Aerodactyl: "Stupid kid—get back—pfwaaagh!"
(A Fire Trap exploded beneath Aerodactyl when he reached where Owen had stomped.)
(Unfortunately, all it did was slow him down.)
(Hoping it would work again, Owen spent some of his time stomping on the ground, channeling his energy through his feet into the soil.)
(This created another trap.)
(Owen turned down the corridor but then skidded to a stop.)
Owen: "W-wait! That's not fair!"
(he shouted.)
(Owen stared at the path—or, rather, the lack of a path—ahead of him.)
(He had run into a dead end.)
Aerodactyl: "You shouldn't be the one to complain about being fair!"
(Aerodactyl shouted, pushing through the second Fire Trap.)
(Owen spun around.)
(Aerodactyl didn't immediately advance.)
(Perhaps he recognized that Owen wasn't as easy to strike directly.)
Owen: "Just—let me go!"
Aerodactyl: "Oh, no, no, no, I don't think I can do that."
(Aerodactyl said.)
Aerodactyl: "Not without some payment first. Your bag. Just hand it over, and I'll be on my way."
Owen: "No way!"
(Owen said.)
(He glanced in his bag with the little time he had.)
(He had too many precious items in it. The gift from Nevren, too.)
(And all the items he picked up during exploration! Wait, the items!)
Owen: "Ha!"
(Owen saw the small, blue sphere—an Escape Orb.)
(He could use it.)
(He'd be out of here without a problem! Owen smashed it on the ground.)
(He was ready for the blue light inside to envelop him and take him straight to the entrance.)
(Instead, the light and energy inside evaporated into nothing.)
Owen: "What?"
(he said.)
(A mysterious power had stopped the Orb from functioning.)
(That normally only happened against Pokémon with powerful auras, or—)
Aerodactyl: "Heh."
(Aerodactyl produced a strange-looking device from a satchel around his neck that resembled another Badge.)
Aerodactyl: "Jammer Emblem. Do you think I'd let you run off so easily? Everyone brings Escape Orbs. So, I bring a Jammer."
Owen: "Th-those are illegal! You can't use those without Heart permission!"
Aerodactyl: "Oh, no! Illegal! How terrible!"
(Aerodactyl sneered.)
(Aerodactyl took another step forward.)
(Owen only had enough time to try one last trick.)
(And his Totter Orb would be useless, too.)
(He could try to use his Badge to escape—even if it was just a Provisionary Badge, it still had enough of a charge to escape.)
(But within a Dungeon, it wouldn't have the energy or precision to take anything on him—just his person.)
(All his gear—no, Nevren's gift, too! He couldn't use his Badge.)
(He didn't have time, anyway; it needed a few seconds to activate.)
(Seconds he didn't have.)
(Something knocked against his claws in his bag.)
(A seed. It felt strange to the touch as if the air around it simply wasn't there. He knew the feeling.)
(A Warp Seed.)
(Owen immediately shoved a seed in his mouth and chomped.)
(In one second, he was staring an Aerodactyl in the face.)
(In another, he was elsewhere.)
(Owen, working off of the adrenaline rush, immediately ran ahead.)
(If he could just find the—)
(He was in the same room he had been in before.)
(He even saw the Aerodactyl emerge from the hall next to him.)
(Owen fought against his momentum and scrambled backward.)
(Fortune was not in his favor.)
(He ran from room to room, thinking Aerodactyl was in hot pursuit... and then, finally found a new part of the Dungeon section.)
(One with the exit Waypoint... and Aerodactyl right next to it.)
(Aerodactyl caught sight of Owen at the corner of his eye.)
(His huge jaw twisted into a smirk.)
Aerodactyl: "Hey, there."
(he said.)
Aerodactyl: "Having trouble?"
(Owen wasn't sure how long he'd stood there.)
(It was just the two of them.)
(The exit was out of his reach.)
(But now, he knew that he had a solid target.)
(That Aerodactyl wasn't going to move from that spot.)
(So, if he could take advantage of that somehow, then maybe—)
Owen: "Hey!"
(Owen said.)
Owen: "How about this?!"
(He grabbed something from his bag and threw it at the outlaw.)
(It was another seed—one that, upon hitting him, popped and scattered a strange dust around the Pokémon.)
Aerodactyl: "Wh—huh?! Why you—little—!"
(He stumbled where he stood, wobbling horribly.)
(His jaws opened wide and he fired—unexpectedly—a set of rocky pellets toward Owen.)
Aerodactyl: "Rock Blast!"
(He launched pellet after rocky pellet in a random direction, completely missing Owen.)
