Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoy. If you REALLY like it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.
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"AARRFF!"
CRAACCK!
"Yes, we're leaving soon, can you-!?"
"ARRRFFFFF!"
CRRRAAAACKKK!
"STOP IT!"
Sol panted furiously, jumping around like a demented Spoink high on cocaine. Periodically, he'd vanish in a blinding flash of light and crack of thunder, the massively overpowered Teleport illuminating the deeper part of the Dragon's Den like a sun had been born.
"Sol! SOL!" I grabbed him mid-bounce by the scruff, and despite his excitement, he was polite enough to pretend my 160~ pounds did anything to hold him. "I know you wanna get out of here, but we've still got something to do first."
He gave me a look that suggested it was a personal betrayal of the highest order that we weren't leaving instantly, but, mercifully, he sat. Well, collapsed dramatically with a whine, but I'd take it.
The last two weeks had been rough for the Arcanine in particular – more than Betty, in some ways. While Sol's pride was as inflated as always, and he'd had a great time playing with the baby dragons and scaring me half to death by Teleporting up my ass, the physical toll of being in a cave for two weeks had started to show. His energy level had been slightly below his normal nuclear reactor of unending shenanigans, his shiny coat was matted and dull, and there were dark bags under his eyes that refused to go away even that one time he slept for 17 hours straight.
Our visits outside had become daily excursions that lasted well over an hour. Maybe it was how much I'd had him use Morning Sun, or just the species, but going more than two days without sunlight seemed genuinely unhealthy for the canine.
So I could hardly blame him for being excited. And to be fair, so was the rest of them. Hell, even I could feel the adrenaline pumping and the Aura stirring.
I ran the roster one more time out of habit more than necessity: Betty as patched up as she was going to get, shell a little lumpy in an odd way, yet smooth where the foam had done its work over the last two weeks; Siren hovering near the front, voluntarily taking the lead; Sol still visibly buzzed with pent-up energy; Hercules cracking his knuckles; Espeon napping around my shoulder, completely unconcerned. Aurora's tails held a steadiness that hadn't been there a week ago.
Honedge hid in my shadow as always, but Zorua's ears were up, the black fox standing amongst the team rather than in my pocket. Shakily, sure, but she was giving it a good try.
"Last time was… not great," I kept it at that, shoulder burning at the reminder. The 'medicine' I'd been given had been way more effective than I'd expected, but that didn't stop the neat line of pink and wrinkly scars that encircled my shoulder blade. Siren shot Betty a slight glare, but didn't make a bigger deal of it than that. "But that's okay, that's why we run it back, to show off improvement, both individually and together."
Betty huffed a little, but didn't complain about the light reminders. Good, it had been on purpose. "Are we all clear on our jobs when we're down there?" Various barks and growls of agreement. "Good. Let's go ruin their day."
As a massive group, all nine of us started moving deeper into the Den, a crowd of young dragons and Rock-Types surrounding us like a cheer squad. A Trapinch stared at us blankly until Betty waddled by. A glint entered the bug's black eyes as it threw its massive head back and reared up on its hind legs. When it came back down, the stone beneath it distended, a pretty solid Rock Tomb lifting the Ground-Type high. With unexpected grace, the Trapinch landed on Betty's back, ignoring the much stronger Pokémon staring at it in bafflement from its perch atop the world.
Until I poked Espeon, hanging in her usual spot around my neck, to make her lift it with Confusion and bring it to me, the insectoid's legs kicking furiously.
"Sorry, buddy. You're definitely not ready for this," I apologized to Betty's friend, reaching out to pat it on the head-
"SHIT!"
-only for it to almost take my hand clean off, the deadly jaws snapping shut a hairbreadth from my fingertips. Glaring at it, I could've sworn that it scowled back, the first emotions I'd seen from the thing.
Until surprise replaced the grimace as it was hurled straight across the large chamber and into a wall with a thud!
"Serves you right, little bastard," I grumbled, watching a couple of opportunistic dragons rush towards the stunned Trapinch.
Damn thing had been holding a grudge since I yelled at Betty. Apparently, the Shelgon could do no wrong in the Trapinch's beady little eyes, and it was clearly my fault somehow.
Putting it out of my mind – once I'd seen it get back up before getting eaten – I tried to return to the original task, yet was interrupted again before I could when all the surrounding Dragon-Types who had been bouncing on our heels and trying their damnedest to catch a ride suddenly stopped, a low hiss spreading through them as they looked behind them.
