Now, there are many reactions that a human might have when they suddenly become aware of an individual behind them. Option A: They could freeze, an instinctual response rooted in humanity's past as prey animals hiding from larger predators. Option B:They could scream. Or they could choose option C: attack via reflex.

I chose to combine B and C and swung around the instant I processed the creature's breath on the back of my neck. This resulted in me backhanding the absolute bitch out of the theropod dinosaur that had been innocently lurking behind me.

The Pokemon staggered back, probably more out of shock at the blow than any real pain or damage it might have inflicted. I myself was taken a bit by surprise as I realized what Pokemon I was facing down currently, as I had no doubt in mind that this was a Tyrunt. At the same time as this realization, it also dawned on me that while I might have a healthy amount of self-confidence, I'm not delusional enough to think that my mighty pimp hand could damage a creature that trucked through literal fire breathing dragons for sport.

Luckily for me, its momentary distraction gave me a chance to move away from the relatively exposed entrance of the cave. An opportunity I gladly took as I circled the Tyrunt. I was not willing to take my eyes off of it for a single second. Thankfully, it wasn't acting hostile yet, just eyeing me as I shimmied along with my back to the wall.

The cave wall wasn't as even as I'd hoped, but it did provide a large amount of reassurance in that it covered my back. Thanks to the fact that the sun hadn't set yet, I was able to make out a passage leading deeper into the cave; unfortunately, the Tyrunt had decided to step over there, and now we were caught at an impasse. I couldn't go outside again right now; the Cacturnes were still out there, lurking in the twilight but unwilling to follow me into the cave.

I was caught between a proverbial rock and a hard place. If I went outside, I'd be a dead man. The Cacturne were still lurking out there, just waiting for me to leave the "safety" of the cave. Meanwhile, standing between me and a passageway that screamed possibilities was a Tyrunt. A fucking young T-Rex.

Despite my weary muscles, my empty, aching stomach, my dry throat, my piercing headache, my sore feet, and my exhaustion. Despite all that, a small part of my mind was absolutely freaking out in excitement over the realization of a dream that almost any young boy had had at one time or another. I was standing in front of a dinosaur.

Suddenly, my pain and tiredness vanished as I had a moment of clarity. I realized that, in agonizing over the decision to leave or stay in the cave, I had neglected that there really was no decision to consider here. I could go outside and die like an absolute bitch to a bunch of walking cacti. Or I could die possibly the most metal death imaginable by being eaten alive by a goddamned T-Rex.

With my absolutely delirious mind made up, I stepped away from the cave wall and towards the Tyrunt. I stepped right in front of the Pokemon, whose head was just about level with my own at 6 feet.

I closed my eyes anyway and waited for the inevitable feeling of pain, for the inevitable frenzy of claws and teeth bearing me to the ground, and for a messy end. I waited, and waited some more, and after a while, I opened my eyes again, and an amber eye stared back at me, slowly rolling in its socket as it tracked the movement of my own eyes.

I sharply inhaled; I hadn't even heard it move. It tilted its head up and sniffed the air for a moment before looking at me again. And then suddenly it was rubbing its head against me like an affectionate cat while making small chirping noises. This was the metaphorical straw that broke the camel's back for me.

As if days of walking through an empty desert without food or drink and the only signs of human habitation being a bleached skeleton hadn't already been taxing enough. My body, already working at its limits, had been forced into a state of pure adrenaline ever since I got into the cave.

And now the Pokemon that I fully expected to try and kill me, just like the Cacturne outside inevitably would, was instead cuddling up to me like a dog whose owner had just come back from the store.

Suffice to say, my mind kind of gave out on me as I failed to comprehend just what the hell was going on. This, of course, caused a few problems, as overthinking just about everything was my main method of coping with the utter shit situation I had been thrown into. Seriously! Not even a week ago, I was chilling in my room, shitposting on Discord and playing games on my computer, and then suddenly, the next day, I'm walking through a desert in the pokemon world without any clue as to whether the direction I was going in was safe or not. And then it turned out that no, it wasn't fucking safe; it was about as dangerous as leaving your kid at a daycare that doubled as a pitbull breeder.

"Tyrunt" the eponymous Tyrunt, chuffed, ignorant of my ways of angst, finally hit me as I swayed back and forth. Turning away, it headed down the passageway. After a few feet, it stopped and looked back at my still motionless form. "Ty!" it chirped and made an unmistakable motion to follow with its head. I hastened to do so and soon found myself walking down a passageway. And after a short time walking through the sloping tunnel, I found myself in a wide cavern lit by strange, unfamiliar crystals. At the other end, I could see another tunnel heading even deeper down into the earth. Stalagmites and stalactites dotted the cavern floor and ceiling.

But more importantly, they were entirely absent from the center of the room; instead, there was a large, clear pool of water. I found myself unconsciously stepping towards it as I became super aware of how dry my throat was, but stopped myself when I realized the Tyrunt was standing right beside it.

