Chapter 37: Leader of the Lake
An inky black substance is spread across the landscape. It was as smooth as still water, perfectly reflecting the night sky. The moon’s light laid across like a blanket. A figure approached from nearby. Though it was massive, it took extra care to ensure its steps were light. It peered into the substance, gazing upon the mirrored night sky. Its yellow eye shone brightly as it slowly moved from star to star, almost as if it was taking the time to name each one. It stood there gazing for what must’ve felt like hours. Then, faint voices approached. Nowhere near the substance, but close enough to be heard.
“I can’t see anything Marie!” said Ceailean, “Did we really have to come out this far?”
“There’s a lake near here that I wanna see, C.” said Marie. “There were some rumors on some forums that the lake can perfectly reflect the night sky. I just have to see it”
“Do we have to look for it at night though? Who knows what lurking about. Crisis, back me up here.”
“I concur, Marie.” said Crisis. “We have the time to spare to camp for a couple of days. It would be much safer for us to seek this lake out during the daytime.”
“Augh! But I wanna see it now! We gotta get to Cyllage City as soon as possible! Plus, what’re we supposed to do while we wait for nighttime again?”
“I understand that you are eager, but do remember what happened when you challenged Grant. I mean no offense, but he was able to single-handedly defeat both of your pokemon, then immediately turn around and defeat one of Ceailean’s pokemon. From my personal observations, you and your pokemon require much more training. So I advise us all to be patient and prepare as much as we can.”
“You coulda just said we could train to pass the time…”
“Well that's not all we could do.” said Ceailean, “Look here, there’s also a mountain nearby and poke-maps says there’s a pretty cool cave system in it. We could explore it and maybe look for some Pokémon?” A moment of silence passes.
“That is actually pretty cool though…”
“So you willing to wait?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Finally, let’s hurry and set up camp somewhere. My feet are killing me.”
The figure's yellow eye grew stern, not particularly liking the new strangers. But all would be well if it could continue to gaze. When it looked back however, ripples stained the once perfectly reflected sky. Now the experience was ruined. It could see its dark outline within the distorted reflection. It closed its eye in disappointment and walked off into the dark forest.
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() Marie turned over in her sleep. The brisk morning air caused her to curl up in her blankets. Fennekin, who laid by her side, took a stuttered breath and sneezed. Embers flitted around from its ears and warmed the tent slightly. Life was bliss at the moment.
Suddenly, an explosion rocked the ground, shaking Marie awake. She groaned and clamped 2 pillows around her head. Fennekin woke up as well and tried to leave the tent, but its paws weren’t able to pull the zipper. It sighed and slowly turned around to the sleepy Marie. It patted her head a couple times to try and wake her.
“Hrmm, 5 more minutes.” she said drowsily. Fennekin pouted and patted her a little harder this time. “C, can’t you see who’s knocking at the door?” No response. “Oh yeah… have my own tent now…” Marie drifted off back to sleep. Fennekin closed its eyes for a moment, then it thought of a plan. It grabbed the corner of Marie’s blanket and tried to yank it off as hard as it could. It got about halfway before Marie grabbed hold. “I’m tryin’ to sleep dang it!” Fennekin didn’t give in and kept pulling. “Fennekin! It’s cold!” They tugged for a little while more. “Fine! You want it so bad? Have it!”
Marie tossed the blanket over Fennekin, covering it. Marie rushed in and tightly wrapped Fennekin in the blanket, being sure to at least keep its head exposed. “You don’t wanna keep sleeping, then I’ll just make you sleep!” Marie held the bundled Fennekin tightly and flopped back down on her bed, closing her eyes tightly as she did so. Fennekin was unamused, but it had one last trick up its sleeve. It reached its head out as far as it could and lightly nibbled on Marie’s nose. This made her nose twitch, to which she then turned around swiftly and sneezed.
“Ugh, fine Fennekin, you win. You’re lucky you’re so cute…” Fennekin chuckled slightly as Marie unbound it from the blankets. She then opened the tent and Fennekin swiftly went out and sniffed around trying to figure out where the explosion came from. It found the direction and ran off. “I swear if I hear one more explosion in the distance while I’m minding my own business, I’m gonna lose it.” Marie walked over to Ceailean’s tent, “C! Did that explosion wake you up or am I gonna have to wake you up myself. I didn’t get to sleep, neither do-” She found that the tent was empty, “you?” She turned around to see Fennekin just disappear into the forest. “Uh… Fennekin! Wait for me!” Marie quickly followed.
After running through foliage for a bit, she caught up with Fennekin in a clearing. It seemed to be quite annoyed. Ceailean was knees deep in a crater, his body covered in dust. He was coughing up a storm. Once his coughing fit finished, he noticed Marie.
“Marie!” called Ceailean. “I never expected you to be up this early.”