"AH!" I lifted a finger in warning, and the flock fell quiet at my command. Good, otherwise I'd have to kick their asses again. "Let her through." There was really only one thing that had them acting like that.
Sure enough, Newt slunk through the corridor the others had formed. A couple tried to be sneaky and narrow the passage even more, but a quick tap to Betty and a growl later, they thought better of it.
Even with that, it took a moment for the self-conscious Dratini to creep all the way up to where I was crouched, waiting for her.
"Here to see us off? Don't worry, we'll be fine." I tickled her under the chin with a chuckle. She leaned into the touch almost desperately. It had taken almost a week before she'd stopped flinching every time I reached out, but once we got past that, she was a tiny cuddle bug. She never initiated, though, always waiting for me to come to her. "We'll be back in a bit, maybe with a bruise or two, but victorious."
Standing up, I tried to leave for a third time. Feeling something long, thin, and malleable wrap around my shin, I looked down, puzzled at Newt curled around my leg.
"Hey, hey, It's okay! You don't need to be so anxious!" She grunted at my words. I wasn't the greatest at interpreting Dratini noises yet, but I was pretty sure it was negative. Slowly, in a spiraling pattern, she moved up my leg and onto my torso, snaking her way upwards. When she got to where Espeon was hanging over my neck like a scarf, she hesitated, yet when the Psychic-Type scooted a fraction to make room, she stuck her angular head over my shoulder cautiously.
"... no," I said firmly, as her intention dawned on me. "Absolutely not! You're not ready for this either!"
She flinched a little at my tone, but for once, she refused to back down, instead giving me an almost challenging look in return. It faded as swiftly as it came when I blinked in surprise, but it had been there.
So, I attempted to recruit some backup.
"Siren, help me out here!"
The Feebas looked at the Dratini for a good long while, silence hanging over us. Eventually, though, she came to a decision, turning back around and floating away with a chastising gurgle.
Not at Newt, however. At me.
"Wha-!? What do you mean 'stop being stupid'? Hello!?" I looked around for support, but everyone else joined Siren, following the Feebas with no regard for me. "Yeah, yeah, yuck it up!" I faux-snarled at Betty's horrifically smug look. The only ones that didn't abandon me were Espeon and Honedge, and one of those was half asleep and the other one – meant with all the love in the world – was around as humorless as an actual inanimate sword.
Putting the fish in charge of Betty hadn't meant she was in charge of me as well!
I sighed and followed the team. Who was I trying to fool? She'd been in charge for years; she just hadn't enforced her rule.
Seemed the plan to increase her confidence had worked at least a little.
Who-ho.
—-
The drop into the Pit swallowed the torchlight, while the slop obscured the bioluminescent fungi and flora from up top, just as it had the first time. That would have left us sliding down in darkness if not for Sol coating himself in the first step of Flame Wheel and acting as a flashlight.
Was returning to the Pit a dumb decision? Maybe. Was doing it without waiting for Clair to be around a mistake? Most definitely.
But it had to be done. It was the final step in the 'apes together strong' argument, actual proof that Betty could respect, rather than flimsy words.
Running the last few steps to bleed off the momentum, I couldn't help but stop and have a look around. I hadn't actually seen it properly the first time – too busy panicking about first Betty and then a Gible having a nibble on my shoulder to notice where I was.
Light spilled from everywhere and nowhere, soft and shifting, a pale greenish blue glow bleeding out of fungus that clung in thick mats to the ceiling and crept down the stalactites in slow, luminous drips, the whole cavern lit from the inside by something that had been growing here since before the Clan had a name for itself. Stalagmites rose out of the floor to meet their twins overhead, some of them thicker around than I was tall, the space between them stretching up into a ceiling so high the light didn't fully reach it, just hinted at more darkness up there, more cave, more mountain. Patches of illumination showed shadows dart by, many recognizable as Zubat, though some were quite a bit bigger.
The river from up above cut through the center-left side of the chamber, black water shining from within with green-ish blue, feeding into a lake broad enough that I couldn't see its far shore. Beneath the almost mirror-calm surface, a different strain of the same luminescent growths lived, glowing dimly. Now and again, something would cause a disturbance in the depths, sending colors sliding and rippling up the walls and across that impossibly high ceiling, slow-moving and hypnotic in an almost alive way.
