Author's Note: If I don't post a chapter when I am finished with it and instead try to save it I will just revise and second guess myself to death. Thus weird bursts of posting, sorry. Also this arc is just super fun to write because like I said at the beginning, I love the Journey to the Center of the Earth/Lost World style novels. You'll notice that those are the naming conventions for the chapters this arc as well. I'm not doing a strict 4 move restriction, but my modified version will be an absolute maximum of 4 type energies outside of a pokemon's natural typing and no more than 6 moves that are not in a strict upgrade line. So something talented could feasibly have the elemental punches or bites plus their STAB moves and maybe one non-attack.
We've also now well cleared the 20k word point so that's nice!
Also nothing like noticing an author whose stories you have favorited and followed have also favorited your story, that's definitely a high impetus to keep going!
Chapter 13: The Smoky God
"Yeah, screw this!" I yelled as my new kleavor fell into a combat stance, "Cleopatra, catch!" I frisbee-tossed an item through the air towards my starter. She was well trained enough that she immediately leapt into the air and caught it in her mouth.
"Artagnan, use those new stone axes with hit and run, then fall back and let Cleo finish the job, you've worked through too much energy!"
Sure he'd have a small burst from evolving, but evolution mostly gave you an offensive energy boost and didn't recover your health.
I didn't think Artagnan had the stamina to go from fighting a kleavor as a scyther, evolving, and then still take out this aerodactyl.
But you know who would?
"QUEEN!"
A newly evolved Cleopatra would. Especially since typically nidoqueen learned a few moves upon evolution.
"We've been preparing for this!" I reassured my starter, "You know what you should be able to do! As soon as Artagnan falls back hit it with a Sludge Wave!"
We had been working on her Poison energy manipulation for months now, preparing for this. A lot of times pokemon that learn moves upon evolution will have a hard time controlling their new techniques if they haven't practiced the control of that element extensively.
Our timing was perfect as well, Artagnan was just leaping back away from the aerodactyl's burning maw as it snapped at him with a Fire Fang. Embers catching a nearby mushroom on fire.
A viscous film of purple goo surrounded Cleopatra's new body and then expanded to be almost half again the size of her. It moved like a strange gelatin for a moment before it shot forth in a wave of toxic sludge, straight at the aerodactyl.
It hit the creature like a hammer, pushing it back into another stalk and the onslaught did not stop.
Damn, I thought, that must be what Sheer Force looks like.
But that wasn't all I'd been preparing Cleo with in anticipation of her evolution. Our goal had been to turn her into a powerful special attacker able to hammer away at type weaknesses on any enemy.
So we'd been practicing a very special TM for months now. And I bet she now had the juice to pull it off.
"Ice Beam!" I called out. With a roar Cleo reared back and an orb of light blue energy formed in her maw.
The attack lanced forward, in line to hit the aerodactyl dead in the face as it began standing back up and growled over at us.
The hit was followed by a powerful explosion of smoke and…steam?
"Wait…what? Steam?"
"Da…da…da…" The sound coming from the impact point sounded like…chuckling.
We all tensed as the smoke and steam began clearing. Cleo charged up another Sludge Wave in preparation, Artagnan fell back to play defense on my person, and Brinker I noted had dove into the earth, likely looking for a flanking position as I'd taught him. I fingered my remaining pokeballs on my belt, wondering if I should send out an extra team member. But I had swapped Huckleberry out, assuming he'd be too slow for this expedition, and in a way I had been right, but I'd also dramatically underestimated this aerodactyl.
Because as the smoke and steam cleared the final embers of a Fire Fang faded from its jaws with more wisps of steam.
It had melted the entire Ice Beam with an elemental bite. That was both genius, and showed an insane amount of power as well as cunning.
As we watched in a moment of stunned silence the beast's tongue came out and licked away some remaining haemolymph from the kleavor off of its chops.
Mew save us, that was horrifying. And metal as Hell, I totally was going to catch this bastard.
"Alright, Hannibal," I'd already named him in my head so sue me.
"Let's dance! Sludge Wave! Follow up with a high Toxic in the wake!"
With Sheer Force she couldn't poison him off of the Sludge Wave or have any secondary effects on her damaging moves, they were just pure unadulterated type energy power. So I'd made sure, again in preparation for this evolution, that Cleo had known Toxic long long ago. It had been perfect practice for the Poison energy anyways.
As my nidoqueen unleashed the poisonous techniques I knew immediately that I'd called it right. The aerodactyl leapt into the air to dodge the Sludge Wave, only to squawk indignantly as the Toxic orb splashed it right across its face.
It was almost certainly blinded now with that venom burning in its eyes.
"Charge up an Ice B-" we were all cut off as the blinded aerodactyl began flaring its wings out wide and sweeping them forward and we all were sent tumbling back a solid meter or two.
Fire Fang and Whirlwind? What a crazy moveset for a wild aerodactyl! The millennia of natural selection down here must have created a divergent moveset perfect for hunting the native pokemon!
I imagined it probably knew Thunder Fang and Crunch or Rock Slide then, if it was hunting the kabuto and omanyte lines I had seen with the grooved carapaces up in the lake level.
What a monster.
It was at that moment that Brinker struck, he flew out of the ground and let loose a vicious spray of Powder Snow. The frosty zephyr struck the aerodactyl from behind and underneath and we got very lucky with the legs and tail of the beast freezing stiff.
Unlike the games, certain status conditions could stack.
It squawked even more indignantly as the ice pulled it down towards the ground and the poison continued to wrack its system.
The time was perfect, I pulled out another Dusk Ball, unfortunately the aerodactyl was just a little too light for a Heavy Ball to be any more effective than the Dusk Ball in the cave system, and let fly.
It didn't go easily into the…spherical night? Nope, not the time to be poetic. The point is I was worried it would break free for a second as the ball shook a third time, but then, finally, it went silent and came back to my hand before going off to the ranch in a flash of white.
The rest of my team and I all collapsed straight onto the ground, exhausted from both exertion and adrenaline.
That…had been a lot.
I grinned and looked over to my starter, "Hey, Cleo, liking the new evolution?"
The sprawled out nidoqueen nodded her head and gave me what passed for a thumbs up when you only had three claws.
I turned my head towards Artagnan next, "How about you, bud?"
He clacked his new stone ax-blades together and grinned at me, well as much as a fixed jaw could grin.
"So, that wasn't expected. I think we're going to have to revise some training plans, yeah?"
He nodded back at me, somehow portraying a mixture of excitement and deadly seriousness. He seemed ready to take his training more seriously now than he had when he'd been an arrogant scyther.
Perhaps it was-
My thoughts were cut off as the cave system shook.
The physical shaking was followed by an immense and crushing pressure that flooded the area.
I couldn't put proper words to the sensation. It was as if that burning energy from when I first entered the deeper caverns had been compressed and dropped atop my head in a wave of liquified hot air.
After either a moment or an eternity it ebbed to a point where I could push myself to my feet and return most of my team, leaving only Brinker out to run by my side as interference as we retreated and I frantically applied a Revive to Alberich's pokeball.
Whatever the Hell had caused that was not something I wanted to tangle with.
A strange screeching echo followed us as I reached the first of the staggered drops and managed to call my rhyhorn back out to get us up the sheer rock face.
We beat a full retreat out of there. Full steam until we were safely outside up on the mesa.
It was dark, with the moon high in the summer sky.
"Well…" I said to my two team members out with me, "That was…bracing."
I'd have to camp out up here tonight and then make my way back to the pick up point for the boat I'd chartered.
"Dad's going to freak."