starting to surround it.
Lyra panicked when she saw this; "Detect it quick!"
Cubone tried using Detect to dodge, but it wasn't fast enough and took the Ice Punch from Conkelcario's meaty fist. The super-effective impact sent him flying backwards a few feet before skidding to a stop.
"Cubone!" Lyra called out in worry.
Luckily, the Ground-type was resilient and stood back up. Unfortunately, he was starting to get really angry, as in angrier than usual.
The mutant felt two arms wrap around it and hoist it up, it looked in the corner of its eyes and found Vincent's Pinsir preparing to use Vital Throw. Conkelcario panicked and tried to escape, but Pinsir's grasp was strong and held on tight. Soon, the Bug-type threw the Aura/Muscular Pokemon a considerable distance, giving it a very hard landing.
The group didn't let the creature catch a break as Jimmy commanded Typhlosion to attack it with Flame Burst while Casey told Meganium to use Solar Beam. Typhlosion let loose another explosive fireball that crashed into Conkelcario's backside, causing the latter to groan in pain. Solar Beam would normally take 15 seconds to charge up, but since Jigglypuff had called upon a Sunny Day earlier, it charged up almost immediately. Then it released a huge yellow beam that quickly made its way to the mutant.
Unfortunately, the hybrid managed to leap up out of the way in time. As it came down, it aimed its foot towards Casey's Meganium. The younger girl didn't have a chance to react before Conkelcario landed a High Horsepower on the Herb Pokemon. Meganium was hurt by the attack, but the Reflect that it had set up earlier had lessened the effect of the Ground-type move.
Immediately following up on High Horsepower, the mutant reared its fist for a Fire Punch, which would be super effective against the Grass-type Meganium. "Quick, use Bulldoze to get it away from you!"
Meganium slammed its front legs on the ground, which kicked up the ground in front of it a few meters. The attack stopped the beast in its tracks and trapped its feet in the ground. The monster panicked and tried freeing its legs with its hands.
Jimmy eyes widened in excitement, this was the advantage that they needed; "It can't move! Everyone attack now! Typhlosion, use Aerial Ace!"
"Meganium, Solar Beam!"
"Mismagius, Thunderbolt!"
"Use Bonemerang Cubone!"
"Pinsir, use Throat Chop!"
All of the Pokemon prepared their attacks and unleashed them at once. But then the hybrid got an idea and slammed its fists to the ground, causing a pillar of rock to rise up, freeing it and raising it up where the attacks wouldn't hit it.
"That was pretty smart. Using Stone Edge beneath it to free itself and avoid getting hit." Lyra thought to herself, impressed by the mutants ingenuity.
The creature then leaped up into the air and prepared a Thunder Punch. Due to the sun's glaring rays, they couldn't see where Conkelcario was exactly, then it came into view on its way down. It was right above Mismagius!
Marina didn't get the chance to react before the electrical fist slammed into the Ghost-type and knocked it to the floor. The Magical Pokemon was no longer able to battle.
The blue-haired girl sighed and returned Mismagius to its Pokeball; "Thanks Mismagius." Then she took out another Pokeball, slightly reluctant to bring this particular Pokemon out, but she needed as much power as she could get, so she unleashed the ball's resident; "Let's go Bellossom!"
Jimmy, Casey, and Vincent all cringed when they heard her say this and ordered their Pokemon to stand back. Lyra was confused by this, but the others told her that it would be safe if Cubone stepped back. The brunette girl decided to trust them and told Cubone to step away, which the latter begrudgingly agreed to.
Out of Marina's pokeball came a short Grass-type, it was only around one and a half feet tall and looked rather pleasant for a Pokemon that most of the group seemed to be so afraid of. It gave a radiant smile at its opponent and didn't even look battle-ready.
The creature looked amused at its opponent and lazily prepared an ice punch.
Then the unexpected happened.
"Bellossom use Moonblast!" Marina commanded.
Bellossom's cheerful smile faded and was replaced with a malicious one. It summoned a pink ball of energy and launched it in half a second. The ball connected with the mutant, which sent it back a considerable distance.
"That was fast!" Lyra exclaimed, impressed by Bellossom's ability to charge up attacks so quickly.
Marina shook her head; "That was Bellossom's laziest, if she were actually trying, you would have missed seeing the attack if you blinked."
Jimmy shuddered at the Flower Pokemon; "She can give any member of my team a run for their money, even Typhlosion, who would have the advantage over her."
"I can see why you're all so afraid of her now..." Lyra said to them, still in shock over what just occurred.