Despite myself, I couldn't help whistling. 'A battlefield turned graveyard,' Clair had told me once, and standing there now, I understood exactly what she'd meant, because the ground under my boots wasn't quite soil and wasn't quite sand – a fine, pale grit that gave slightly with every step. I already knew what it was when I crouched down – that realization wasn't one I'd easily forget. A handful sifted through my fingers, yellowed fragments getting stuck between the digits. Small ones, worn smooth by however many centuries of feet, claws, and dragging bodies had passed over them, yet unmistakably bone.
The whole floor was like that. Craters pocked the ground in every direction, some old enough to have their edges worn round and soft, others fresh enough to still smell faintly of scorched stone. Centuries of violence, over and over, long enough that the evidence of it had become the ground itself.
"We shouldn't meet anyone too strong here. This is mostly mid-tier stuff," I said slowly, mostly to calm myself. We'd been over it repeatedly. "The old, strong ones go deeper, up to the Holy Land." The cavern was where the middle of the food chain sorted itself out, generation after generation, and whatever survived long enough eventually left this place behind entirely.
Betty's claws flexed against the bone-sand, digging beneath the layer to find stone.
Yet, I didn't see or hear anything, other than the Flying-Types above.
Nothing alive, anyway.
It was tucked in the lee of a stalagmite, half-buried in the pale grit, and for a second my brain simply refused to process the shape and color – then it was pale blue and white, a long, slim tail.
And only tail.
A Dratini, torn clean in half. Old enough that the brown-red patch beneath it had soaked into the sand, but recent enough that decomposition hadn't really set in. Teeth marks marred the ripped half, each two to three times the size of the ones around my shoulder socket. The dried flesh ended in messy strands, four deep claw marks almost poking all the way through the tail.
Something large had bitten the front half and then ripped the end off, and not cleanly.
Newt went very still, making me tilt my head to the side to touch her.
"That won't be you," I reassured her quietly, despite my reluctance to bring her. "Not ever, if I've got anything to say about it."
She pressed her small head under my chin and didn't argue.
I set her back down after a minute, because she'd have hated being carried through an actual fight, and looked up to find that the rest of the team had gone quiet too, gathering closer.
"Alright," I said, and my voice came out steadier than I felt. In some ways, I had to thank the dead Dratini for reminding us all of the gravity of the situation. "Let's make sure that's not how this story ends for any of us."
Everyone huffed, chuffed, chipped, whirled, and bubbled in agreement as we processed forwards cautiously.
It wasn't the last corpse we found, either. I almost tripped over a Graveler lying flat on its back, all four arms gone and chest cracked open to let its killer feast on the insides. Half a Shelgon shell lay discarded, its interior littered with scratches from being scraped clean. The vibrant green of a Vibrava wing, a skeleton that might once have been a Machoke, a jawbone with triangular, serrated teeth.
And yet, no sign of the ones who did it.
I didn't get it. Betty had been beset from all sides the last time, and when we'd shown up, the number of combatants had only increased.
So where the fuck were they!?
A subtle tremor vibrated my feet, yet nothing came of it. It continued, not gaining in strength or diminishing, no matter how far we moved.
Deeper and deeper we went, keeping to the right side of the cavern as I didn't trust the lake at all. Way too much shit could be hiding down there without me noticing.
But if nothing continued happening, then I might not have had much choice-
Espeon's head shot upwards, eyes and forehead jewel shining with power as a wave of Psychic energy tore through the air and hit something dropping down from above us, throwing it back up. The Confusion even hit another two coming towards us.
But it missed the next eight that became visible as Sol reignited into flame, the flickering light dancing over the dropping Pokémon as screeches and roars suddenly surrounded us. The earth vibrated and shook, parts of it breaking apart under large hands and claws digging their way free. A stalactite to our right shattered, a large, rapidly spinning sphere hurling towards us, another matching it on the left.
Bastards had seen we were traveling in a large group and laid an ambush.
"HERE THEY COME!"
Two Sandslash, curled tight into pale, spiny balls, hit the bone-sand on either side of us and kept rolling, gouging matching trenches as they came.
"SCATTER!"