“I wouldn’t have been if the neighbors weren’t so noisy.” said Marie, irritably.
“Oh, that… uh. We were only doing something really cool, I swear.”
“Go on.”
“Alright look, remember how back at the pokemon setter we couldn’t utilize the full power of dragon rush because the energy was too heavy?” Marie nodded. “We decided to ‘train’ a little bit. We first tried to see how bad it was.”
“How would you even check that?”
“We just tried uh… just pushing it.” said Ceailean, scratching his head. Scorbunny then clawed out of the crater and gasped for air, its body full of dirt.
Marie moved to its side. “Scorbunny? Are you okay?” Scorbunny sighed and gave her a nod with a smile. Marie looked at the destruction around her. “It looks like you guys did way more than try to push Noibat around.”
“It’s all we tried doing, I assure you.” Ceailean took Scorbunny into his arms and climbed all the way out of the crater. “We started with big sticks, but those got turned into sawdust.”
“Is that what I smell?”
“Prolly. Then we tried a boulder, but all that did was send chunks of rock into the sky and it rained down on us for a hot minute. I was about to just call it quits when Scorbunny suggested that it throw itself at it. I was opposed to it at first, but after I did some fumbling around on the internet, I found out that high jump kick was statistically stronger than dragon rush.”
“That doesn’t mean Scorbunny’s high jump kick is stronger than Noibat’s dragon rush.” Marie lectured.
“And we found that out the hard way. See while they were doing one of the sickest clashes of attacks I’ve ever seen, Scorbunny got shot straight up into the air. I caught it, of course.”
“You still haven’t told me what caused all this?” Marie gestured to all the destruction around.
“I was getting to it, stop rushing me.” Ceailean sighed. “We were about to pack it up again, but Noibat was so determined to not leave without any progress. So it suggested one more idea. Solosis would throw Scorbunny as hard as it could, then Scorbunny would hit Noibat from behind with a full power high jump kick. And we hoped that was enough force to at least-” Ceailean jutted out his arm, raising one singular finger, “one step!”
“That’s all?”
“You shoulda been there Marie! Noibat’s 100% dragon rush couldn’t be moved by anything! But lemme tell you something-” Ceailean swiftly moved close to Marie’s face. Marie was caught off guard and she turned her head away bashfully. “It worked.” he said silently, “It really worked.”
“S-So much work for just one step.” Marie’s heart started to race. She forcefully pushed away Ceailean. “Back up already! You’re in my personal space!”
Ceailean stumbled back and Scorbunny fell out of his arms. He looked at himself. “Yeah, I guess that little experiment left me a little dirty. But don’t you understand Marie, even if it's just one step, it's one step closer to using Noibat's full power. If it could use dragon rush like that on the regular, Noibat could possibly be the strongest pokemon here!”
Marie’s face grew serious, “Like I’ll take that threat lying down.”
“Ooh, scary. You feeling threatened by me? I should consider that a compliment.” Marie growled at this.
“I wouldn’t personally exaggerate the feat,” said Crisis. Ceailean and Marie looked to the side and saw Crisis calmly observing them. “From here it looked more like Noibat got shoved and fell over. Thus-” he gestured to the destruction, “the result.”
“Hey, I don’t see no Decidueye to confirm that. So if anything, we’ll probably never know.” said Ceailean, crossing his arms.
Crisis took a sip of water. “I accept your compromise.”
Ceailean sighed. “Read the room dude, I’m tryin’ to start fights here.” he mumbled to himself.
“You’re trying too hard C.” said Marie, waving her hand dismissively, “You’re like a 12 year old talking smack over video games.”
“I’m 13 though…”
“Even better, you’ll fit right in!”
“What?!”
Marie gave a hearty chuckle. “See! I got you so easily!”
“Yeah well… I’ll catch it next time.”
“Speaking of whether or not you or Crisis is right, why don’t we just ask Noibat?”
“Oh yeah, where did it go-” The crater exploded with purple energy. The force of it flung Ceailean into Marie, toppling the both of them on the ground. From the crater, Noibat launched up and somersaulted onto the ground. It gave a great bow and dissipated its dragon rush as flamboyantly as possible.
Ceailean groaned. “Okay, ow.” He tried to pick himself up.
“W-What the heck do you think you’re doing?!” asked Marie, flabbergasted.
“Well, Noibat knocked me into you, I didn’t really do anything-”
“Then hurry up and get off me!” Marie interjected. Ceailean thought for a moment, he then laid back down across Marie’s body. Marie gasped. “C! Stop it!”
“No, I want you to ask me nicely. Then maybe I’ll consider it.” said Ceailean, resting his head on his crossed arms.
Marie was blushing hard. “I said, GET OFF!” Marie pounded her fists as hard as she could on Ceailean back.