The Pokemon looked up at me, emitted another chirp, and gestured towards the water by tilting its head before taking a step back. It seemed to have grasped that I urgently needed a drink and had been guiding me to this water source.

I made my way to the side of the pool with all the haste that I could muster, crouching down and all but dunking my head into the water as I drank long and deep of the life-preserving liquid. I drank and drank, forgetting every word of caution about drinking so much when dehydrated or warnings about possible bacteria.

So I did. I drank until I could drink no more before finally pulling my head back and taking huge gulps of air as I fell back on my elbows. And then my stomach rumbled, and I realized that the time since I last ate was the same as the time since I last drank. Obviously, it was a problem I would have to address, but unfortunately, there wasn't much I could do to fix it at the moment. So I did what I could to put it out of my mind by focusing on something else.

The Tyrunt in the room as it were, because now that I was a little bit more clear-headed thanks to the water, I started to realize some of the things I had neglected to note in my somewhat panicked state earlier.

I looked over at the Pokemon. I had lost track of time a little bit while dunking my head into the pool, but apparently, it was long enough for the little dinosaur to curl up on a flat stone slab that was raised a bit off the ground near the pond. Little being a relative term in this case, as when it checked me over earlier, it had come up to about my height. I stand at a pretty respectable 6 '2', so for a dinosaur to stand pretty close to that wasn't surprising, but this was a Tyrunt.

I had always had a keen interest in this pokemon, due to my longtime love of Dinosaurs, to the point that when I had gotten my own copy of Pokemon Y, I had even attempted—albeit unsuccessfully—to shiny hunt it. And because I had spent so much time focused on it, I knew for a fact that Tyrunts did not get nearly as tall as this one was or as long. The slab it was lying on had to be at least 12 feet long, and the Tyrunt was almost stretched completely across it from snout to tail tip.

This was definitely a Tyrunt, hell; it had even said its name earlier, like all Pokemon used to do back in the anime, and yet it wasn't at the same time. It had a small frill of feathers around its neck, but instead of the white that was on the ingame design, they were more of a sandy brown. It had the orange protrusions, but they came out more over its eyes, and the ones on its tail were little more than small nubs.

And those were just the small details; on the macro level, this Pokemon was built completely differently from the Tyrunt in the games. Ingame Tyrunt's only had 4 teeth, two on top and two on bottom. Now, I hadn't been fully paying attention every time it opened up its mouth earlier, but I knew for a fact that I had seen far more than just 4 teeth. The arms were also different; the arms on an ingame Tyrunt looked almost vestigial, essentially just nubs that ended in two claws.

But this Tyrunt's arms were clearly built differently; they were much longer in the first place, and instead of just ending in two straight claws, they ended in three, and they were sickle=shaped as well. The kind of claws I'd guess would be for grappling something and forcing it down. Honestly, instead of a caricature of a dwarf Tyrannosaur like the Tyrunts from my memories, this Tyrunt resembled more of a small Allosaurus.

I was extremely thankful that it wasn't hostile to me, but now I had to figure out how to go on from here. Although there was a tunnel that seemed to lead deeper into the cave in one of the nearby walls, I wasn't confident if it was a good idea to go down that way.

It didn't have any of the luminescent crystals glowing nearby, which suggested to me that if I made my way downwards, I'd be doing it in total darkness, which was not preferable. But my only other option besides that was to go back the way I came, which meant having to deal with the Cacturne that had been haunting the hills. And that was a death sentence if I didn't have a Pokemon of my own to afford a bit of protection.

Which led me back to the Tyrunt because right now it seemed like my only shot at getting out of this cave would be getting this Tyrunt to agree to be my Pokemon. Agree specifically because while it's been unhostile to me so far, I doubt that'd last long if I tried to capture it while it was sleeping, to say nothing of trying to control it if I even did manage to catch it in one of my Pokeballs…

My pokeballs!

I had completely forgotten about them after I'd gotten into the cave. I remember holding one when I'd paused at the entrance, but I must have dropped it in my panic when Tyrunt snuck up behind me. I slid my arm to my side, remembering that there had been a few more in the bag I'd inherited—i.e. Graverobbed—from the skeleton a while back, but my hand met nothing but air… shit.

Obviously, the bag must have slid off my waist at some point without my noticing. As far as I recall, I still had it on when I entered the cave, but I do remember rubbing up against the cave wall back when I was first facing off against the Tyrunt, so it was possible that it slid off back then and I didn't notice.

I had to get that bag again; once I had the pokeballs inside, I could maybe convince the Tyrunt to join me. It probably wouldn't want to be stuck in this cave forever, either. But my exhaustion, which I had pushed to the side after finally finding water, was beginning to creep back, and I was forced to stifle a yawn.

I could figure out my plan of action from here tomorrow… for now, it was probably best if I tried to get some sleep. I found a small spot on the ground not too far from the slab that Tyrunt was sleeping on, and as an added bonus, there were no stalactites hanging overhead. I had no desire to push my luck and end up getting impaled overnight. Using my arm as a pillow, I let my eyes droop closed, and almost instantly I was asleep.