Siren didn't scatter, though. She surged forward instead, out in front where she'd planted herself the whole walk down, and met the left Sandslash head-on with a Scald that hissed and steamed against the curled spikes. The momentum slowed and then stopped, the Ground-Type grinding a hole beneath it as it tried to muscle through to no avail, forcing it to to swerve and unfurl early just to keep from cooking inside its own shell – and the second it did, a point-blank Water Bullet caught it square in the face and sent it tumbling sideways into a stalagmite.
"Nice!" I didn't have time to say more than that, as the ones above reached us.
Three Gible, a young Dragonair, two Vibrava, and a pair of what looked like oversized Axew dropped like a hail of snapping maws. Honedge rose to meet the first three without needing a command, blade catching one clean across the jaw. At the same time, the trailing sheath-cloth cracked a second out of the air entirely, and the third got a fist from Hercules before it ever found the ground, Brick Break making the land shark spit up a gush of blood.
"Espeon, again!"
Another wave of Confusion tore through the air, and this time it landed clean on the remaining five. The Vibrava were sent flying, as was the hulking Axew – though as they came closer, I saw that their bodies were a lot more proportionate, and the tusks longer, with red ends. Not Axew; the evolution, Fraxure – but the Dragonair forced itself through. The orb around its throat shone with draconic energy before a Dragon Breath blew down around us. Honedge met it with his sheath wrapped in a Protect, the hexagonal shield wider than he'd been practicing to cover me. The storm of primarily green energy, with a tint of blue around the edges, blanketed us for several seconds before it started to weaken. The second it did, the instant it wasn't a danger to me, the Protect dropped, and a multi-colored, headache-inducing beam lashed out, the Psybeam hitting the Dragonair right in the face despite being hidden by the embers of its attack to take it out of the sky.
Looking around with my regained sight, I saw that the second Sandslash had reached us in the meantime. Or, tried to, as the previously spiky ball slowly rolled towards us, completely encased in ice as a barrage of Ice Shards swept from Aurora's tails and flew over the frozen Ground-Type.
In the frenzy, I'd almost forgotten the diggers.
The ground heaved up in three places at once, a Graveler, Machoke, and a particularly large Gibble emerging snarling out of freshly torn earth.
No reason to wait around.
"DRAGON PULSE!"
Three Pokémon answered my command, and before the digging opponents managed to reach us, three spheres were hurled at them, landing at their feet and detonating in a massive explosion.
BOOOOOOM!
Dust and debris rained from the ceiling, a piece of rock almost hitting me in the head if not for Espeon's quick actions. The feline was fully standing on my shoulders by then, eyes shining and ears twitching. Seemingly without even looking, she twisted around and up again, another Psybeam striking something swooping down on us with huge wings. The Flying-Type screeched, the frequency ringing in my ears and making everyone, including its supposed allies, flinch in pain for a second before it flapped furiously to avoid a second Psybeam, and still taking it to the left wing, sending it careening off into the darkness with another painful scream.
As the dust was settling from the triple Dragon Pulse, a humanoid figure surged through it, the Machoke roaring in pain and fury. Burns covered most of its chest, left arm hanging limp at its side, yet bloodlust shone in its red eyes, uninjured hand cocked back and shining with tightly packed energy as it sought to take us down with it.
Before it could, it suddenly stumbled, tripping over thin air and almost falling over. It snarled, leg lashing out at seemingly nothing and then taking a couple of steps forwards like something had hit it in the back. The fresh arm shot backwards and clutched around nothing, bringing the half-open hand up to its face and rearing back its skull for a Headbutt.
It should've turned back around.
"Hammer Arm, Focus Punch!"
Herc's glowing fist hit the Machoke in the liver and made it spin as it bent, gasping – hand opening and letting a wavy, see-through black shape drop to the ground – right into a rising uppercut to the chin that had splinters of teeth exploding out of its mouth and sent it flying back.
At the same time, the Graveler had climbed free of its own crater, and leapt up on the Electabuzz's back, four hands locking together as it squeezed. Hercules roared and tried to tear it off as it crushed his chest, but four was better than two and the Ground/Rock-Type held on, trying its damndest to break Herc's rip cage.