“Gah! Ow! What was-”
Marie continued her pummeling. “GET OFF, GET OFF, GET OFF, GET OFF, GET OFF!”
“Alright!” Ceailean lifted himself up as quickly as could. Marie then scooted several feet away from him, not even looking back at him. “Touchy today, aren’t we?” Ceailean then hissed in pain. He grabbed his left shoulder. Marie took a glance back and noticed him doing this. Her heart sank, she didn’t mean to hurt him that badly, especially in that specific spot.
Fennekin then trotted up to her. It asked if she was okay. “By Arceus, what did I do? What am I going to do? What should I say?” Fennekin was taken aback by Marie’s sudden mental breakdown. It was sure that the solution was easy, simply just apologize and pretend it never happened. It walked up to Marie to suggest the idea. But Marie immediately picked it up before it could say anything. She hugged it tightly and began to mumble the same phrases into its fur. It was so tight and weird that Fennekin could barely breathe.
Snom drowsily emerged from Marie’s Beanie and looked at what was going on. It gave a slight chuckle. Fennekin asked why Marie was like this. Snom described it as her panic mode. It crawled back under her beanie and said to enjoy the fun and better get used to it soon. Fennekin strained to get out any more words, but still managed to call Snom a coward and demanded it try to reason with her, to which it got no response. It then called it a traitor right as Marie squeezed harder.
“Marie, you mumbling something?” said Ceailean walking over. “You’re acting like the little witch of the woods.”
Marie froze for a second. She dropped Fennekin and then stood straight up and said, “N-No! I’m okay! Just… Just… uh-”
“Do you not like getting dirty that much?” Ceailean said, pointing at Marie’s pajama shirt. It was now speckled dirt.
“Uh… Y-Yes! Why would you go and do that, C!? To my favorite pajamas no less!” Marie said while turning away and crossing her arms.
“You bought that with like a batch of 6 others in Camphrier. How is it just now your favorite-”
“I can still have a favorite of the 6!” Marie stood stiff for a moment. “L-Let’s hurry up and find a place we can clean up.”
“I’m afraid that’s going to be a problem.” said Crisis, walking up to the two of them. “The nearest settlement where we are able to bathe ourselves is about a day's walk.”
Marie turned to Crisis. “Then what’re we going to do?” she asked, legitimately concerned for her hygiene this time.
Crisis took out his pokedex and showed the two of them a map. “We do what Marie suggested last night.” He zoomed in on a lake, “We go here, Monde Lake. This was the fabled lake that Marie said she heard mentioned in online forums. By day, a regular lake. By night, you’re able to see a perfect reflection of the night sky. Said to be so enticing that you might just goad yourself into falling in.”
“I don’t believe it.” said Marie, crossing her arms. Then she realized what Crisis was suggesting. “What?! I don’t believe it! You want us to bathe in the lake.”
“One at a time of course.”
“Still! I can’t just do that!”
“Then are you willing to stop complaining about the state of your hygiene?” Marie’s words got stuck in her throat. “I thought so.” Crisis turned around and began to walk off. “The lake is about a half mile southeast. I’ll be back at camp. You two decide for yourselves what your best course of action is. I don’t mind it either way.”
“Then what will you do?” asked Ceailean.
Crisis waved his hand. “Wait.” He disappeared behind the forest.
Ceailean sighed. “Well, Marie. What do you think? Are you willing?”
Marie looked at all the dirt on her arms and clothes. “I guess I don’t have a choice. B-But what if people come to see the lake? It was all the rage on those forums.”
“Well worry about it later, cause I call first dibs.” Ceailean said as he began to walk off. “Scorbunny, Noibat, Solosis! We’re gonna wash up!” Noibat crossed its wings and refused. Scorbunny was quick to respond to this. It ran up and took Noibat into its arms, carrying it to Ceailean. It couldn’t say no to Scorbunny. Solosis poked out from some trees with a berry in its mouth and caught up to Ceailean.
“Wha-!” Marie was speechless. “J-Just like that?”
“Yep.”
“Wait for me!”
“What, you wanna peek?”
“NOOO! I need to know where it is too!”
Fennekin watched the two bicker as they walked. It sighed, but yet it felt happy to see Marie talking in this sort of dysfunctional way. It was a weird feeling it didn’t know how to describe. It pushed the thought to the side and followed the two to the lake.
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() “Welp, I think this is it.” said Ceailean. The two looked down upon the lake from the top of a small cliff side. The water was an azure blue and laid motionless.
“Whoa, it looks so pretty.” said Marie. “I could swim in that all day.”
“Yet you don’t wanna bathe in it?”
“Swimming and bathing are two entirely separate things!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“Either way you get wet. What’s the difference?”
“There is a huge difference, C!”