"That leads to her downside though: she's very impatient and hates working with others. She thinks they're 'too slow'." Vincent said, explaining why everyone told their Pokemon to stand back.
The beast recovered and decided to aim for a different opponent, so it ran towards Cubone with a Close Combat ready. Lyra reacted quickly in order to avoid getting hit; "Use Detect! Then Fire Punch it!"
Time seemed to slow down for the Lonely Pokemon as it watched the mutant get closer and closer. When it was near enough, the Ground-type leaped up, narrowly avoiding the attack. Then it activated a Fire Punch and slammed its tiny fist into the Aura/Muscular Pokemon's back. Due to Cubone's small size, the attack didn't really knock the creature back that much, but it sure did hurt.
The beast stopped its attack and tried making its way toward Cubone again. But it didn't get the chance as a tornado of sharp petals surrounded and continuously grazed and damaged Conkelcario. The culprit was Bellossom using Petal Dance, a very powerful move that the user gets locked into for awhile before eventually becoming disoriented. While the move was powerful, the Pokemon using it would usually have a much harder time battling after using it.
Jimmy got an idea when he saw all of the tiny petals surrounding the hybrid; "Use Flame Burst to light those petals up!"
Typhlosion unleashed another ball of explosive firepower at Conkelcario. When it hit, the ball not only exploded, but all of the sharp petals were lit up all at once. The petal tornado now became a cyclone of flames, damaging the creature immensely.
Bellossom was having trouble keeping her footing after using Petal Dance.
"Oh no, Bellossom is confused." Lyra said, concerned.
Marina shook her head again; "Just watch."
Bellossom struggled for a few seconds before she eventually found her footing and no longer seemed confused. "Bellossom's insane nature makes Confusion much less effective on her, and it also allows her to snap out of it rather quickly." Marina explained to the now confused Lyra.
"Wow..." was all the younger girl could get out of her mouth, clearly very impressed with the Flower Pokemon.
When the twister dispersed, the group was hoping the mutant would finally go down, but alas, it still stood, even angrier than before. Conkelcario roared as sword projections started to surround it again.
Everyone had a sinking feeling when they saw this, it was the last time the beast could use Swords Dance, but now its attacks would hit 4 times as hard. This was the last straw, the creature had reached peak anger.
"Whatever you do guys... DON'T GET HIT! ANY attack from this thing may immediately take your Pokemon out!"
"Got it, Cubone use Bonemerang!"
"Pinsir, Throat Chop!"
"Dragon Tail Meganium!"
"Bellossom, Moonblast again!"
"Typhlosion, Wild Charge!"
Coming as a surprise to no one, Bellossom's attack hit first, then everyone else's attacks hit. The creature only seemed to be getting angrier and not weaker though. Conkelcario raised its fists and slammed them to the ground again, forming stone pillars around it. Then it used its strong legs to kick each of the stone pillars, which broke and launched them towards the mutant's opponents.
Lyra's Cubone and Vincent's Pinsir managed to dodge the boulders, but everyone else got hit and knocked to the ground. Bellossom got up first, which surprised no one, a large rock wasn't going to take her down. Next was Meganium, whose Reflect was technically still up. Lastly, Typhlosion was still conscious even after taking two super effective attacks from an incredibly powerful Pokemon. She struggled a lot to get on her feet, but she didn't want to give up just yet.
"Are you sure you can still battle Typhlosion?" Jimmy asked, concerned for his starter. The Volcano Pokemon got on its feet and nodded to its trainer. Jimmy smiled in appreciation; "Thanks Typhlosion."
The friends were starting to get scared, the monster just would not go down and all of their Pokemon were very close to fainting. Sure, they had more Pokemon, but this thing seemed unstoppable. Would they really make a difference?
Then a concentrated blast of water came and hit Conkelcario in the side. Angrily, the beast turned and took notice of a new opponent: a blue crocodile-like Pokemon. The group turned and saw that its trainer was...
"Khoury!" Lyra exclaimed in joy.
Sure enough, the group nerd was there, with three new faces, two males and one female behind him; "I found help guys."
"Awesome! We really need it right now, this thing just set up three Swords Dances!" Jimmy said to them.
Khoury and the other's frowned at that, but the three newcomers released their Pokemon anyway. One of the boys released a Mandibuzz, a Dark/Flying-type from Unova. The female released a Polteageist, a Ghost-type from Galar. And the other male released a Yanmega, a Bug/Flying-type from our heroes' home region, Johto.
Everyone's Pokemon gathered around the Conkelcario, ready to strike on command. The creature stared at all of its opponents, with nowhere left to run.
