I shrieked and flung myself backwards and to the side, trying to avoid an onslaught of small rocks that the Onix had just tossed up into the air at Drowzee and me. I succeeded, kind of; the rocks mostly hit the ground to the left of me, with only a few smaller stones pelting my side. Drowzee yelped, and a glance showed that more of the rocks had hit him.

“Hypnosis!” I yelled. There was no point in trying to be quiet anymore, as the Onix was clearly aware we were there and it wasn’t happy about it. All we could do was try to fight our way into a retreat.

Drowzee didn’t reply, he just rapidly waved his hands back and forth. For a moment I felt hope as the blue light poured from Drowzee’s hands and washed over the Onix’s head.

Then my hopes were dashed when the Onix shook its head briskly, dispersing the blue light, and roared down at our group again.

My mind briefly went blank; all I could think about was how the Onix was terrifyingly huge, longer than a subway car, and how it could probably crush me with a single flick of its tail. I was going to die, Drowzee was going to die, we were all going to die.

Florence snapped me out of it. She grabbed me by the shoulder and turned me around, then shook me so that I looked at her instead of the monstrous Pokemon behind me. Behind her, I could just barely see that Isaac had dropped his lantern and was also staring up at the Onix in horror.

“Get it together!” Florence spat at me, shaking me once more for good measure. “We must distract it so we can get out of here!”

“Okay, okay!” I yelled back. Like it was that easy, like I could figure out how to distract a giant snake made of rocks in a few seconds. She nodded and ran back towards Isaac, presumably to get him to snap out of it too.

I turned around just in time to see Drowzee narrowly dodge the Onix’s head as it slammed down on the ground. “Use Pound,” I yelled to him, hoping the attack might do more damage if it hit the wild Pokemon’s face. But the Onix wasn’t falling for that; it reared back up with another high-pitched roar and lashed its tail, throwing Drowzee off-balance before he could land an attack.

My starter still tried – he beat his fists against the giant stone tail valiantly – but the Onix didn’t even flinch, it just looked down at Drowzee with a loud snort. Before I could think of anything else to do, it coiled its body twice around my Pokemon, then lifted him up in the air and started to squeeze.

The rational part of my mind knew that this was a Bind attack, that Drowzee was going to be trapped for a while until Onix decided to let him go. But the rest of my mind was plain terrified. Drowzee was completely out of his league here; even though he was still Pounding on the Onix’s body, the move had a type disadvantage and he didn’t seem to be doing any damage at all. The Onix was going to crush him and I was just standing there, being useless. I couldn’t shoot streams of water or even throw a punch. All I could do was yell out names of moves.

Wait – there was something I could do, something I had done before. I ripped Drowzee’s poke ball out of my pocket, pointed it at him, and clicked the button. A stream of red light shot out of the button – and reflected off of the part of the Onix’s body between me and Drowzee.

My blood ran cold. I repositioned the ball and tried again. Again, the light was blocked.

I was dimly aware that Florence had reappeared next to me. She tugged at my elbow, shouting “We need to leave!” in my ear. I glanced back to see that Isaac had picked up the discarded lanterns and was waving urgently, trying to get us to follow him back into the tunnel we’d originally come through.

But I couldn’t leave. Not without Drowzee.

I dropped my bag, screamed, and ran at the Onix with my arms waving wildly. It paused its squeezing of my Pokemon and grumbled down at me. The Onix seemed more confused than alarmed when I slammed into its side and started clawing at its rocky body.

“What are you doing!” Florence shouted behind me. I ignored her. I was too busy trying to climb my way up the Onix’s body.

The wild Pokemon figured out what was happening pretty quickly. It hissed, then slammed the free end of its tail on the ground. A cascade of large rocks fell from the ceiling of the cavern to land all around us; I had to swing to the side to avoid one large boulder, and I could hear Isaac and Florence screaming down below. But I couldn’t help them, not yet. I had to rescue Drowzee first.

My climbing did help a bit, since I got to a point where I could see my starter a little more clearly. He was still using Pound on the rocks that surrounded him, but his movements were clearly weaker and he was gasping desperately for air. He noticed me as well, and his eyes nearly bulged out. Well, maybe that was because he was being squeezed so tightly.

I tried to aim Drowzee’s poke ball in his direction, but the Onix chose that moment to start thrashing around, trying to shake me off. Every time I pressed the ball’s button the stream of light shot off in a new direction, and none of those directions went anywhere near Drowzee. After a few tries I had to give up so I could focus on clinging to the Onix’s body; otherwise I would have fallen off.

Pound wasn’t working. Hypnosis had failed. Disable might help temporarily, but the Onix was using a wide variety of moves, and we’d only be able to block one of them. There was only one option left.

“You have to use Confusion!” I screamed at Drowzee as the Onix whipped me back and forth. “You have to make it let go of you!”