“Whatever I guess. You gonna go off and do your own thing?”
“You’re gonna go right now?”
“It’s what we came for. What else am I gonna do?”
“Y-Yeah, I suppose.” The two remained silent for a moment.
“You’re not imagining things are you?”
Marie stuttered and her face grew bright red. “Why would I imagine you taking a bath!?”
Ceailean turned his head her way and smirked. “I never said imagining what.”
Marie’s face became so red that she began to squeak. “N-Nothing! Just hurry up alright! I wanna have my turn! C’mon Fennekin, let’s go!” Marie ran off in the opposite direction. Fennekin hesitated, opting to give him one last distasteful look before following suit.
“I know that, but she’s just so easy to make fun of. You guys get me right?” He faced his pokemon, all of which were already halfway down to the lake, whistling as if they were trying to ignore him. “Hey wait! It’s not that bad right? Right!?” Then suddenly, the ground gave out underneath him. He yelled as he fell into the lake right under him. All his pokemon winced as he hit the water with a huge splash. They all waited in anticipation until Ceailean surfaced.
“As if I needed any more bad karma today. At least I didn’t twist my ankle or anything.” Ceailean fluttered his feet to keep himself afloat, he couldn’t tell if there was pain. “Shit, I hope not…” Solosis and Noibat chuckled at Ceailean's predicament. However, Scorbunny was seriously concerned for his well being and held its paws together at the edge of the lake. “Yeah guys, I’m fine. Thanks so much for asking…” he said sarcastically.
He began to swim to the nearest edge of the lake. He noticed that the ground that collapsed into the water was starting to turn it muddy. “Oh man, I hope that doesn’t spread.” He got to shore and looked at his dripping wet body. “Ugh, I think Marie’s just gonna have to wait a bit longer. This will take a while to dry off. At least I got the worst part of getting into a pool out of the way.”
Scorbunny ran up to Ceailean and hugged his leg. Its embrace was gentle and its expression was sincere. “Aw man Scorbunny. Don’t you think I’m icky right now?” Scorbunny subtly shook its head and continued on. Ceailean’s heart warmed. “Oh, I’m sorry for worrying you Scorbunny.” He rubbed its head soothingly. Noibat and Solosis felt awkward walking up to Ceailean. He noticed this and crouched down. “It’s okay guys, I forgive y’all already.” The two smiled and rushed over to him. He then smirked. “Because I already know how I’m gonna get you back.” He cupped his hand in the water and flung it at the two Pokémon. “Think fast!”
The two Pokémon got facefuls of water. They blinked in surprise. “Ha! Gottem! That’s how you do things around here, Scorbunny. Scorbunny, despite trying to be serious, was struggling to hide its smile. Noibat noticed this and closed its eyes. It remained stoic as it walked over to the lakes edge. “Noibat? What’re you-?” Noibat wasted no time. It jumped in and immediately splashed water into Ceailean, with Scorbunny taking some collateral damage. Solosis laughed, but Noibat made sure to splash it as well for good measure.
“Okay, you’re askin’ for it now.” said Ceailean, trying to make his face as dramatic as possible. He rolled up his pants legs and took two steps into the water. He readied his hands like he was in a wild west duel. Noibat did the same with its wings. The two stared each other down. “This town ain’t big enough for the two of us.” Noibat nodded in agreement. They stared each down for a little while longer. 3, 2, 1! Ceailean dipped his hands in the water… right as Solosis tackled Noibat further into the lake. Solosis threw a tantrum, splashing water on Noibat in any way it could. Noibat was overwhelmed and couldn't find a way to counter.
That was until Ceailean splashed Solosis with water. “Hey!” he said, trying to mimic Reese and Tyler’s southern Unovan accent. “I don’t take too kindly to strangers stealin’ my prey.” Solosis turned to him, its face trying to be just as dramatic. It was fully immersed in the act. Noibat emerged from the water. The three starred at each other, now a three way standoff.
That was until Scorbunny bounced up and crashed down right in the center of all of them. A big wave of water washed them all up. Scorbunny laughed to itself as it floated on the surface. That was until it realized that it was now surrounded, and its smile slowly faded away.
Ceailean pointed his finger as angularly as possible. “Hey bub, no one comes into my town and pulls a sneak attack on me thinkin they can get away with it.” His face became even more dramatic. Noibat’s expression turned similarly dramatic, saying that its cheap shot would be returned in spades. Solosis simply said Scorbunny would pay dearly. The three surrounded Scorbunny. It was at that moment where Scorbunny came up with a plan.
The three rushed it, splashing water as hard as they could. Scorbunny they took a deep breath and dove into the water, making everyone attack themselves instead. “Ey’ watch it!” Noibat and Solosis said the same thing. Scorbunny bounced out of the water and landed atop a nearby rock. It spread its arms out and made a seriously sinister smile so convincing that it took Ceailean by surprise.