I wish I could say that my sleep was restful, but sadly, it was anything but. Almost immediately after my consciousness faded, I was hit by what could only be classified as a wave of despair.

Tears slid down my cheeks as the feeling of sorrow ebbed and flowed across my body, images of decayed skeletons of both humans and Pokemon appearing in my mind. It felt like I was in a city, and though it was not one I recognized from my time on Earth, it did remind me of pictures I had seen of ancient Middle Eastern civilizations.

An indescribable pressure fell upon me as words spoken in an ancient tongue echoed through my mind.

Bear This Message

The image changed, and I found myself standing in front of some kind of ruined palace. What was once grand and beautiful now laid as a decayed wreck. Frescos and sculptures that once adorned the sculpture had faded and eroded, with barely a hint of the color they once held remaining.

And decorating the steps up to the great door, which must have once stood, were skeletons. Still garbed in the armor they had worn, they told a story of a beleaguered defense striving to the last to keep an invading force out. Once again, it was not just human skeletons that dotted the landscape; I saw the broken clay of Baltoys, the craggy rubble of Geodudes, and of Gravelers. Rusted bits of metal marked the graves of Aggron and Bronzong, and uncomfortably humanoid skeletons were the only remnants of what were once powerful psychic Pokemon such as Gardevoir.

They were burned and blackened, beaten, and crushed. Some had been impaled by rock spikes, and others were half swallowed by the earth beneath their feet. Everywhere I looked, there was a scene from hell that had been painted over a canvas, and the gut-wrenching feeling of despair only grew as the images closed in on the door of the palace.

The images passed the sites of several last stands and demolished barricades until they reached the great hall of the palace. Much like the rest of the city, it was not spared the horrors of the invasion; decorated columns that had once supported the weight of the stone ceiling had collapsed and brought the ceiling down with them, creating obstacles out of the ensuing rubble piles. Miraculously, there was still a path to what had once been the throne of whatever man had ruled this city, but the image did not linger on that for long enough to get a clear look.

Instead, it continued on through a hidden door behind the throne, leading me deeper and deeper under the ruined palace. Down twisting tunnels and ornately decorated catacombs, at the edge of perception, the pressure from earlier grew.

Finally, I found myself in front of a sheer rock arch, but the doors—within more walls of smooth stone than any actual doors—shut tight. The line running through it indicated that it would open down the middle, but it was closed so tight that no information could be gained about what lay within. Lying in front of it was what was left of what had to have been an exceptionally large Claydol. Another wave of grief washed over me, and as I began to wake up again, I heard a voice rumbling from the other side of the door.

I Am Waiting

I blinked my way back into wakefulness, the soft light of the crystals not nearly as harsh as sunlight but still somewhat uncomfortable for the first few minutes of consciousness. I didn't see the Tyrunt on the flat stone slab anymore, and a brief look around the room revealed that I was currently the only occupant.

Despite all the water that I had drunk the previous night, my mouth was uncomfortably dry due to the lingering effects of dehydration. So I started off my new day by pulling my body over to the pool of water and unceremoniously dunking my head into it again.

I kept my head under for as long as I could, gulping in large mouthfuls of water before I felt something hit me in the side, causing me to pull my head out while coughing up water all over the floor as I gasped for air.

It took a few minutes of me hunching over and coughing my lungs out before I finally recovered enough to see just what the hell had hit me and realized that whatever it was, it was currently stuck to my side. I reached back and grabbed it, noting the rubbery texture as I pulled it off my side.

If I had eaten anything within the past few days, I would have gotten sick when I saw what I was holding in my hand. It was a mangled Zubat, slightly scorched, and very, very dead. A massive bite wound had almost completely destroyed half of its body, giving me a crash course on Pokemon anatomy that I never fucking wanted.

A chirping sound drew my attention away from the corpse of the poor Zubat, and I found myself meeting the expectant gaze of the Tyrunt. The dinosaur Pokemon had little bits and pieces of another Zubat hanging from its teeth.

I stared at it; it stared back. I looked down at the mangled Zubat, its mouth open in what I interpreted as a plea for help in its final moments.

"Is this… for me?"

I looked back up; there were now literal twinkles in the Pokemon's eyes as it gazed at me and nudged the dead bat closer. I sighed and decided it was better to bite the metaphorical bullet and not offend the dinosaur that was my only chance at survival. So I slowly picked up the Zubat by one of its wings, only for the appendage to come off in my hand.

I hesitantly raised it to my mouth, and I could swear the Tyrunt started vibrating. I started trying to breathe through my mouth so I didn't catch a whiff of the scent, 'Think happy thoughts, think happy thoughts; it's not a Zubat it's a chicken of the cave… I hope Pokerus 19 doesn't exist' I put the Zubat wing into my mouth and bit down.