The Pokemon staring down the hybrid felt a lot of resentment inside of them. This thing attacked innocent people and targeted a place for Pokemon to heal quickly and safely. There was so much anger being stored up, waiting to be unleashed by the command of one word.
"Attack!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"Mandibuzz, Bone Rush!"
"Use X-Scissor Pinsir!"
"Bellossom, Drain Punch!"
"Yanmega, Air Slash!"
"Cubone, Bonemerang!"
"Meganium, Solar Beam!"
"Croconaw, Hydro Pump!"
"Use Psychic Polteageist!"
"Typhlosion, Use Blast Burn!"
Every Pokemon charged up their attacks and unleashed them. Bellossom's went first of course, followed by most everyone else. The attacks all collided with the creature, dealing constant, heavy damage that wore down the creature exponentially. Jimmy's Typhlosion went last.
The Fire-type's claws dug into the ground, causing large cracks to appear in the ground and start rapidly making their way towards Conkelcario. Then they stopped at its feet and started to glow an orange hue. Then, the ground started rumbling as red-hot flames started to erupt from the crevices, all of the other Pokemon stood back to witness one of the most powerful Fire-type attacks in the world. It was too late for Conkelcario to escape as the searing flames roared and engulfed the Aura/Muscular Pokemon.
After a few seconds, the flames stopped and the beast was still standing.
"How is it still up?" Vincent exclaimed in amazement.
Jimmy held up his hand; "Wait a minute..."
The hybrids's body started to glow electric blue, like its veins. First the light was faint, then it slowly covered its entire body, enough to have a blinding effect. Everyone shielded their eyes until the glowing eventually stopped and they heard two thuds.
Everyone turned back to the creature, except, it wasn't really there anymore, in its place was a Lucario and a Conkeldurr, now separated from one another. The entire group silenced themselves after seeing this occur.
Unfortunately, someone had to ruin it. "WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" Vincent exclaimed, completely mind-boggled by what had just transpired.
"They split, which means their fusion wasn't created to be permanent." Jimmy guessed, trying his best to make sense of the situation.
"If it wasn't permanent, then there is no way this could have been natural. This has to be the work of humans." Khoury mused, though still baffled by the event.
Casey scratched her head in confusion; "But what human would be so awful to merge two Pokemon together and not consider any side-effects? Besides, it's just cruel to force two lives to suddenly become one!" However, it seemed she was the only one who was confused, as everyone else stared at her s if she didn't have any brain cells.
Casey soon realized what they were talking about and gave an embarrassed laugh; "Oh... Team Rocket."
Lyra walked up to both Pokemon and placed a hand on each of their chests. Then suddenly, her eyes widened as she went into panic mode; "Guys, their heartbeats are fading! We have to get medical help!"
Jimmy mirrored the same reaction when he heard this; "I'll call the Pokemon Center, they'll know what to do!"
"But the Pokemon Center was destroyed!" Marina reminded him.
Jimmy grimaced, but then remembered something; "Call the hospital in Blackthorn City! They aren't too far!"
"But wouldn't it still take awhile for them to get here?" Lyra worried.
Jimmy shook his head; "They'll take a helicopter here if they know how serious the problem is."
Khoury whipped out his phone and quickly dialed the number of the hospital. He had to memorize all of the hospital numbers since he used to be in charge of finding help whenever Lyra had a Megalophobia attack. He informed them on the situation and how serious the situation was and then hung up when said they on their way. "They're coming by helicopter, they'll be here in under five minutes." Khoury said, shedding some light on the situation.
"Good, we'll wait here with the Pokemon until they arrive." Jimmy proposed to them. Then he turned to the three trainers that had aided them in their battle against the mutant that day; "Thank you for your help today, you may leave if you want, we can handle this."
The trainer in the middle, one of the males, shook his head; "I'd like to stay until I know that these two will be in good hands."
"I'd like to stay as well." The female said to them, also wanting to make sure the Aura Pokemon and the Muscular Pokemon will be in good hands.
The other boy gave them an apologetic look; "I'd love to stay, but I'm actually late for something right now."
"It's fine, thanks again for your help." Jimmy said to him.
The other boy left and everyone else just stood there, waiting for the helicopter to arrive. Lyra had flipped the two Fighting-types on their backsides so that they could breathe better. The group just stood in silence as they watched the two Pokemon slowly breathing in and out, constantly hoping that neither would stop. Vincent tried to start a few conversations, but everyone else didn't seem to be in the talking mood, so he eventually gave up and stood in silence as well.