Espeon was sniping at the flyers, Zubat, Golbat, and something else that might've been Noibat dropping around us like flies, Honedge hovering around me to handle the ones that got through the Psybeams and Confusions. They couldn't take their attention away to help. The others-
A small yet condensed ball of water left my shoulder and struck the Graveler in the back, the Dratini slipping down from me and launching another Water Pulse. The super-effective attack had it groaning in pain and reflexively loosening its grip. Newt's Water Pulse was all the help Hercule's needed, and he managed to pry two of Graveler's hands apart and then use that leverage to whip it over his shoulder and smash it into the ground in front of him in a cloud of powdered bone and rock. The Graveler was helpless as Hercules snarled down at it, rearing back and – seemingly by pure instinct – throwing a Thunder Punch that hit dead center.
And proceeding to do absolutely nothing at all, lightning channeled through the impurities in Graveler's sedimentary hide, then harmlessly into the ground.
"...Brick Break!" I watched him register the mistake mid-recovery and switch fists without missing a beat, Hammer Arm cracking against the Graveler's chest instead, considerably more effective the second time around.
Zorua had recovered from the Machoke catching it and worked the edges of all of it, never quite where anyone expected her to be. A Gabite lunged for what it clearly believed was Betty's exposed side and also tripped, right into a Rock Tomb. When the wounded Machoke tried to get back in the fight, with blood pouring from its ruined mouth, it let out a shrill shriek I'd never heard from the reptilian Fighting-Type's species, clutching its eyes as thick and clumpy blood suddenly exploded from the orbs. It swung wildly with the broken arm to try and ward off the invisible attacker. It didn't work; the backhand missed, and a Foul Play to the throat had it choking, lowering its good hand to show the ruined eye sockets, claw marks having ripped the surrounding skin into bloody lashes.
I grimaced and turned away. Zorua was kind of scary.
I'd taken my eyes off the ball, though. In the mess of fighting, Betty had ended up isolated again, lured away by the shockingly smart enemies. That, more than anything, surprised me. They weren't just hurling themselves at us, no; they were dragging us apart, using their numbers to counter our greater strength and teamwork.
A second Gabite dropped from an overhead crevice behind Betty, cutting off the only way out, and for one gut-dropping second I watched the same mistake from nearly two weeks ago happen again. Betty, bless her, realized the same thing and bellowed out an ocean of green-tinted, blue flames that swallowed the two Dragonairs that held her in place.
"ROCK TOMB, BLOCK THEM!"
She followed my command to the letter, great jagged and ugly stones blocking the Gabite and a pair of distant Shelgon. She tried to turn and come back to us, but that big shadow flew by again and hovered over her, a cone of distorted air hammering down into her.
"SHEEEOOOOO!" A sound I hadn't heard since she was a Bagon, the sound of Behemoth in pain, ripped from her mouth as she was forced to her knees, bile and vomit pouring like a river from her mouth. Her Rock Tomb barrier shattered as that interesting Rollout-using-Shelgon slammed through them and bounced straight off Betty's much thicker, much heavier shell.
But it reopened the path for the stronger ones.
"BETTY!"
"ARRF!"
CRRAAACK!
A new shriek filled the air as a bright light blinded us all. When it cleared, it was to the sight of a flaming, eight-foot-tall dog ripping apart what looked like a large bat, burning claws ripping into its sizzling flesh. The Noivern screamed, another blast of supersonic noise ripping through the air as it tried to get the canine off of it, but Sol's massive fangs closed around the back of its neck with ease.
CRUNCH!
The Sound Wave Pokémon went limp instantly as the burning fangs severed its spinal cord. Sol was far from done, though; the frustration after two weeks of being kept inside a cave finally unleashed. The bone-dust melted, the stone turning to slag in the wake of his monstrous Flamethrower, the almost liquid flames churning as they consumed the Rollout using Shelgon, the Rock Tomb stumps behind it, and then finally the dual Dragonairs. The serpent-esque dragons tried to evade by taking to the air, but Sol had bought enough time that everyone else had taken notice as well.
CRACK!
A much smaller flash of light and crack of displaced air deposited Herc right over the first one, dropping a Focus Punch to the back of its head that had its eyes rolling back and its sinuous shape limply falling.
And the second one was shot out of the air by a thin streak of yellow lightning, the elegant muscles spasming as it dropped from the air. Before it even hit the ground, a small, weak, yet tightly controlled Dragon Pulse hit it straight in the face, snapping its head back and making it land even more awkwardly. Another Dragon Pulse followed, and another, and another, each erupting in a burst of Dragon-type energy that had the Dragonair cry out in pain.