“Hey whoa, time out. You can do that, Scorbunny? You look genuinely… terrifying.” Scorbunny’s facade immediately broke away and it blushed at the comment, holding its cheeks with its paws as it pivoted on its heels. “W-Well-” Ceailean’s face went back to being as dramatic as it could, “Don’t think that alone will get you anywhere in this world.” He put his hands under the water, ready to fire. “As it stands now, its splash, or be splashed.”
Scorbunny hopped with excitement. It closed its eyes for a moment before going back into its sinister persona. It spread its arms once more and told the other to try. “Taunting us are you? Big mistake. Don’t think I’ll make this in any way easy for you! HHHHAAAAAA-!” All of them charge at each other at once.
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() “-aaaaaa!” said Ceailean in the distance.
Marie looked over her shoulder. “What the heck does he think he’s doing?” she said to herself. She sat herself down against a tree. “I guess there’s nothing to do but wait.” Fennekin nodded and laid next to her. A moment passes. Then another. Then boredom set in. Marie trilled her lips for a bit and rocked back and forth. “Hmm, I wonder what C-” She caught herself. No! She would not think like that! Another moment passes. Ceailean, water, wet, hair, glasses off, water, towel, Ceailean, wet, shirtless-
“AAUGH!” screamed Marie. She grasped her head as if she was going crazy. Fennekin was shocked as well and asked if she was okay. “Stupid C! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Putting thoughts like that into my head! I need to stop!” Fennekin quickly realized it was nothing to worry about and laid back down. “Why am I so flippant today? Just… forget anything I thought about. Just ignore it.” She covered her head in hopes she would rid herself of those thoughts. What was she trying to forget again? Oh yeah, shirtless-
“UUUM! I need something to distract me!” Marie quickly pulled out her pokedex and browsed the internet, eventually stumbling into the forums that told her about the lake. But now there was an interesting conversation going on. “Huh? ‘I wanna go but it's too dangerous’? ‘There is currently an advisory out, everyone please don’t visit the lake until it is cleared’?” Marie’s voice grew more concerned with each message she read. “‘They’re just rumors’. ‘No they’re not, a pokemon had recently made that lake its territory.’ ‘Oh yeah? Which one’?”
A rustle of leaves made Marie jolt in fear. The ground vibrated to the sound of heavy footsteps. Fennekin noticed as well and began to scan the area. “W-Who’s there?” she asked. No response. But her eye caught something. Off in the distance, she saw a glaring eye, seemingly staring straight into her soul. Marie tapped Fennekin to get its attention. She pointed at the eye. “Look there.” she whispered. Fennekin saw it and immediately put itself between Marie and the eye. It yelled not to come any closer. The eye remained unchanged. After a moment, the eye closed and the heavy footsteps began to walk away. Soon, the two couldn’t even tell where it went.
“Phew, that was close wasn’t it?” Fennekin nodded. Marie quickly went back to the forums and read aloud. “Liar, I was just there… The police told me, so it's true… I bet it ain’t even dangerous… It is! They said it was a Scol-” Marie gasped. “Oh Arceus!” Marie stood up urgently. “Fennekin, we gotta get to the lake and help C!” Then the shirtless thought came back to her. “Uuuh… Maybe near the lake will be good enough to warn C. Oh but then he’d think I’m hiding for a reason or-” Fennekin cut her off and urged her on. “O-Or maybe you could do it! Yeah, that way there’s no harm done.” Fennekin rolled its eyes. It paced in a circle for a bit before sitting down defiantly against Marie.
“W-What? Aren’t you gonna warn him?” Fennekin shook its head and urged Marie to go. “Me?! But what if-” Fennekin cut her off and told her to go, “But he might-” Fennekin yapped, “But-!” Fennekin barked. It urged one more time for Marie to go on her own. Marie sighed anxiously. “You’re a monster, you know that?” Fennekin nodded pridefully. Marie jumped around and shook her limbs and she tried to amp herself up. Then, ready to go as she could be, she picked up Fennekin and rushed towards the lake.
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() Ceailean, Noibat, and Solosis are standing around an exhausted Scorbunny on the ground. “Maybe… we took it too far guys.” said Ceailean, scratching the back of his head, “Scorbunny is a fire type after all.”
Noibat knelt next to Scorbunny and asked if it was okay. Scorbunny told it to come closer. Noibat placed its wing on its chest, then Scorbunny held its little claw. Scorbunny said everything was going to be okay. It then closed its eyes. Noibat cried into the sky.
