"Doomfannn!" the strange Donphan bellowed a mighty roar challenging Ash.
Talonflame, Lycanroc, and Pikachu attacked the beast with Brave Bird, Stone Edge, and Iron Tail.
For some reason, the Donphan recoiled when struck by the Brave Bird.
"Is this thing a different type?" He wondered.
The strange Donphan used Rapid Spin, blowing Ash's team aside. Ash found it surprisingly fast for something so big.
It still seemed to be part ground-type and Ash knew that Lycanroc and Pikachu wouldn't be much use here.
"Pikachu Lycanroc return!"
"Dooooom!" The Donphan went for another Rapid Spin barreling toward Ash.
"Leavanny use String Shot!" Ash sent out the first Pokémon on him he could think of. Unfortunately, the String Shot couldn't stop the Rapid Spin and flung the Nurturing Pokémon aside.
It did slow down the Donphan enough for Ash to get out of the way.
"Use Tempar Flare! And Triple Axel!" In a fit of rage, Talonflame became enveloped in fire and then flew into the Donphan's head, allowing Leavanny to kick it with three spinning kicks covered in ice.
Still, the attacks didn't seem to faze the Donphan that much.
He needed to call in the big guns.
"Dracovish I choose you!"
The strange Donphan stared down Dracovish deciding it was the biggest threat.
The Donphan charged forward with a Headlong Rush.
"Dracovish use Fishious Rend!" the two attacks cancelled each other.
Before the Donphan could react Talonflame and Leavanny attacked with Brave Bird and Energy Ball letting Dracovish land another Fishious Rend.
The strange Donphan smashed into the side of a cliff enveloping the battlefield in a cloud of dust.
When Ash opened his eyes again it was gone but he could feel the earth shake as it lumbered down to the deeper depths of the crater.
Ash really wanted to pursue it. After all, he didn't see something like this every day.
But he knew Rika would be looking for him and it was also technically illegal to be in The Great Crater without Geeta's permission.
Reluctantly, he returned his Pokémon and began his way back up. The Donphan's destruction of the cliff face had created a path of ruble that Ash could carefully traverse his way back up.
When he got to the higher levels of the crater the dense fog had cleared and he could see he was walking through a field crisscrossed by streams and Pokémon he was used to seeing.
"Don't wander off like that!" Rika shouted appearing in the field "Wow what happened down there?" she pointed at the pile of rubble left by the Donphan.
"Oh there was some sort of weird giant Donphan roaming around here that's what I was looking at"
"Well anyway let's get out of here don't want to keep the others waiting"
On their way back to the exit Ash decided to ask a question.
"Say, would you know where to find any information on the stuff seen in Area Zero?"
Rika's eyes perked up "Well there's this magazine called Oculture that talks about all the rumors of Paldea, I think they're completely crack but Rinto likes to read them"
"Is there anything a little more reliable"
"Well there are some old books that were written on them but I don't know how reliable they are"
Old books, Ash thought back to those papers Looker had shown him of strange-looking Pokémon he said they were from old books.
"Where could I find them?"
"I know the academy Library has them"
"Thanks"
…
"What took you so long?" Hassle asked.
"We though we had a trail but it came up with nothing" Rika replied "You guys find anything better?"
"We certainly did, come see" Hassle gestured over to the road they came from.
"Amooong!" Ash was taken aback by what was in front of him.
Hassle's Baxcalibur and Dendra's Hariyama stood over a pair of very strange-looking Amoonguss.
They had small legs and a long tail, and a veil of vines covered their faces, but Ash could make out a fearsome set of teeth in their mouth.
"What on earth is that!" Ash blurted out loud without thinking.
"It's called Brute Bonnet Tests ran on it have found it to be a grass/dark type" Raifort explained.
"So is it like some new form of Amoonguss?"
"Hard to say we know there's a relationship between them but were not sure exactly how"
Raifort snagged the pair of Brute Bonnets with Ultra Balls "Well send them off to Geeta and Sonia for further research"
"It's certainly odd. It's unusual for Paradox Pokémon to come this far out of Area Zero"
"Paradox Pokémon?" Ash asked.
"That's what we call these things since we know they are related to modern Pokémon but we can't tell how"
"So that strange Donphan must be a Paradox Pokémon"
Ash needed to know more about this right now.
…
Unfortunately.
"What do you mean the books were taken out!" The Librarian shushed him.
"I'm sorry Mr Ketchum but somebody already checked both books out"
He thought it must be an ironic joke. The one time he wanted to read something of course it was gone.
He decided to go with the next best option.
"Raifort do you know where I could find any information on Paradox Pokémon" Raifort just gave him an odd look.
Maybe barging into her room and asking something like that wasn't the best idea.
"Follow me" was all she said.
Raifort leads him back to the library climbing up a ladder to the highest shelf.
"It's not often that anyone reads these things besides me but this is all the information we've gathered on the Paradox Pokémon"
"Thanks, I'll make sure to put these back once I'm done"
Ash spread out the papers and began to look through them.
There were a bunch of sketches of strange things that looked like Pokémon Ash recognized but looked like something out of another timeline as if someone drew them off memory.
Finally, Ash found the strange Donphan he was looking for.
"Great Tusk" the top of the paper read "Ground/Fighting"
"Sightings of this Pokémon have occurred in recent years. The name Great Tusk was taken from a creature listed in a certain book" This creature resembles a mysterious Pokémon that, according to a paranormal magazine, has lived since ancient times"
"Rika mentioned Rinto reads that occulture magazine I wonder if that's what this is talking about"
Unfortunately, there wasn't more information on it than that just a couple of sketches that matched what Ash saw and a note mentioning it's aggression.
What was more interesting was that Great Tusk was known as the Paradox Pokémon.
The same as Koraidon.
Flipping back through the pages all of them were called the Paradox Pokémon.
Surely that was just from a lack of information.
Ash stopped when he came to the last 2 pages.
One was a strange-looking Salamence called Roaring Moon listed as Dragon/Dark
The other what looked like a cross of Gardevoir and Gallade called Iron Valiant listed as Fairy/Fighting.
Nothing was written about them other than a note in Raiforts handwriting saying.
"extremely aggressive and dangerous approach with extreme caution"
Paradox Pokémon weren't just unique versions of existing Pokémon they also seemed much stronger closer to pseudo-legendaries than regular Pokémon.
It made sense now why Team Galactic had an interest in them.
End Credit Song-Beds Are Burning, Midnight Oil
I'm done with exams so chapters should come out faster now