…

Unfortunately, it didn't taste like chicken; it tasted like bat. I felt bile rise in my throat as I chewed through the rubbery wing , I quickly forced it down along with the half chewed pieces of Zubat. Tyrunt chirped happily as I crunched away at my meal. With every bite I took, I could hear and feel the bones snapping. Thankfully after I started eating, my body realized that I hadn't eaten in several days, so the nausea I felt over eating the Zubat soon faded away, and by the end of it, I was downing that shit like goddamn chicken wings.

Four hours and 3 Zubats later, I was full. Tyrunt had been kind enough to return to the depths of the cavern to retrieve the poor winged rodents. Answering my unspoken question on where it had disappeared in the morning? Afternoon? It was hard to keep track of time in this cave.

At one point, I even got to witness its hunting technique as it chased a small flock of them out of one of the darkened tunnels, corralling them into the area where I was staying before snaking its head into the swarm and grabbing one of the Zubat by the tip of its wing. The poor thing squeaked and thrashed about for a few moments before flames started covering Tyrunt's fangs, and it tossed the Zubat up in the air before snapping its jaws shut with a CRUNCH.

I gulped, but I was glad that the Tyrunt didn't seem likely to use that attack on me, at least. I was still unsure as to why the Pokemon seemed to have attached itself to me so quickly, but I wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I just contented myself with the fact that I had somehow gained a motherfucking dinosaur as my tentative first Pokemon… speaking of gifts, now that I was out of the merciless rays of the sun, I recalled the bag that I had grabbed off the skeleton in the dese-

A realization struck me: the bag, its fabric shared markings with some of what I had seen in my dream of the ruined city. Now I had more reason to retrieve it, than just pokeballs.

I set down the Zubat wing that I had been absentmindedly chewing on, and picked myself up from the smooth rock I'd been sitting on. The Tyrunt had been drinking from the pool but stopped at my sudden movement. I gave it a slow nod before making my way over to the tunnel that I had entered through.

"I'm just going to go grab something I left at the entrance; I shouldn't be too long." I was banking on Pokemon's innate ability to understand human speech, enabling the Tyrunt to, well, understand my reason for dipping out of the cavern for a bit. Though I did wonder whether the Pokemon gift of tongues included English or if I'd have been better off if I'd ever bothered to learn Japanese.

But those questions could wait until I hopefully found civilization (if it even existed during the time period I've found myself in). As I walked up through the tunnels, I appreciated the ease with which my body responded to my commands. After spending days out in the desert without food or water, I had come to realize that not even the smallest things could be taken for granted.

The cavern that made up the entrance to the cave was much as I remembered it, though this time lacking the giant dragon dinosaur, and lying near the cave mouth itself was the bag that I'd repossessed from the skeleton.

I delicately picked up the bag, being careful not to cause any damage to the aged material. I probably didn't need to worry too much; from what I know about the Pokemon world, it functions similar to a Skyrim dungeon where a 10,000-year-old tomato could be fished out of a dusty old tomb and eaten, but I didn't want to take any chances.

Opening the bag, I slowly pulled out the contents: two pokeballs, a box of some kind, and some strange lengths of metal that were tied together in a bundle. I looked at the box and found that the top came right off, revealing a small assortment of tools, including a hammer, some scissors, and a few other things that I couldn't quite place.

As I set the lid aside, I happened to notice that there was some writing on the inside. Flipping it over, I saw a series of diagrams, and I realized that I was looking at a pictographic representation of how to craft Pokeballs with the tools in the box. Suddenly, I realized that what I was holding in my hands was a crafting kit, like the ones they had in Legends Arceus.

This could be amazingly useful, but it depended on what time period or even universe I had found myself in. Between the games, anime, and manga, Pokemon had a very nebulous definition of 'canon' For all I knew, I had ended up in the Pokemon version of the Mesozoic era. The presence of the Tyrunt certainly lent some credence to that thought, and though the human skeleton I had found suggested otherwise, I wasn't going to fully dismiss the idea at this point.

Or I would have ended up in the modern era, and the crafting kit would be essentially useless except as a novelty item. Maybe I could sell it to someone like Kurt from Azalea if he's around. Though that would require me to be near the Johto region, and once again, I'm in a desert, so that's unlikely.

I'd decide on what to do with it later; for now, I decided I would stow it in the bag so that the sand blowing in from the cave entrance wouldn't damage it. As I started to pack the contents of the satchel back up, I noticed that one of the antique pokeballs had somehow ended up a little bit outside, though it wasn't too far from the cave entrance.

Quickly tying the bag around my waist, I made the mistake of leaving the shelter of the cave to grab it. Despite the fact that I should have known better, I had been lulled into a false sense of security after finally getting some food and water. And while I was daydreaming about catching my first Pokemon, I had forgotten why I had taken shelter in said cave to begin with. The feeling of the hot sand under my feet was not any less uncomfortable than it was before, and even the shade from the dunes surrounding the area was no respite from the merciless sun as I made my way over to the wayward Pokeball.

