Chapter 62: Last Ditch Effort

Kai, his Pokémon and his boyfriend all stood side by side as they stared down the angry Slaking.

"I've got an idea," Aeon said.

"Let's hear it."

"Tell Charcadet to start charging his strongest, most powerful attack. Meanwhile, the rest of us will distract him."

"Great idea. Charcadet, you heard him!"

The terrestialized Charcadet nodded and closed his eyes as fire type aura began radiating around the Pokémon.

"All right… Let's kick this jerk where it hurts!" Kai roared.

Kai sprinted ahead, and everyone but Charcadet ran along with him. "Quaxwell, with me! Pawmo, dazzle em with Agility! Tinkatuff, hit em when you see an opening!"

Quaxwell leapt onto Kai's shoulder, and his invoker shone blue as a response- linking itself with the water type.

Just then, Pawmo dashed past them both with incredible speed- chanting his own name again and again as he ran circles around Slaking. Slaking's eyes darted back and forth in an attempt to keep up.

While he was distracted Tinkatuff leapt in with her fist raised, ready to strike the Slaking.

Her fist connected onto the Slaking's face but did no damage. Tinkatuff let out a yelp of terror as Slaking lazy let out a frustrated Hyper Voice strong enough to send both her and Pawmo flying.

"Hey! Up here!"

Slaking looked up and saw Kai with Quaxwell still on his shoulder hanging in the air above him.. Kai shot his open hands at the Slaking and fired a ice beam from his armored palms- and Quaxwell let out a hydro pump.

The ice and water merged the moment it touched the Slaking- freezing the Pokemon solid and creating a pillar of ice.

Kai landed in front of the frozen Slaking, and Aeon just then caught up, standing on the opposite end of where his boyfriend was.

"We could run right now, y'know," Kai said, closing his hand into a fist as it burst with water type energy.

"He shot a hyper beam at you. He's going down," Aeon said. Koraidon's Fighting type energy coming from Aeon's Paradox Drive burst like flames around the android's closed fist.

"That's the spirit!" Kai cried.

Both boys raised their fists.

"Liquidation!" Kai cried.

"Focus Punch!" Aeon roared.

Both boys punched the frozen body of Slaking with so much force that the pillar of ice around him shattered like glass. An explosion of water type and fighting type energy surged and created a mushroom-cloud explosion.

Charcadet watched and stared in total awe. Its Fire type aura began to fade, because he thought that the battle was over.

He was wrong.

The sound of pained screams from his friends came as the smoke cleared. Kai was grabbed by the leg by the berserk lazy Pokémon and flung into the air as Quaxwell leapt off is trainer's shoulder to stay in the fight. Aeon glared, raising his fist and throwing a punch, but Slaking's punch came faster- sending the android boy to the ground. Quaxwell fired a hydro pump at the Pokémon from his mouth. Slaking raised his arm, pushing it through the hydro pump and grabbing Quaxwell by the head and slamming his body onto the ground.

Just then, Pawmo came dashing in with electricity sparking about its entire body. It attached itself onto Slaking's face and then used Thunderbolt, sending volts of electricity onto Slaking's body and causing him to stumble back.

Slaking grabbed the tiny mouse Pokémon by the leg and slammed his body onto the ground with incredible force. Afterwards, he tossed Pawmo away as Kai and Aeon rushed together with their fists raised.

Slaking used Hyper voice again- screeching so loud that both boys covered their ears. Slaking then rushed forward, grabbed both boys by their heads and then slammed their faces together.

Both boys cried out in pain and fell to the ground, and Slaking breathed heavily, looking over his downed enemies.

"Ugh…" Aeon moaned.

"Aeon…" Kai moaned, "I can't move…Invoker's heavy. I think Quaxwell's unconscious after that blow to the head..." Kai said.

"...That's not good."

Slaking looked over to Charcadet who looked worried about his friends. Slaking grit his teeth and glared he approached the fire type. Suddenly, Kai summoned all of his strength and managed to grab the normal type by the leg.

"Where are you going..?" Kai asked. "I'm not… finished with you yet..!"

Slaking turned and kicked Kai right in the face.

"UGH…!" Kai moaned, feeling the full brunt of the attack due to Quaxwell fainting.

Slaking turned and walked toward Charcadet.

But then, Aeon's detached rocket-arm flew and struck the slaking on the back. The Slaking turned around, seeing Aeon glaring at him.

"Don't just stand there, Charcadet!" Aeon said. "Keep powering up- We're buying you time. Don't waste even a second..!"