Until the last one hit, and it didn't make any sound. At my feet, Newt was staring at the evolved version of herself, panting heavily yet 'standing' taller than ever before at her win as her enemy went silent and still.
Hell, there weren't really any sounds at all, other than our panting. Looking around, I blinked in shock to see the more ranged, distant Pokémon hesitating and slowly stepping back. Around us, bodies littered the area, most unconscious, but several would never rise again.
What was left of the ambush scattered into the dark, and the wild things still watching from the shadows did so warily after our display, hostile still but hesitant. We'd invaded their territory, even forced them to group up to try and push us out.
Instead, we pushed them out, and that changed things.
"... we did it," I chuckled, amazed. Fuck, we weren't even that injured!
I had exactly two seconds of feeling real good about myself before the whole chamber shook.
Everything still watching scattered at once, and the growl that followed it – low, cavernous, close – silenced even the slow ones.
It came out of the dark on the far side of the lake and kept coming, and I understood with a horrible cold certainty exactly what had been responsible for the Graveler with its chest cracked open, the Shelgon shell scraped hollow, the Machoke reduced to bone.
At first sight, it could have been confused with a monstrous Gabite; bipedal, draconic, two biological jet engines on the side of its head. Only, where a Gabite was a four-foot, bottom-heavy Pokémon, the new one had to be six feet, and was much more proportionate. Curved fins hung from its long arms, which were topped by scythe-like, razor-sharp claws. Talons dug effortlessly into the stone beneath, situated under thin but muscular legs and a long, swaying tail with another fin on it. As the light hit it, the spikes along its limbs gleamed in stark contrast to the dark blue of its scales and the red that ran from the middle of its abdomen up to its jaw, its mouth filled to the brim with long, slightly crooked teeth that barely fit in the pronounced jaws. Nostrils flared as the Dragon – capital D very much intended – took in our scent, gold-colored irises peering out from black sclerae. A shiver of instinctual fear shot through me when those eyes landed on me, glazed over and dead in a highly disturbing way.
There was intelligence behind that predatory gaze; a cold, calculated intellect trying to find out how much effort eating me would be.
Garchomp. A little gangly, but fully formed, blue-grey scales catching the lake's shifting glow, every line of it built for exactly one purpose.
"New plan," I said, voice quiet without meaning too. It was probably not as strong as Bruno's team, or Saya. But it didn't need to be amongst those lofty ranks to inflict serious damage.
I hated the way Betty's and Hercules' eyes lit up at the sight of the new challenger.
I hated the fact that I was right there with them, heart pounding, blood aflame, and inner-fire roaring.
It didn't wait for us to come up with a plan, either.
Dig took it below the bone-sand before we could do anything. It came up under Betty hard enough to actually throw her sideways into a stalagmite that cracked clean through – and in the same breath, before any of us had recovered, claws glowing deep blue came around low and fast enough that I only avoided it because Espeon yanked me sideways a half-second before the nails would have opened my whole side up. I backpeddled as Honedge swung at its head, furious at the presumptuousness of attacking me, barking orders all the while.
"Everyone stay LOOSE! It doesn't telegraph like the others! Aurora, Siren, freeze it! Betty, Zorua, distract it! Espeon, get Betty upright!"
Aurora and Siren didn't wait for a cleaner opening. Ice Beam caught it dead center, yet – unlike everything we'd fought so far – it didn't stagger or fall. It just shook the cold off with a snarl and kept coming, ice cracking and sloughing off its foreleg and chest in sheets. It didn't like it, but the dual weakness wasn't enough by itself, either.
It wasn't going to go down as easily as the rest.
Honedge caught the follow-up Dragon Claw with his own Metal Claw and held – the Steel-Typing helping against the blazing Dragon-Type energy – but the impact still sent him skidding back in the air, sheath-cloth cracking like a whip against the Garchomp's wrist in the same motion, and it barely seemed to notice. Sol hammered into it from the side, dwarfing even the Garchomp with his enormous mass as he bit and clawed at the fully evolved Dragon-Type. They hit the ground and skidded, Sol barely managing to jump clear before the ground opened again to swallow the shark Pokémon. His paws didn't even get the chance to touch the ground again before another hole opened beneath him and the Garchomp shot upwards, hitting him on the underside and getting a pained yip as he was thrown away.