Another mistake, if I had been thinking straight, I would have realized that there was no feasible way the ball could have rolled from the bag to its spot outside.

It had gathered some sand overnight, so I gave it a quick checkover to make sure that nothing had been damaged. I remember that in the anime, these things seemed damn near indestructible, but I wasn't sure how well that translated into real life, especially with the more antiquated apricorn balls.

Unfortunately, I hit a small snag. "...I have no idea what I'm supposed to be looking for." Yes, being in the pokemon world did not make me a master of their technology. I ended up just brushing off the sand and contenting myself with the fact that there was no apparent damage on the outside of the sphere.

I turned around to head back into the cave, my head still in the clouds, when suddenly I felt something wrap around my right leg, pulling it out from under me.

Looking back, I was met with a nightmarish sight: all around me, the sand was being shifted aside as Cacturnes rose from underneath the desert floor. The largest of which had one of its arms wrapped around my leg as it started to drag me towards it. Now I'm by no means a small man; I'm comfortably over 6 feet, and I know for a fact that forcibly moving me is quite difficult. But to the Cacturne, I might as well have weighed nothing at all, and it had no difficulty dragging me along the sand, despite my desperate attempts to break its hold.

I would have liked to say that I didn't go easy, but that'd be a lie. No matter how much I kicked out with my left leg, it didn't do anything more than mildly annoy the dark type Pokemon. I couldn't even move my right leg; the thorns on the Cacturne's arm were digging into it, and a feeling of numbness was spreading up along the entire leg. I kept kicking out with my left leg though, hoping I could do something to cause the Cacturne to dislodge its hold.

I didn't succeed, but I did succeed in hitting the monster in the eye, causing it to reel back minutely. Unfortunately, this only pissed it off, and a moment later, I let out a scream of pain as it slammed its free arm into my side. Tears of pain, helplessness, and anger welled in my eyes as I felt something stab about two inches deep into my side. When it retracted its arm, I saw a long, needlelike thorn dripping blood on the end of its arm.

The Cacturne's formed its rictus grin again, though it remained silent, unlike the other Cacturnes,which were cackling evilly in the surroundings. As blood gushed from the wound in my side the Cacturne's grin grew wider and a moment later it puckered its lips and spat a brown seed into the opening it had created. I started screaming again as I felt the leech seed take root in my side, feeling the tendrils wrapping around my blood streams before plunging into them like someone had shoved dozens of IVs into my arm.

My vision began to blur as my strength was drained by the leech seed. The Cacturne's face was getting closer. The grin was still present. I was suffering. I was weak. My energy was drained. But deep down, I felt something else rear up. I refused to go quietly into that good night. Mustering up the saliva in my mouth, I waited until its face was close so I didn't miss. It got close. I spit what I had gathered directly into the eye that I had kicked earlier. The Cacturne's grin turned into a scowl as it wiped the spit away from its face. My continued defiance had taken the fun out of torturing me. It raised its right arm, and aimed a long thorn dripping with a purple liquid towards me. I took the time to say my final words "If Arceus is real, I pray to him or whatever god exists here that I get reincarnated as a Chandelure, so I can fry every member of your misbegotten kind." The arm plunged towards me. I took my last breath, and a brown shape flashed overhead. Darkness. Peace.

The feeling of something being torn from my side brought me back, and though I hurt like all hell, it felt like a dam had been lifted. I felt energized again and my eyesight had cleared. Standing over me with bloody roots drooping over the side of its closed jaws was the Tyrunt, playing the role of lifesaver once again. Though this time in a much more physical sense.

It let out a low growl and flames flickered over its teeth, I was never more happy to see something burn than in that morning as the leech seed was reduced to ashes. The Tyrunt turned its head away from me and let out another rumbling growl. I raised myself a bit from my prone position and saw that the Cacturne were still surrounding us. But there was something different about them now, the sadistic smiles they'd had while I was being tortured had been wiped away replaced by a look that I recognized as the desire to be literally anywhere else. Except for the big one, he had a few black marks on its body which were smoking a bit and a murderous glare on his face.

Look at me being a fickle bitch, cause it seems like I've already found my new favorite thing to watch burn. I used the space that Tyrunt had created to pick myself off the ground. Meeting the Cacturne's glare with one of my own, this piece of garbage must have felt liek it was on top of the world before knowing I couldn't do anything to challenge it. Oh how the mighty have fallen. I glanced over at Tyrunt and as our eyes met I felt like a switch had flipped in my mind, I became super aware of every grain of sand beneath my feet and the stones even deeper under that. I could feel the vibrations of the Cacturnes as they inched away from the Tyrunt in fear, fear of the flames that were still spilling out from its maw.

More than anything I could feel Tyrunt's own hatred towards the Cacturnes, the pride of a dragon disdainful of their cowardly act of ganging up against a helpless opponent. The Tyrunt and I were of a single mind in that moment. The Cacturne liked inflicting fear and pain, so let's make them experience it themselves. Etch it deep into their body so that even if they escaped today they'd never forget the lessons learned.