Ceailean just stood there looking at them. “And you two just continue to take it farther.” Solosis then shoved Noibat to the side, wanting its own turn to act. But before it could say anything, Noibat shoved it back, telling Solosis to back off. Solosis got angry, glowing with pink psychic energy. Noibat spread its wing, charging up with purple energy. “Hey whoa guys, calm down! No need to-”
“Scoli!” shouted a high pitched raspy voice. Everyone stopped what they were doing.
“What was that?” asked Ceailean, scanning the tree line. Noibat’s ear twitched. It called to everyone and pointed in a direction. They all looked in that direction and waited for the voice to reveal itself.
A yellow eye observed the scene. Mud now surrounded the lake, a gigantic cloud of silt spread around the area Ceailean fell in, and the ripples in the water resembled that of waves. The perfectly clear and still lake was no more.
“Pe-de! Scoli-de!” the yellow eye seemed to shout in anger.
Ceailean took a step forward and leaned towards the eye. “W-What?” he said, cupping a hand over his ear. The voice called back again, but despite being clearly angry, it was very soft spoken. Ceailean slumped his shoulders. “What?” he said in a somewhat confused tone.
An attack immediately rocketed across the lake. The four barely had time to dive out of the way as it collided with the ground behind them like a meteor. A plume of dust obscured the area around them.
“All of you *cough* stay next to me!” The four stood with their backs to each other waiting for something to show up. Noibat’s ear twitched right as the ground vibrated. Heavy steps were approaching. Noibat pointed in a direction and warned everyone. They all formed a line and got ready to battle. A looming shadow formed within the dust. It towered over the four. It had huge jagged appendages on its head, quivering ominously as it looked down upon them. It loomed closer and closer, until Noibat lost its nerve and exploded into dragon rush.
The dust cloud blew away and the looming threat was revealed immediately. A gigantic quadruped of muscle and claws. Its red magenta and black color seemed to peer down along with its stern eyes. And its jagged horns and tail were the size of baseball bats. It stomped with its front legs aggressively.
“C!” shouted Marie from the tree line on the far side of the lake. “T-There’s a dangerous pokemon around here! You need to get out of here!”
Ceailean looked back and gestured to the giant pokemon. “Yeah Marie, I never noticed.” he said sarcastically.
Marie looked closer and noticed the pokemon standing in front of him. “That’s… That’s a Scolipede, C! That thing’s no joke!”
“Really? I can’t tell over the fact that this pokemon probably has 10 times my body mass!” Scolipede growled as if Ceailean insinuated calling it fat.
The two remained silent for a moment. “...I-I thought you were washing up! Why do you still got your clothes on?” Marie abruptly ended her sentence, catching her own absurd question.
“Why the heck does that matter right now?!” Scolipede’s horns burst into a silvery energy. “Oh shiet!” Scolipede charged straight at Ceailean. Noibat jumped in the way, blocking the attack with dragon rush. It tried to push back, but Scolipede had the mass. Noibat was thrown back into the lake, splashing the water up high.
Marie gasped. “Watch out for its horns, C!”
“I know!”
Marie stood there frozen, watching the battle go down. She shivered as she tried to think of what to do. Fennekin shook its head disappointingly.
“Scorbunny, use blaze kick!” commanded Ceailean. “Solosis, you use… uh…” Solosis bounced in anticipation. “I never had you in a battle before! I gotta check my pokedex real quick!” Solosis groaned and charged in itself. Scorbunny jumped up and round housed Scolipede’s head. It barely even stumbled back. Its horns flashed purple and it swung its head around. Scorbunny braced for impact, but then Solosis came in and shot a psywave in its face.
Scolipede’s head was knocked back by the explosion, but it only served to make it more angry. It raised its front legs high and slammed the ground hard, causing a shock wave to move through the ground like a wave. Both Scorbunny and Solosis were knocked into the air. “No stop!” said Ceailean. Scolipede doubled down and shot a purple orb into the sky. It exploded into several projectiles and rained down upon the area. “Watch out!” Ceailean put his arms in front of his face, Scorbunny and Solosis guarded themselves as well. But the projectiles didn’t explode, instead they seeped into the ground, their purple energy disappearing. “What the heck?” said Ceailean, making a step forward.
“Don’t move C!” said Marie. Ceailean looked to see that she had been trying to make her way to him. “That move is toxic spikes! If you step on one, poisonous gas will explode from the ground and poison you!”
“Who’s idea was it to give a pokemon landmines?!” said Ceailean, looking around himself and standing stiff. “Just how are we gonna get to it then?” Suddenly, the water in the middle of the lake plumed upwards, Noibat had exploded into dragon rush. It charged ferociously into Scolipede, smashing into it with all that it could. “Didn’t you hear Marie, Noibat?”
“It’s fine C! Noibat can fly, the toxic spike won’t detect it!” said Marie, sliding down a rock. Solosis then took this information as a vote of confidence. It moved forward, only to immediately get struck with a poisonous explosion. “No! I didn’t mean you Solosis, sorry! Even though you can hover, the spikes can detect the psychic energy you use to hover!”