Charcadet glared and nodded as his fiery aura blazed back to life.

Aeon stood up as Slaking spun around. Kai pressed a button on his wrist, and his invoker armor faded as he stood up.

"This guy's a real tank." Kai said. "I think he's the strongest Wild Pokemon I've ever fought in my life…"

Aeon attached his arm back onto his body. "You've gotta link up with Pawmo or Tinkatuff. We just have to stall him. Just for a little bit."

That's when Pawmo yelled at the very top of his lungs. Both Aeon and Kai spun their heads and watched as the little lightning mouse charged past them both with incredible electric energy around him.

"PAWMOOOOOOO!"

Tinkatuff opened her eyes, waking up from the brink of unconsciousness the moment Pawmo cried out. Lifting her upper body up, she saw the incredibly powerful electric bolt that was Pawmo charging for the enemy.

Pawmo leapt, tackling the Slaking who crossed his arms in defense. The strength of the attack was enough to push Slaking's body back, his feet left a trail of dirt.

"What the..!?" Kai cried.

"He's- He's using Wild Charge…but he's using far too much power than his body can handle..!" Aeon cried. "Tell him to stop right now- if he doesn't, then he could seriously hurt himself...!"

"NO!" Tinkatuff roared at the top of her lungs and started running until she reached Kai and Aeon's side.

"Pawmo! You have to stop!" Kai cried. "Stop it! Please!"

"No!" Pawmo cried out. "I'm sorry…but I'm not listening to you right now..! I have to end this so that everyone can be safe..!"

"Kai- Pawmo's power- it's becoming too much!" Aeon said, activating his power sensors. "If Pawmo continues, he'll end up in critical condition- or even-"

"Darn it- Pawmo, you can't!" Kai cried.

"Pawmo! STOP IT!" Tinkatuff cried. "Please!"

"No! I'm going to do this... for Kai, for Quaxwell, Charcadet, Aeon…and you, Tinkatuff!"

"Pawmo.. Please!" Tinkatuff roared. "STOP IT! NOOO!"

Pawmo yelled out at the very top of his lungs.

The sound of Tinkatuff screaming 'No!' At the top of her lungs was drowned out by the incredible roar of the explosion that came. Sparks of electricity shocked the ground itself as the earth began to rupture.

Soon enough, the smoke cleared….and Slaking stood still- its body sparked with electricity. Pawmo was lying on his back before it.

Slacking fell to his hands and knees.

"Every…attack… before…only…tickled… me…" Slaking said. "But you…your attack…hurt…"

"PAWMO!" Tinkatuff roared at the top of her lungs, tears trailing behind her as she ran toward Pawmo and crouched to his side.

Pawmo smiled at Tinkatuff.

"Don't worry about me…Tinkatuff." Pawmo said. "Just…just-..think of me when you make... your hamme-"

"I don't care about the stupid hammer right now, I care about you!"

Pawmo grinned, and then slowly closed his eyes, drifting into unconsciousness.

Slaking slowly stood up, fighting against the Paralysis that was threatening to keep him still.

"A lot of power…from such a tiny little body…" Slaking said.

A shadow loomed over Tinkatuff's eyes as she stood up.

"No matter what we throw at you…" Tinkatuff's body began twitching as it radiated with a mixture of steel and Fairy type energy. "No matter what we hit you with.. You just won't go down. You just. Won't. Go. DOWN!"

The earth below the Fairy/Steel Pokémon's feet shattered- leaving a tiny crater below it.

"It's because of that Pawmo had to do what he did… it's because of you…" Tinkatuff balled her fists. "All because of you…!"

Suddenly, Tinkatuff's entire body began to shine white...as she started to Evolve.

"IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF YOOOOOU!" Tinkatuff roared at the top of her lungs as her steel and fairy type aura exploded. Her entire body began to change shape and form.

A massive hammer was beginning to take shape in the pink Pokémon's hands. The aura of steel and fairy type energy faded away, leaving the glowing white body of the Pokémon that had evolved into...

Tinkaton.

The white glow around Tinkaton's body exploded like fireworks and faded away. The hammer it wielded was now several times bigger than its previous state as a Tinkatuff.

"Whoa..!" Kai cried. "She evolved..!"

"It's incredible that Tinkaton evolved and all," Aeon said, "but you need to return Pawmo to his ball, now!"

"Oh- Right!"

Kai whipped out his pokeball and raced over to Tinkaton, returning Pawmo into his ball immediately and standing face to face with Slaking.