I raised my arm and curled my hand till only my index finger was pointing outwards, towards the big Cacturne, the one that had enjoyed my pain so much. And then with my will and Tyrunt's still in sync I spoke my order. Not in a raised voice, but in a tone that belied the sheer amount of anger and frustration I was currently feeling.

"Tyrunt, Fire Fang, burn them all."

The draconic dinosaur answered with a bellowing roar, and bolted towards the big Cacturne whose eyes widened at the speed with which my Tyrunt moved. I could see blue sparks popping off of Tyrunt as it moved but I didn't have enough time to fully process what that meant before it cleared the gap between it and the Cacturne. The Cacturne caught off guard by the speed of the Tyrunt tried to scoop up a bunch of sand and toss it into Tyrunt's face to cover up a dodge to the side, Unfortunately for the Cactus Pokemon Tyrunt wasn't slowed by the impromptu sand attack, the fire leaking from its jaws burning away whatever grains neared it.

As the Cacturne hopped to the left, Tyrunt's neck curved with it. Cacturne wasn't able to pull its right arm out of the way fast enough and it hissed in pain as the dragon Pokemon's fiery teeth sank into the limb. Tyrunt used the grip it had and swung its neck back to the right, picking up the Cacturne in a surprising show of strength before slamming it onto the ground. But Tyrunt wasn't done yet as it swung its head from side to side, repeatedly slamming the Cacturne into the ground.

The Cacturne cried out in pain as it impacted the ground for the third time and then a ball of dark energy started forming on its left arm's thorn tip. I could see more energy flowing from the right arm where Tyrunt's jaws were fastened and I didn't want to take a chance.

"Tyrunt quick dodge backwards!" a little bit of urgency leaked into my voice as I shouted, I was gambling on the fact that the Tyrunt seemed willing to work with me enough to listen before Cacturne's attack went off.

My gamble somewhat paid off, Tyrunt did release its grip and jump backwards. But the Cacturne didn't swing its left arm like I predicted. Instead the sphere of dark energy burst in a ring shaped wave of energy which slammed into Tyrunt sending it to the ground.

'Was that dark pulse?' I wondered, whatever that attack was it had to have been strong if it knocked Tyrunt on its ass. I regretted the fact that I'd never really used Cacturne myself, otherwise I'd have had more of a knowledge on its movelist. But there was a Pokemon present that I had used before, and it was picking itself up from the ground with a deep growl. Tyrunt glanced back at me and I figured that my warning from earlier had earned me enough trust that it was waiting to hear my orders before going back in. My knowledge of its ability was already giving me a few ideas on how it might translate into real world terms, but for now I'd stick with the tried and tested.

"Fire fang again, don't give it a chance to recover" I knew this Cacturne had access to leech seed, and I didn't want to test whether that was as far as its recovery moves went.

Tyrunt darted forwards, not having any difficulty moving across the sand as it closed in on Cacturne. Cacturne hadn't been idle however and unlike the earlier attack it didn't dodge to the side, instead it planted its legs into the sand and slammed its arms together, thorns jutted outwards as green energy covered its limbs. Shit that was Spiky Shield wasn't it.

"Tyrunt stop don't attack!" I shouted but it was too late and Tyrunt let out a squawk of pain as it ended up with a mouthful of thorns, it backed off and glared at the Cacturne which was smiling again…that pissed me off. I racked my brain for any attack that would get through the defensive wall it'd put up. Unfortunately I didn't know which moves Tyrunt did or didn't know which means i'd have to figure out another way of getting through to the Cacturne.

It was at this point that I realized that it was just us and the big Cacturne left, the others having apparently fled at some point. I scanned the surronding dunes for any oddly placed lumps of sand but I didn't see any. I guess they'd gotten scared after the thrashing Tyrunt had given what I assumed to be the alpha of their little group and decided to leave him to his fate.

I analyzed the Cacturne. It was still keeping up the Spikey Shield, only moving enough to keep the defensive move up between it and Tyrunt. I could tell that the dark-grass Pokemon was on its last legs, and while I figured Tyrunt and I could wait it out, the problem was that if it kept this up for much longer the other Cacturne might realize that they outnumber us and return. And I wasn't confident at Tyrunt's chances of handling all of them.

'It's got to have some weakness in its defense, something I can exploit' I thought to myself as I stared at it. Finally after about 5 minutes I spotted something that I was sure wasn't a feint designed to trick us into attacking. The shield aura on its right side over where Tyrunt had bitten it was slightly dimmer than the rest, and I realized that when Tyrunt had grabbed onto it with the Fire Fang earlier it'd burnt off some of the thorns on the arm.