Solosis fell next to Scorbunny. Scorbunny knelt by its side only to see purple toxic bubbles emanate from Solosis’s body. It asked if Solosis was okay, to which its eyes flashed open and it sprung back up. Scorbunny was confused by this, Solosis however assured Scorbunny that it was fine.
Noibat continued to push Scolipede back, its stubby legs plowed through the ground. But then Scolipede found itself backed into a rock. It used it as leverage and forcefully pushed Noibat, slashing Noibat in the air with cross poison before smashing it into the ground with megahorn. Noibat yelled in pain. It struggled to pick itself back up. Scolipede stood over Noibat and raised its hind legs to smash it into the ground. Scorbunny and Solosis called out desperately.
Suddenly, an ember blew up on Scolipede’s face. “Sorry, but not today.” said Marie.
“You get ‘em Marie!” cheered Ceailean.
Scolipede angrily faced Marie’s direction and stomped its front leg at her. “You look like a handful. Let’s not get in over our heads Fennekin, we’ll lure it away and escape when we can.” Fennekin nodded. Scolipede charged. “Fennekin return!” Marie returned Fennekin to its pokeball and immediately began running in the opposite direction.
“What about me, Marie?!” said Ceailean.
“Just try to find a way out, I’ll be back as soon as I can!” The two disappeared to the sounds of forestry getting destroyed.
“Screw that.” Ceailean looked around, “There’s gotta be something I can do around here.” He picked up a rock and tossed it. As soon as it hit the ground, two explosions of poisonous gas erupted from the ground. Noibat called from the sky, telling Ceailean to be careful. “Wait, that should be perfect. Noibat! Use air cutter all around us, destroy as many toxic spikes as you can!” Noibat nodded and shot air blades as widely as it could around Ceailean’s area. The area exploded into dust and poison gas, completely obscuring everyone in the process.
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() Marie kept running. “Alright Scolipede, you may be tough, but are you agile?” she said to herself. She bobbed and weaved through the trees, Scolipede bashed through them close behind. “Yeah, come on ya big baby. Throw more of a tantrum and get tired.” But then she slid to a stop. “You gotta be kidding me.” She had come across a sheer cliff wall about 15 feet tall. Turning around, she saw Scolipede bash through one more tree and stare her down. “Uh oh.”
Scolipede's horns exploded into the silvery energy of megahorn and it charged full speed ahead. Marie lowered down to the ground and got ready. Right as Scolipede got within a few feet of her, she ducked out of the way, making Scolipede charge straight through the cliff wall. “Hah! How do you like that?”
Scolipede immediately ripped its head out from the cliff wall, spraying Marie with a wave of sheared away rock projectiles. She blocked her face with her arms. “Ow ow! Ugh, how much more do you got!?” Scolipede charged Marie again with megahorn. Marie got up and ran. “Snom, get up and use icy wind!” She pulled her beanie off her head and Snom immediately turned and showered Scolipede with icy wind. Its movement speed fell and now it was struggling to keep up. “How's that?”
Scolipede got fed up and slammed the ground, sending another through it towards Marie. “Oh Arceus! Bulldoze!” The wave ran right under her feet and launched her up into the air, making her fall flat on her face. Snom and her beanie fell in front of her. “Augh! That hurt…” Scolipede once again charged with megahorn. She looked to her side, “Guess we’ll try that.” She snatched up Snom and her beanie just in time to roll to the side right as Scolipede rushed through.
The area went dark all of a sudden. Snom tried to speak, but Marie shushed it. “Keep quiet. I think this is one of the caves that Crisis was talking about. We’ll lay low in here.” Snom nodded and tried to keep it down. Scolipede walked back over to the entrance of the cave. It looked around, confused as to where Marie. She hid behind a stalagmite, peering ever so slightly to just make out where Scolipede was. “Come on, go away.” she said under her breath.
Scolipede, however, decided to check the cave. “No no no no…” Marie hid behind the stalagmite fully, hoping Scolipede would go away. Its steps were heavy as it entered. Its stern yellow eyes scanned the cave to the best of its ability. It stood for quite a while, its breathing was heavy, and the pressure of its presence was palpable.
“Marie!” called Ceailean. “Where did you go?” Scolipede looked out towards the entrance of the cave.
“Yes.” said Marie quietly, “Go away.” Scolipede steps seemed to be moving away. Marie peered beside the stalagmite again, but she was careless. She took a whiff of dust off the stalagmite and it all irritated her nose. “Urk…!” Marie sat back behind the stalagmite. “Snom… I’m gonna sneeze” Snom was shocked. It jumped up and down on her body in a vain attempt to try and get her to stop. “I can’t… stop it…!” She held her breath and pinched her nose, but it was too late. A wave rushed through Marie’s body. “ACHOOO!”