Another series of Ice Beams had it roaring in anger, and a sweep of its tail sent a landslide our way. The ground rose in a wave, dirt, stone, and bone threatening to swallow us. Once again, Espeon used her telekinesis to yank me out of the way, but not without a fist-sized chunk of rock striking me in the side. Rolling around in the dirt, another bellow shook the cavern as I scrambled to my feet to see that Hercules had Teleported behind the Garchomp and sucker punched it in the back of the head with yet another Hammer Arm. He was sweating and breathing hard after so many Fighting-Type techniques, but it was Teleport that was really taking it out of him. Even just two did more to tire him out than most fights did in their entirety. He didn't have Sol's inexhaustible stamina to fall back on, just his own fortitude and tenacity.
Mighty as those were, it didn't stop him from taking a shallow Dragon Claw across the chest, running across his acid scars and somewhat matching his stripes, and then a tail swipe to the side.
I had to admire the Garchomp as it screamed another challenge, scraping the last ice from its body, though more quickly replaced it. I'd thought it couldn't be that strong or old if it were still hanging around in the Pit, but the thing was doing more damage than most whole teams managed.
I stood by it not being on Bruno or Clair's level, but it was climbing in my esteem. It clearly hadn't been trained, yet a lifetime of fighting both wild Pokémon and Blackthorns had elevated it beyond a 'normal' fully-evolved Dragon-Type.
Newt moved before I could stop her.
She'd retreated back behind me when the Garchomp showed up, and latched onto my leg, being carried along for the ride by Espeon. I felt her uncoil and go – small, fast, low to the ground. Her small size worked to her advantage, slipping between the debris of the battle as Sol went for another charge that he had to abort in the face of another Bulldoze. Like greased lightning, she crossed the battlefield and, in one of the most insane displays I'd ever seen, wrapped herself around the Garchomp's trailing leg mid-stride, using everything the two weeks of training had built into her to try to buy Betty one more second to recover.
It worked, technically. The Garchomp's stride hitched.
Then it simply kept walking, dragging her half off the ground, and stared down like it couldn't believe what it was seeing. Then, it shook the leg once, hard, and she went flying, hitting the bone-sand and rolling tail over end before hitting a large rock in a spray of shards.
She didn't get up right away.
"NEWT!"
Thankfully for my sanity, she didn't stay down long. She shook herself off hard enough that I saw her wince at her own motion pulling at her injuries, and had herself upright again before I'd even covered half the distance to her – small, scraped, and radiating a flat, unmistakable refusal when I reached for her anyway, the same look she'd given me back in the Den when I'd told her she wasn't ready for this.
"You don't have to-"
Siren caught my eye on her way past, Ice Bullets rattling off like a machine gun. It was a quick glance, but the meaning came through clear enough anyway.
Fuck, we didn't have the time for it. I'd really just have to trust her.
Betty met the Garchomp head-on, the two smashing into each other with earth-shaking force. The Garchomp screeched in outrage as it was forced backwards, its strength nothing in the face of Betty's mass and momentum. Instead, clever asshole that it was, it stomped again and raised a dirt ramp between the two of them. Betty was too focused on pushing it back to react in time, running up the slope and falling off the edge, stumpy legs kicking in surprise before she hit the ground.
BOOOOOM!
"Hercules, cover her!"
He was already moving, Low Kick sweeping in under Garchomp's guard. It landed like a gunshot, staggering it for the first time since it had arrived. He followed it immediately with Focus Punch, and then a Hammer Arm.
It should've been enough to buy Betty room to recover.
Instead, Garchomp rounded on him faster than something that size had any right to be, and caught him with another unpowered tail strike across the chest that sent him down hard, not getting back up. The Dragon roared in victory, bringing its foot crashing down on his downed form-
-and hitting nothing but air. The PokéBall swept him up at the last minute, the ground shattering like a bomb had gone off under the part Ground-Type's wrath.
Yet, amidst all that carnage, something slim and blue slithered through.
"Newt, get back!"
She didn't.
Sol got there first and threw himself between Newt and the incoming strike, Fire Fang catching Garchomp's foreleg with his mouth, clamping down hard and holding on with everything he had left.