"Tyrunt! Its shield is weaker on the right side, you should be able to break through!" I shouted. The Cacturne swung its head at me and hissed in anger. I guess it'd kind of forgotten I was here, but it had a much bigger, deadlier problem to worry about cause Tyrunt didn't hesitate and immediately darted forward targeting its right arm again. Cacturne tried to keep the shield up and for a few seconds it seemed like I was wrong as Tyrunt didn't seem able to break through the wall of thorns. But then the Cacturne let out a loud wail as my hunch paid off and Tyrunt's fangs burned through the shield.

This time Tyrunt didn't clamp down on the arm, but instead it bit into the Cacturne's shoulder. The Cacturne cried out as the draconic dinosaur Pokemon's's teeth burned through the Cacturne's defensive layer of thorns and into the Pokemon itself. Then then Tyrunt raised the Cacturne into the air and SLAMMED it onto the sand. Sending a massive amount of sand into the air and obscuring my vision for a few minutes.

I waited for the sand to clear with baited breath, and when it finally did it was to the sight of Tyrunt, standing triumphant with one foot atop the Cacturne. Either the Dark-type Pokemon was dead or it was unconscious. I didn't really care. What really mattered is that Tyrunt and I had worked together to put it into the dirt, winning me my first real battle in the Pokemon world despite my rocky start.

The Tyrunt moved off the Cacturne after about a minute and walked over to me where I greeted it by slapping the side of its neck in celebration.

"Good fucking job dude! That part where you just kept slamming it into the ground was awesome!" I said as I rubbed its neck and continued to heap praises on it, something the Pokemon evidently enjoyed as it let out a very satisfied "Runt!" and preened itself.

After about a minute of this I finally brought up something I'd been waiting to talk about "So I was thinking" I said "Surviving the desert alone is hard, almost impossible even. While we do have the cave to fall back on it's only going to be a matter of time before either the water in there runs out or the Zubat wise up to your hunting methods. I don't think it makes sense to stay here long term."

I stared the Tyrunt in the eyes "We made a damn good team back there and I'd like to keep that going" I held up the Pokeball I'd left the cave for, having kept it gripped in my hands the entire time "So what do you say about making this team-up official? Do you want to stay here eating Zubat and having to constantly defend against the Cacturne? Or do you want to come with me?"

The Tyrunt stared at me, then it glanced at the ball before looking back at the cave mouth behind me. It took a step towards the cave mouth and my heart began to sank, but then Tyrunt turned to look back at the motionless Cacturne. And then it turned to me and nodded.

I couldn't control the grin that split my face as I stepped up to Tyrunt and pressed the Pokeball to its snout, the ball opened and the Pokemon was sucked inside as the Pokeball clicked shut. "Welcome aboard Tyrunt"

I was so distracted by the euphoria of catching my first Pokemon, that I didn't even notice that small purple orb of energy that flew out from Cacturne, and by the time I did see it as it flew towards me it was too late. The energy surrounded me and I felt my vision fading once again, but this time there was no Tyrunt to appear in the nick of time as I fell back unconscious against the sand.

"-It is clear that unless the league releases a statement protests will continue. In other news Route 9 between Tubeline Bridge and Opelucid City has been shut down by a Poison Pokemon swarm following a train derailment…"

Trudly tuned out the sound of the radio as he drove through the dunes, keeping one hand on the wheel but using the other to pop a piece of steak into his mouth. Machoke was still out of its ball, sitting in the passenger seat and tearing up bits and pieces of Tauros steak. Handing some of them over to his trainer while sneaking a few of them for himself.

They'd been driving for a few hours now, following the footprints in the sand deep into Cacturne territory. Trudly wasn't really watching the road though, too busy scanning the surrounding hills for any sign of the Grass/Dark Type Pokemon. It was a bit early in the day for them to be hunting, but you could never really predict Cacturnes.

Just as Machoke was handing him another piece of meat he saw something scuttle over a nearby hill, he slowed down and brought the truck to a stop as it climbed into the back.. A moment later Folly opened the dividing window.

"Ariados says there were some Cacturne around but they were heading out of the area, I can't quite understand but I think Ariados is saying there was some kind of battle going on near one of those big stones ahead of us."

Trudly tilted his head "Ain't that where the tracks were heading?"

He heard movement in the back which he figured was Folly tilting his head over the side of the truck before responding "Yup"

"Well I guess we'll go take a look and see what's happening"

Folly nodded and shut the dividing window, only to open it again a second later "Do you want me to return your Ariados?"

"No? Keep her out, we might need her."

When the window closed again he put the truck back into gear and sped forward towards the rock formation looming over the dunes. To his right Machoke slipped off the seat belt it was wearing and placed a hand on the door handle. Ready to jump out and into battle at a moments notice.

About 5 minutes of driving over dunes later they pulled up to the lip of the hill nearest to the rock formation. Craning his head out the window Trudly could see that there had clearly been a fight recently. Large amounts of sand had been disturbed and he saw the smoking body of a Cacturne, but more importantly he saw the motionless body of a human, lying a few yards away from a cave entrance in the side of the giant rock pillar.

The window slid open again "Trudly you see-"

"Yea." Apparently they'd been too late, the Cacturne had caught up to the guy they'd been tracking, though it looked like he'd given one hell of a fight before he went down.

