I found Grimer madly splashing on the surface of one of Union Cave's many interior lakes. The way he moved made it seem like he didn't know where to go and even with his Dark Typing, the pokemon looked lost as he continued to find stability on the water. I looked back, the light from Electabuzz's electricity has faded and everything behind me was complete and utter darkness.

Grimer might still be able to see through, "Bud! use Shadow Sneak and target the Electabuzz!" I called out and like seeing someone rescuing him, my Pokemon's eyes regained their luster and met my own, he quickly faded from where he was and struck something from the distance,

And, for the first time since I got him, I felt his presence disappear...

I ran towards the place I knew he was last in as fast as I could-

And was promptly greeted by yellow lightning that pierced through the darkness, hitting me square in the stomach. I managed to stand upright this time around though and so, I continued, if not warily.

When I knew that I was close enough to put my pokemon back in his Pokeball, I took it from my pocket and pressed the button.

A red light flashed, letting me see for the first time where the Electabuzz was, and like a creature from a horror movie, it stood in the distance, waiting for me with a savage grin and the red hue from the Pokeball coloring his body didn't help.

I didn't let it bother me though and I quickly ran away from the opposite direction of the Pokemon, putting my backpack in front of me was a risk on its own, since if it ever decided to hit me, then my back would take the brunt of the damage but taking the repel from inside was more or less worth the risk. Three popped out of the zipper and I quickly closed it before strapping the knapsack back on my shoulders.

Two Repels were holstered onto my Pokeball belt and one was tightly held by me, ready to get sprayed to an Electabuzz stupid enough to consider getting near me.

I continued to run and occasionally, I would hear the loud pops of electricity behind me but that didn't deter me, it did the opposite really, and I ran even faster.

Eventually, I managed to reach something that resembled a cover; Union Cave had these little corners that told trainers where they were and I managed to reach one.

I turned and promptly readied myself just in case Electabuzz would shoot something out and when nothing came? I decided to continue, up to a point where I reached a large rock that can even hide Kangaskhan.

Hiding behind it and waiting for Electabuzz was easy, knowing where Electabuzz was is harder. But that was exactly the point, I decided to hide because I knew that the pokemon was playing around, otherwise, it would've taken shots way earlier.

I waited for the Electabuzz to pop up,

waiting,

up until I heard the sounds of footsteps and moments later, lightning crackled to my right, revealing Electabuzz's grinning face directly next to mine; I couldn't react just in time and was hit by a Thunderbolt point blank, an arm grabbed my own, preventing me from flying away like I usually would.

Worse, the arm that was grabbed was holding the Repel, and even though I couldn't spray it directly into my assailant's face, I repeatedly did so anyways knowing that the smell alone is painful for any pokemon.

And it worked, somewhat, until the Electabuzz crushed my forearm to make me drop the repel before sending another jolt up my arm.

I hissed and tried to kick-

THUD

- only for me to get slammed to the rock in reply.

My head whirred and I felt my blood run cold; for once, there wasn't a single thing I could do, my power being blank more or less confirmed it and as the Electabuzz's body started to crackle with yellow lightning, I closed my eyes and waited for my fate.

I felt something searing my face and the grip on my hand let go.

Opening my eyes, I saw the Electabuzz backing away in pain, his set alight. Looking around, I saw a Magby with fire already burning inside of its mouth, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

And he did, hitting the Electabuzz in the face for the second time.

Taking the opportunity, I grabbed one of the Repels on my belt, uncorked it, and splashed the Electric type in the face before running away. The Magby fired again at one point, judging by the orange light that lit up the darkness, but I didn't look back, instead, I kept running.

I found another cover a little while later and after getting my bearings back, I ran back to the place where Electabuzz was. The poison status that he got earlier didn't feel like it was slowing him down but I doubt that it didn't have any effect on him, so, with that in mind, I took out two more repels from my backpack, putting the count that I had on hand back to three and the numbers of Repels I still have left down to 5.

I knew that I could just run away after all this but... I sighed, "I can't, can't I?" I faced the direction where I knew the Electabuzz was, there, both yellow and red light streaked around, piercing through the darkness as they danced with one another in a sea of electricity and flame.

My knuckles turning white from gripping the bottle I had on hand, I bent down and picked up a few rocks and stored them in my pocket.

...

The fight between Electabuzz and the Magby was not that one-sided and the Magby was strangely putting up a good fight, with more than enough speed to keep up with the Electabuzz in front of me whilst also being more than capable of dishing out powerful embers capable of blocking, and sometimes, even going through the Electabuzz's attack.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

And for something that I knew was more of a physical attacker, the Electabuzz was unexpectedly starting to get pushed back with each exchange.

"not to mention the poison," I murmured, silently staring at the exposed, purplish skin of the Electabuzz. They were obvious to the point that they couldn't even get hidden by the scorch marks responsible for the skin in the first place.

I continued to stare at the battle for a while, both Magby and Electabuzz keeping up with one another but looking at the Magby... I can see that the un-evolved pokemon was starting to wear out and if this keeps up any longer, then problems would start to sprout. I signed, "guess it still comes down to this huh?"

Grabbing one of the rocks from my pocket, I held my right arm back, and flung it towards the Electabuzz, striking its head.

He stopped attacking and hissed, then he turned to me and tried to shoot out a Thunderbolt but the Magby stopped him halfway through with an Ember. I met the Pokemon's eyes, the glare was visible even through its fatigue, " you're gonna have to deal with me, sorry," I whispered too low for him to hear.

I grabbed another pebble, this time, I sprayed it with repel, then I grabbed another one, repeating the process. I continued to do so until I had five of the repel-sprayed pebbles in my right hand.