(Now was his chance! Owen opened his mouth and returned fire with a heated plume.)
(An Ember was less than ideal, but it at least did some work.)
(All of his other techniques either required contact or required Aerodactyl to move to where he had been standing.)
(Ember was all he had, or all he thought he could pull off against someone so much bigger and faster.)
(Maybe Protect, but...)
Owen: "Ngh—!"
(Owen narrowly dodged to the right, evading a lucky shot, but his momentum made him tumble to the ground.)
(Aerodactyl was chomping at the air, now.)
(Ice, Electricity, Fire, he seemed to be cycling through all kinds of biting techniques.)
Owen [in mind]: "How many could that guy use? Normal Pokémon couldn't use so many different techniques that rapidly!"
(Owen scrambled up—and felt a sharp pain on the back of his head.)
(Everything felt upside-down, accompanied by a ringing noise.)
Owen: "Ughn—no, I...!"
(he tried to stand, but a second rock smashed against the center of his spine.)
(The force made him roll across the ground like a bag of berries—he couldn't feel anything on his lower half.)
(Aerodactyl tried to fire a third, but nothing came.)
Aerodactyl: "Tch."
(He spat out a loose pebble.)
Aerodactyl: "Must be getting tired."
(He winced at his burn.)
(Then, he stepped toward Owen, who was too injured and dizzy to react, yet not enough to be kicked from the Dungeon.)
Aerodactyl: "You gave me some real trouble, Charmander."
(Aerodactyl said.)
(He pulled Owen's bag away and dug through it, but then recoiled.)
Aerodactyl: "Eh? Rawst Berry?... On you?"
(Owen glared even as Aerodactyl stared at him like he was an idiot.)
(The outlaw shrugged.)
(With a chomp, his burn evaporated before Owen's eyes.)
Aerodactyl: "Well, I'll just take this bag as payment."
Owen: "N... no."
(Owen struggled weakly, a single hand still clutching at the strap.)
Owen: "You can't!"
Aerodactyl: "Looks like I can."
(he replied, munching on an Oran Berry next.)
(He roughly tugged the bag away, jerking Owen forward.)
(Aerodactyl's injuries vanished with a wave of blessed light at the same time that Owen's face slammed into the dirt.)
(The outlaw let out a deep, refreshed sigh.)
Owen: "P-please. At least give me the Eviolite that Nevren gave me."
(Owen said, holding himself up with an arm.)
Owen: "You don't... you don't need it. You're fully evolved. Or, er, you don't evolve..."
Aerodactyl: "Hmmm…"
(Aerodactyl looked at the glimmering stone.)
Aerodactyl: "Doesn't look like a normal Eviolite to me. I bet it'd sell well, though. Sorry, kid. I'm keeping it. And you're right. My species doesn't need evolution."
(Owen tried to blast him again, but no flames came out; he could taste the fire on his tongue, but he didn't have the strength to push it further.)
(He exhaled, but the flame was gone.)
(The best he could hope for was that Aerodactyl would be merciful and leave him alone.)
(Maybe he should have listened to his father.)
(Everything that could have gone wrong, did.)
(He couldn't even send a distress signal.)
(His bag was taken, and therefore his Badge.)
(Was this it?)
(He was breathing fast.)
(Fear crept into his mind.)
(Higher thoughts fuzzed out.)
Aerodactyl: "Kid."
(he said, cutting Owen's repetitive thoughts
Aerodactyl: "I don't work like that. All I want is the goods. What happens after, I don't care. That's the way the world works. And the way Dungeons work nowadays."
(He took another step closer.)
Aerodactyl: "Here, let me help. I'll beat you up nice and good, and you can crawl back home like it was a bad dream. You ready?"
(They locked eyes.)
(His wing was raised.)
(Owen didn't know if he'd be able to survive the blow.)
(If he'd wake up at all at the entrance, or if he'd just be there, too weak to fight, left for the ferals.)
Owen: "Please."
(Owen said.)
(The wing hung there, tense.)
(But then the claws at the end clenched in what may have been a fist.)
Aerodactyl: "You want to be a Heart?"
(he asked.)
(Owen nodded.)
Aerodactyl: "Then you deserve this."
(The wing tensed.)
Aerodactyl: "Nothing I hate more... than you Hearts."
(He lowered his wing and gave Owen a halfhearted kick, more like a push, that only accomplished a half-rotation of the Charmander's numb body.)
Aerodactyl: "Thanks for the loot. Pick a different career. One that isn't... ugh, whatever."
(He shrugged walking toward the Dungeon's exit.)
(Owen's throat clenched as if trying to seal what little pride he had left inside his body.)
[To Be Continued...]