"I'll go down a take a look" Folly said, putting his hands on the rim of the truck bed and getting ready to jump over.

"Nah hold on a sec, Ariados, use dig, make sure there's no Cacturne hiding in the sand"

"Dos" he heard in reply as Ariados jumped off the truck and quickly burrowed under the sands. He watched as a lump moved out from by their truck and down the hill before vanishing as the bug Pokemon went deeper underground. About a minute later Ariados popped out of the ground near the downed Cacturne and gave it a tentative shove with her foot. When the Cacturne didn't react it waved back towards the truck and Trudly shifted it back into gear and pulled down the hill.

Once he'd gotten it parked near the unknown man's body he and Machoke stepped out of the cab while Folly jumped over the side, tossing Ariados' pokeball over to Trudly who caught it and attached it to his belt while walking over to the Pokemon in question he let out a whistle when he got to where it was standing.

"That is one dead Cacturne."

Folly meanwhile walked over to the body of the man they'd been tracking. The body was lying face down in the sand so he flipped it over. "Damn, looks like it did a number on this dude before it died though. I'm seeing thorn marks all over his body and it looks like he took a hit to the side from something"

"He still alive?"

"Give me a second…Yea he's still breathing, but barely. Just unconcio- HOLY SHIT"

Trudly's head spun around as Folly jumped back from the unconscious body, Ariados jumped to an alert position and he felt more than saw Machoke tense up behind him. "Folly what's wrong?"

"Dude's holding a Pokeball and I got a look inside when I was checking his breathing. I don't know what it is but it looks like it could be a Dragon"

"Oh piss" Trudly responded "You sure it's a Dragon?"

Folly cautiously approached the unconscious body again "Pretty sure? I mean it looks a bit like a Salamence but without wings. Remember that actress from Kalos? It reminds me of that big dragon Pokemon of hers could be related"

Trudly tried to recall what his friend was talking about, but drew a blank. He reached down into his pocket for his portable PDA and flipped it open. Quickly navigating through a few search results before finding what he was looking for.

"Tyrantrum?"

"Yea that one, what should we do with this guy? Do we take him back and then dump him in the Under?"

"Are you insane?" Trudly asked, utterly confused at the idea his friend had come up with.

"I'm not saying we leave the Pokemon, we can take it and find someone to sell it off once we get back to the base." Folly responded as he went through the pockets of the unconscious man.

"...So you want us to separate a dragon Pokemon from its trainer while it's sleeping, and take it back to our base while the boss is away for a few days? What do you think is the first thing the dragon Pokemon is going to do when it wakes up to find that its been stolen from its trainer. A dragon Pokemon that I remind you absolutely slaughtered the Cacturne lying over there." Trudly slowly enunciated his response.

Folly paused in his search "Okay maybe I didn't think that through. But we're not even sure if it's actually a dragon type Pokemon."

"And I don't want to be the one standing there when we find out if it is or not. Forget it…find anything in his pockets"

"Not much, no wallet or anything. Found a phone though, beat up but still working. it's finger print locked though. Gimme a second" Folly grabbed the limp hand of the unconscious man and pressed it against the screen. Once he'd gotten past the login screen he let the limb fall again.

"Screen's a lost cause, I can hardly see anything. looks like he was logged into something but I can't recognize the site screen's too messed up. You see anything?" Folly said as he handed the phone off to Trudly who'd walked up to where he was.

"That's a lot of white, must be one of those League identification sites they use in the main regions. Wait I think I see something…Username…Ever…peach. Huh, maybe it's Kanto style, meaning his name's Peach and he's from Evergrande City. Yea sounds right, Wonder how he got here from Hoenn."

"There was that weird storm a few days ago when the sky got all purple and wonky, maybe he got caught up in that somehow?"

"Maybe…Machoke, toss him in the back. We can find out more back home."

Folly stood up and stretched as Machoke lifted the unconscious body and brought him over to the truck "We're taking him with us?"

"We can't leave him out here, goes against the rules. And he definitely needs some medical attention with all the injuries on his body."

"Now I know you're not a bleeding heart, so what's the catch?" Folly commented as they walked back towards the truck.

"Ariados, return. If he really does have a dragon than we'd rather be on his good side. Climb in the back, I don't want him flying out the bed while we're driving."

As the human vehicle vanished over the dunes Celebi decloaked with an exhausted sigh. Who would have that that keeping one unfortunate victim of Palkia and Dialga's most recent struggle alive would be so much trouble! Now it wanted nothing more than to head back to Agate and just leave everything else to the birds or beasts to clean up. But first it had to drop in on the Celebi from a few days and several hundred timestreams ago and give it a pitying pat on the back.

AN: I'm back from getting milk and ciggs, hopefully it won't take me over a year to get another chapter done lmao. As always you can find me on Shiro's Gaming Omniverse Discord which has writers that are far better than I am lol /wd3tUYWVCd