As they waited, Jimmy started to feel guilty. Was it his fault that the Pokemon needed to be rushed to the hospital? Maybe he should have pulled back on attacking and used weaker moves. Then again, that might not have stopped the creature. He clenched his fist and mentally kicked himself, he should've found another way, he should've-
The boy's thoughts were interrupted by a loud whirring. He looked up to see a large white and red helicopter that was large enough to have a room for medical treatment. 4 individuals brought out two stretchers, a normal-sized-one for Lucario, and a larger one for Conkeldurr.
After a minute or two, the Pokemon were hoisted onto the stretchers and taken inside of the helicopter. One of the attendants thanked them for informing them about the situation and climbed back on the air vehicle. Once everyone was on and all of the doors were closed, the rotors started spinning. The helicopter lifted itself up and flew off towards Blackthorn City.
Jimmy stared at the helicopter that appeared to be getting smaller as it moved farther away. He couldn't help but worry about what would happen to those two innocent Pokemon, the behavior of the mutant was likely not their fault.
Then he felt a comforting hand on his shoulder. He turned around and saw Marina, who smiled at him; "Don't worry Jimmy, those people know what their doing."
That reassured the boy a little bit; "You're right, I'm just worried."
"You have every right to be worried. Now come on, we should go clean up the damage that Conkelcario caused." Marina proposed.
"Yeah, alright."
Meanwhile...
Conkeldurr struggled to open his eyes in the intense white light. "Try to relax", a voice said to him. The Fighting-type decided to listen and waited for his eyes to adjust to the intense light. After a few seconds, it was able to see a white room with a bunch of people in blue coats surrounding him. Slightly frightened by the amount of people in the room, the Muscular Pokemon freaked out and tried moving around; but the person closest to him placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry, we aren't here to hurt you, we want to help you get better." They said.
Conkeldurr was then hit with a wave of exhaustion, he couldn't quite remember what had happened, but it clearly had been a long day for him. The Fighting-type tried to think about how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was being returned to a Pokeball then being placed inside of a machine of some kind. From there it was really blurry to the Fighting-type, like it wasn't in control of its body; but now it was here, in control once again.
Conkeldurr remembered something else before his memory went awry. His friend, who was a Lucario had also been placed in the machine...
The Fighting-type shot up out of his bed and started looking around frantically, trying his best to find his friend. The attendants freaked out and tried pushing him back down. "Please stop! You need rest!" one of them said.
Conkeldurr was then hit with another wave of exhaustion and laid back down on the hospital bed.
"Are you looking for your friend?" one of the attendants asked.
Unable to communicate by speech, Conkeldurr only nodded.
"Don't worry, he's in the room next to us." the attendant said, pointing to the wall closest to Conkeldurr's.
The Muscular Pokemon sighed and relaxed, at least its buddy was okay. Now that he didn't have much else to worry about, he scanned the room that he was in. No machines were hooked up to him, so his injury or illness must not have been too terrible. There were a few silver trays with many unfamiliar devices on them that were probably used on him while he was unconscious.
Then, he noticed a faint beeping coming from the other room. It was slow, constant and weirdly soothing. The beeping gave Conkeldurr something to focus its mind on other than the amount of people surrounding him.
Beep...
Beep...
Beep...
The Fighting-type smiled, appreciative of the beeping's consistency.
Eventually, the beeping started slowing down, as if whatever was making them had its power turned down. This didn't exactly please Conkeldurr. He wanted to tell the attendants to turn it back up. But it couldn't speak English and that would be selfish. The machine that made the beeping was probably very important and the speed of it probably couldn't be helped without disrupting something.
When the beeps slowed down, a human came into the room and frantically spoke to some of the attendants in his own room. Conkeldurr couldn't hear their conversation as he was so invested in focusing on the beeping. The attendants quickly left the room as if something important had just happened.
Beep...
Beep...
Beep...
They seemed to be getting consistently more spread out as time went by, which made Conkeldurr frown. Why were they getting slower?
The Fighting-type then noticed that there was also a lot of other noises starting to come from the room. All of them sounded frantic or unpleasant, so he tried his best to ignore them and focus on the beeping, even if the consistency was no longer there.
Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep...
Then suddenly, it stopped. Well, it didn't really stop, more like the constant beeping was instead replaced by one long beep.
This didn't make Conkeldurr happy. Why'd it have to stop? Saddened, he just decided to block out all other sounds and rest his eyes.
Then an attendant came in, causing the Muscular Pokemon's eyes to open and look at them.
She seemed rather sad; "Conkeldurr, we have some bad news about Lucario..."
Conkeldurr gave her a look of confusion. What had happened to Lucario? Did Lucario have something to do with why the beeping stopped?