I threw them one by one as the fight continued, missing two but the other three hits were more than enough to make up for the misses.

The Electabuzz glared my way, "Buzz," it warned,

"fuck you!" I threw the repel bottle at it,

A Thunderbolt struck the bottle, shattering it and spraying hot steam instead of the bottle's contents. I took a step back when I saw that the Electric type was no longer staring at the Magby, its eyes were solely focused on me while lightning was starting to form around its right hand,

I ran.

And I felt the Electabuzz follow.

Because if the loud footsteps were any indication then it was that the pokemon was chasing me, and they were starting to get louder.

When I felt the hair at the back of my neck stand, I took out the last Repel bottle from my belt, turned around, uncorked it and I tried to splash him but-

he punched it, turning it into steam.

I gulped, "Magby! if there's something you're planning on doing you better do it now!" I yelled for my dear life and thankfully, I was answered when the Fire Type charged at the Electabuzz, its mouth alight, it fired an Ember point blank, scorching the Electabuzz and sending him reeling back. We both watched as he fell down, and didn't get up.

"thank you," I said to Magby and the pokemon nodded,

"Mag!" it puffed up in pride,

I Iooked at its wounds and I pulled out a potion, I waved it at him, "you think you need help?" the Fire Type nodded, I chuckled and sprayed him, "thank you by the way," he nodded, "I didn't know what would've happened if you didn't step up." I finished spraying and got up, "in both moments,"

Stretching, I felt something warm bump into my foreleg, "hm?" I looked down at Magby, "you uh, still want something?" I didn't have anything else other than poisonous food but I'm sure the little duck would appreciate eating some of my rations, I was about to get out anyway.

"Mag!" he excitedly said,

"oh... you want to join my team?" he nodded, calling out his name again in excitement. I scratched my head, "uh, I don't really know..." he tilted his head, "see, I'm only looking for poison types and-" I raised my hands in defense when he shot me a glare, "look, I think I might know someone who'll like you though," He nodded in satisfaction at that, even willingly pressing the button of the Pokeball without any resistance.

I actually didn't know anyone but eh, I'll figure something out.

When the Magby got sucked into the ball, I turned to look at the Electabuzz to find it missing, and when I saw that, I started walking away, already worried about the fact that it disappeared already. I swear I didn't even feel it move...

...

The Magby that I got, was strong. Seriously, me knowing that it can go against a - weakened, - Electabuzz toe to toe was something but seeing it beat two Machops firsthand was something else. Even with everything that happened, the Magby seemed ecstatic to be a part of my team and even joined me happily in eating my rations.

I, of course, was more than glad to let him temporarily join me, and even after everything he'd done, I wasn't planning on changing my preferred Pokemon. Fire types were good, versatile, and outright amazing but they're also quite risky and I know that from experience, Magmartars were slow, if not bulky.

"would be good if I can find a choice scarf though," I said, kicking a rock away.

Seriously, the reality I am on makes the pokemon that I'm used to back in my old life look like children when compared to the ones in this world. The four-move limit of the games was something that I've always thought of as a blockade when it came to pokemon battling and even then, I knew that breaking that game mechanic apart and allowing it to be tweaked would be bad, even if it only gave the allowance of one extra move; then that would mean that extra move slot could give pokemon good coverage for, really, anything that fits the set that the player wants.

In this world, that sort of limitation did not exist and a Magmortar can become a serious threat under the right trainer but then again, "so can poison types," I felt the ball in my belt shake and I rubbed it, "we'll find you a great partner, I promise that."

I was never one for responsibility and I couldn't be sure that I can take proper care of Magby. I'd only be a piece of shit if I took care of him because of his strength as a pokemon. I sighed, "I'm really sorry you got your hopes up," his ball shook again, I chuckled, "yeah, I guess, I am a pretty bad person,"

The trek that the two of us had led us to a small part of the cave that I couldn't recognize and after looking around for a bit, I decided to let Magby out when I realized that the place was simply too dark. The fire type immediately produced a small flame in his mouth and the 360-degree light it emitted helped me look around the place a little bit better than before.

"huh, never saw this part of the cave before," I touched the oddly flat wall, "what do you think this is?" I looked at the Fire-type, to which it shrugged, "I guess right? I mean, how do you even discover places like these?"

"Mag!"

I chuckled, "yeah yeah, I'm sort of lost but I have supplies, more than enough to heal you multiple times," he pointed at Grimer's Pokeball, "he's sort of out of commission for now," I answered and the Magby looked at me oddly, "well uh, it's just that Grimer is currently worse for wear," I scratched the back of my head, I forgot that wild Pokemon didn't have the luxury of Pokemon centers and the Magby in front of me probably found those places unnecessary, "if I force him to fight more then he'll probably take more damage than necessary," I said, "the Electabuzz wasn't messing around back then,"

"Mag!"

I shrugged, "yeah, I guess," with a prompt from my current Pokemon, I started to feel the surface of the flat cave wall. The search continued for a while, and as my hand moved across the surface of the wall, I couldn't help but think that it felt oddly metallic, I hit it for a bit, and a hollow sound rang out.

I turned to my pokemon, "uh, you wanna try burning this thing," I said, taking out my flashlight in preparation for the fire in Magby's mouth to disappear. The 360-degree light that came from it was nice, but it had to be sacrificed for now.

An ember rang out and struck the metal wall, the heat was enough to reach me even from where I was standing and I couldn't imagine what it must've done to the wall.

Fortunately, I didn't have to imagine what it did because the moment that the fire died, my flashlight shone over the part that had just been attacked, and where a rocky wall once was, now was a metal slag that slowly dripped down to the floor. I looked at the mess my pokemon made and frowned, "you're really strong huh?" I said and the Magby cheered in response, "hah, guess so."