Scolipede stopped in its tracks and looked back into the cave. Snom was irritable asking why she had to sneeze so loud. “Shh, maybe it didn’t hear us.” Suddenly, the cave filled with a silver light. “Nah okay, I think it did.” She clutched Snom tightly and dived out of the way right as Scolipede crashed through with megahorn. “Give it a rest already won’t you!” Scolipede responded by attacking again with megahorn. It crashed into the sides of the cave every time Marie dodged, pushing her further and further back into the cave.
“Forget it! Fennekin, get out here!” Marie sent out Fennekin. “We have no choice but to battle our way our way out.” Scolipede stared them down as its megahorn energy disappeared. It stamped its foot aggressively. Snom jumped out from Marie’s arms and stood defiantly alongside Fennekin.
Ceailean’s faint voice could be heard outside. “I heard noise coming from this way, let’s hurry.”
Scolipede’s focus wavered as it took a glance behind itself wondering where the voices were coming from. “Now Fennekin, use ember! Snom you follow up with a struggle bug from underneath!” Fennekin shot an ember straight into Scolipede’s face, knocking it away. Snom then flew right up under Scolipede's jaw and used struggle bug. A green light flooded the cave. The explosive force sent the front half of Scolipede’s body into the air.
“Yes! We got it! Now let’s-” Scolipede’s eyes flashed open and it immediately smashed the ground with its front legs. The bulldoze knocked Marie and her Pokémon onto the ground. “Ow… you guys okay?” Before they could answer, Scolipede stood menacingly over Marie. She looked up as its horns began to grow purple. But she saw something else. Rocks and pebbles were beginning to fall from the ceiling. The cave shuddered as boulders began to fall from. Scolipede stopped its attack to observe what was going on. “You beat up the cave too much, now it’s gonna collapse!”
“Marie!” called Ceailean. “You in there?” Marie looked to see Ceailean just outside the entrance. He looked at Scolipede standing over Marie laying on the ground. “No! Marie! Did it hurt you?” He tried to rush inside.
Marie waved him off. “Get back!” Ceailean ignored his surroundings, he only saw Marie hurt. That was when Noibat flew in and tackled Ceailean to the side, knocking him down. Noibat fell down along with him. With that, Marie stood up, snatched up Fennekin and Snom, and dove further back into the cave. The ceiling collapsed. Scolipede didn’t have time to move and it was buried under all the rubble, crying out in pain.
A plume of dust rushed over Ceailean's body. Scorbunny and Solosis rushed to see if he was alright. He looked at Noibat. “Why would you do that?! I almost got to her!” Noibat protested vehemently. Suddenly, a giant boulder fell off the cliff face heading right towards Ceailean. “Watch out!” Noibat got up and exploded into a full power dragon rush. The attack knocked Ceailean, Scorbunny, and Solosis away from the impact zone. But Noibat took the boulder head on. It drew upon all the strength it had to repel it, but the boulder was too heavy.
Ceailean stopped tumbling and he looked at what was happening. “Come on Noibat! Push it back!” Noibat was straining under all the weight. But then its feet sunk into the ground and its dragon rush energy began to seep out of the sides, like a pestle squishing a fruit. “No! Come on, think!” Ceailean pounded himself on the head. “Wait! This should work!” He took out Noibat’s pokeball, “Noibat, return!” The pokéballs beam touched Noibat. As soon as it dematerialized, the boulder crashed down with a thump.
“Marie!” cried out Ceailean. He ran over to the blocked cave entrance. “Marie! Are you alright?”
Marie got up and dusted herself off. “Y-Yeah *cough* we’re okay in here!” she said.
“Oh thank Arceus. Do you see a way out?”
“It’s pitch black. But I think these were the caves Crisis was talking about. They should be vast and maybe have a way out on the other side.”
“Okay, I’ll check around the mountain for potential entrances.” Ceailean brought out Noibat. “Come on guys, let’s find another way in.” They then ran off.
“No C! Find Crisis first! He’s the one that knows about the caves!” But Ceailean was already long gone. “Ugh! Boys…” Marie felt around and brought out her pokédex. She opened it and had what little light it emitted shine on her face. “Fennekin, Snom, are you 2 okay?” The two called out, but she couldn’t see specifically where they were. “That’s good.”
Marie looked down towards the darkest part of the cave. The sounds of pebbles skipping across the ground, things stepping in puddles, and the chittering ceiling pokemon sent a shiver down her spine. “Oh man, maybe this wasn’t a good idea. What about you guys?” she turned around, only to be met with a stern yellow eye looking back at her. Its anger was crystal clear.
Marie’s voice squeaked. “Oh Arceus, I don’t think this is over…”