Meanwhile, Aeon ran over to Charcadet while activating his power sensors. His eyes widened.

"You're seconds away from reaching full power. Good. Wait for my cue." Aeon said.

Kai and Tinkaton stared down the paralyzed and severely weakened Slaking.

"I'd put on my invoker and help you out…" Kai said. "...But I'm not gonna do that.. you've got this."

Slaking sluggishly raised a fist and threw it, both Trainer and Pokémon leapt away from the attack that was powerful enough to cause shards of earth to fly around the normal type.

"Tinkaton!" Kai said as he was in mid air. He landed on the ground and pointed his finger at the enemy."Use Megaton Hammer!"

Tinkaton leapt into the air, raising her new hammer over her head. It shone with Steel type energy.

"Charcadet! Fire blast, now!" Aeon roared. Charcadet let out an incredibly powerful flamethrower- and it flew, not for Slaking, but for Tinkaton.

Specifically, Tinkaton's hammer.

The flamethrower began to merge into the hammer, causing its heat and size to expand to an incredible size that rivaled a Titan Pokémon. The hot red color was burning bright. Slowly, Tinkaton swung the massive hammer over on Slaking, who couldn't move due to paralysis.

Slaking raised his arms, in an attempt to protect itself- keeping the hammer from slamming down onto him. Gritting his teeth and fighting the paralysis, Slaking pushed back against Tinkaton, who grit her teeth with exertion.

Suddenly, an Air Slash seemingly coming from nowhere flew and struck the normal type on the back, causing the Slaking to stumble. The normal type turned his head… and saw Quaxwell bruised and battered, breathing heavily with its wing extended.

"FINISH IT!" Kai cried.

Tinkatuff cried at the very top of her lungs. The hammer pushed Slaking into the ground and exploded, creating a massive pillar of flame that rose into the sky. The pillar of flame spread apart and created a shape that looked like the Japanese Kanji meaning 'big'.

Soon, the flames faded. and Tinkaton landed on the ground next to her trainer, her hammer reverted to its original size. The entire group watched as Slaking stood motionless as the smoke cleared. It alone stood in the crater of seared earth.

Kai held his breath. "Why's he still standing...?!"

Aeon watched with worry. It was like watching a Pokeball roll back and forth after a capture attempt on a wild Pokémon.

Was he going to go down? Or was Slaking about to fight even more?

Everyone stood still, watching with extreme worry. And then, After a while…Slaking coughed out smoke…then fell onto his back.

Aeon gasped with joy. "He's unconscious! We won!" He cried.

"YESSSSSSSSSS!" Kai roared. "LET'S GOOOOOOO!"

Charcadet hopped with glee.

Tinkaton put its giant hammer on its shoulder and puffed her chest as she smiled in pride.

"We did iiiit!" Aeon roared, racing over to Kai. The two boys hugged each other and hopped up and down with joy.

Charcadet raced over Tinkaton, and the two hugged.

Quaxwell grabbed onto his arm as he approached his celebrating friends, smiled, and then fell on his rear.

"Thank goodness we won..!" Kai cried.

"Yeah..!" Aeon said.

"That Pokémon was way too powerful…" Kai moaned.

"But we made it. That's all that matters… we made it."

Both boys smiled at each other. Then, Aeon scratched the back of his head. "Um… by the way… sorry for saying mean things to you, earlier. I was just stressed out because you were in danger, and-"

"Don't even worry about it. If I'm being an idiot, I expect you to yell at me. It shows you care."

Aeon and Kai nodded and smiled at each other again.

"God, you look so cute right now," Kai said, narrowing his eyes and smiling even wider. Aeon chuckled a bit.

"I knew you'd start flirting with me out of nowhere."

"Why would I not!? My blood's pumping, my heart's racing, I'm drenched in sweat, and I'm totally in a kissing mood…" Kai wiggled his eyebrows.

Aeon smirked teasingly, raised a finger and pressed it against Kai's lips. "Maybe after you take a shower."

"Aw, c'mon! Just one kiss?"

"Nope."

Aeon giggled, and Kai pouted before cracking a smile and starting to laugh. Then, the two boys began to share a laugh. Then, Pawmo and Tinkaton began laughing too.

"They won." Turo said, standing beside Professor Sada and watching on the monitor. "Despite everything, they won."

"The final Herba Mystica is now theirs. Well, it's still in the grasp of Kai's Bombirdier."

"Whether or not it gives the plant to its trainer is left up to chance…" Sada moaned. "Oh well. What's important is that they survived."

Turo and Sada shared a nod.