It wasn't enough. His legs sank into the ground, trapping him, before the Garchomp shoved and the earth buckled as it liqified, undulating and moving away from the part Ground-Type, carrying Sol with it
There was no one left in position.
Garchomp's eyes locked onto Newt; furious, focused, done being harassed by something a tenth its size, the indignity burning more than the wounds from more worthy foes. Draconic energy leaked from its mouth, building into greenish-blue flames as it opened wide and prepared to incinerate the tiny dragon.
Aurora got there first.
She came sprinting out of the dust, pushing her Quick Attack to the absolute maximum to make it in time, which she did. Sliding to a halt in front of Newt, she spread her tails wide in defiance, chilly mist and light flowing from her billowing fur as it went crazy.
But the light around her wasn't blue.
Pink-white, soft and searing at once. Faint too, almost invisible if not for the dull lighting of the Pit.
I had a brief second to take it in before it was buried under dragon fire.
"AURORA!"
The Dragon Breath could nearly have rivaled one of Betty's – but only nearly – swallowing up both Pokémon and the surrounding area in a blazing inferno. It was mercifully short, though, even the absolute beast of a Garchomp starting to flag, and it ended before anything more than the top layer of rock could be stripped.
It should still have been enough to kill both Aurora and Newt, though.
Which was why it was so shocking to see the limp white-blue fox unconscious in the dirt in front of a shocked Newt. Bruises and burn marks littered the little Ice-Type, but her chest was rising, little clouds of dust puffing out in front of her with every breath before she was returned to the safety of her PokéBall by my trembling hands.
Newt – who had tried, been hurt, and tried again anyway, who had refused every chance to fall back and stay safe — looked at what Aurora had just done for her, looked at Sol cautiously circling the Garchomp, where Herc had been recalled from, and something in her finally, fully let go.
There was no hesitation. She uncoiled like a spring and went straight at the panting Garchomp, faster than anything she'd shown so far as she lunged.
Light swallowed her, white and bright as a star, lighting up the whole of the Pit.
When it faded, the pale blue-white of a Dratini was gone. Sky-blue scales caught the lake's shifting glow instead, a clean white underside beneath, and a small horn set neat between eyes of a deep, oval purple. Two small wing-shapes, white and delicate, curled into soft swirls at her temples, and three crystal orbs caught the light along her new length – one at the base of her throat, two more strung along her tail.
She was still smaller than any Dragonair I'd ever seen, less than half of Saya's size. I wasn't sure she even cleared eight feet in length, the whole body barely thicker than my thigh – and definitely thinner than some of the larger men I'd met. But she was undeniably a Dragonair all the same, and she didn't stop moving even as the last of the light finished fading.
The Twister she threw caught the Garchomp full on, and, before it had even finished reeling, she was already coiling around its foreleg – properly, with weight and length she hadn't had thirty seconds earlier – and held on, dragging its next strike wide, buying Siren the half-second she needed to put a real, honest Dragon Pulse into its exposed flank.
Betty, dazed but upright again, saw the opening and took it, her own Dragon Pulse connecting clean while the Garchomp was still off-balance from Newt's grip. The newly evolved Dragonair cried out with a melodious voice as she was caught in the blast zone and knocked clear, but so was the Garchomp, crashing to the ground with a pained screech, dorsal fin bending unnaturally.
It struggled to its feet and snarled, long, furious, and – finally – uncertain, weighing a fight that had stopped being worth the cost. The dead eyes flickered around, calculating how fresh we were, landing on the furious Betty charging towards it with her maw open and a massive Dragon Breath brewing.
Evidently, it didn't like its chances, as before anyone could stop it, it fell forward and hit the ground. It must have been as tired as it looked, since it had to claw its way into the ground rather than opening it with pure geokenisis, the tip of the tail being caught by Betty's outraged Dragon Breath.
Nobody moved for a long moment.
"WOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed, throwing my arms in the air. "That was awesome, but fuck, that was scary!"
—-
You're not going to believe this, but I got lost in the sauce and dragged out the battle. Well, that and having too much fun with shenanigans at the beginning. Next chapter, we'll definitely wrap up Blackthorn (for now) and make some headway in the next part.
In the case of Garchomp, Clair will explain more, but it was NOT a recent evolution; it was just a little small and a coward.
Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed. If you REALLY like it, I have a P-a-t-r-e-o-n, under the same name, where you can read 5 chapters ahead.