Drowzee stopped pounding his fists and scrunched his eyes closed tight. Briefly, a bright purple light glowed around his head and under his eyelids.

Then, just as quickly, the light vanished. “Drow,” he said weakly, shaking his trunk left to right.

I stared back at him, feeling deflated.

There was nothing left that we could do.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“Low Kick!” a voice called out from the back of the cavern.

A stocky brown shape slammed into the Onix’s body below me. The Onix roared loudly in pain and dropped its body to the ground, releasing Drowzee as it did so. I half-fell, half-leapt off of the Onix’s body (jamming my elbow against the ground in the process), then got up and stumbled over to where Drowzee lay curled up on the ground.

He was still conscious, thank Mew, though barely. I helped pull him up onto his feet, then we stumbled over to where Florence and Isaac were standing. Both were alive, I was happy to see, though Isaac was favoring one leg and Florence had a gash on her arm. Both were staring at the battle that had continued behind us.

I turned around, wondering what exactly had saved us. I was surprised to see a… tree with legs? No – a Pokemon, obviously, but not one I was familiar with. The tree-Pokemon was currently exchanging Rock Throws with the Onix, and – wait. It was a tree, but it could use rock moves and Low Kick?

The tree-thing wasn’t the only creature that had come to our rescue. There was also a man, a trainer I supposed, who was standing on the other side of the cavern and shouting advice. Then, to my astonishment, the man ran up to the Onix, drew back an arm, and punched it.

“Did that trainer just attack a majū?” Florence asked flatly from next to me.

I didn’t answer; I was too busy gaping.

The Onix tossed another series of rocks at the Pokemon and its trainer, but they both dodged out of the way with the ease of long practice. The man threw another punch at the Onix’s body – how was he not breaking his hand? ­– then jogged backwards. “Low Kick again,” he called out with a wide grin on his face.

“Su!” the tree-thing replied. It ran towards the Onix and jumped at the last moment, slamming its stubby legs into the base of Onix’s body. The giant snake came crashing down again, sending rocks scattering throughout the cavern.

The Onix roared one last time, seemingly defiant; then it dived at an angle into the ground. I watched in disbelief as the giant Pokemon burrowed into the rock, leaving a ragged circular tunnel behind it as it fled the cavern entirely.

Isaac, Florence, Drowzee, and I watched in mute amazement as the man and the tree whooped and did what can only be described as a victory dance. Then the man turned towards us, still wearing a wide grin, and put his hands on his hips. “Hello there,” he said in a light voice that fit his small frame. “You, with the Drowzee. Would you like to battle?”

“Um.” I stared at the man who had just saved us, then looked over at Drowzee. My starter was swaying on his feet; he didn’t look capable of fighting a Magikarp, much less this crazy tree-thing. “No thanks?”

The man shrugged and nodded reluctantly, like he didn’t particularly like my answer but would accept it. “Fair enough.”

Isaac finally regained his composure at that point. He cleared his throat and bowed politely to the two newcomers. “Thank you for saving our lives –”

“I should thank you instead!” the trainer interrupted, walking over to where we stood with the tree-thing by his side. Close up I could see that he wasn’t that old, probably in his late teens. He looked like he’d been living wild for a while; his dark blonde hair was chopped off close to the scalp in a ragged way, and his clothing was stained and patched in multiple places. “We’ve tried to find an Onix to challenge for at least two days, but they are tricky creatures. You made our search much easier!”

Isaac opened his mouth, then closed it again. Florence came to his rescue. “But why would you want to challenge an Onix?” she asked, sounding authentically curious.

“Because they’re the strongest majū in these caves,” the man replied cheerfully. “Well, I suppose some of the aquatic majū might be stronger, but Sudowoodo here,” he slapped the tree-thing’s shoulder genially, “is not very fond of water. We’re working on that.”

Isaac still looked a little taken aback, but the young man’s last statement made him perk up. “Not fond of water – you mean your partner is not a grass type? Could they be a ground or rock type instead?”

“Yes, actually.” The trainer looked Isaac over with new curiosity. “Are you interested in majū, then?”

“Very much so!” Isaac cleared his throat and resumed the formal tone that he had adopted earlier. “My name is Isaac, and I am a researcher of majū. My colleagues here are Trainer Monroe, with his partner Drowzee –” I waved awkwardly – “and Florence, from the village Enrui.”

“Well met, Isaac! I’m Jordan, and this lump of rock over here is my partner,” the man said with a renewed smile, leaning an arm casually on the Sudowoodo’s head.

“Yes, I can tell.” Isaac took a step forward, his hands twitching. “Do you mind if I examine your majū? I have never seen a Sudowoodo before.”

Jordan smile faded, and he exchanged a quick glance with his partner, but then he nodded. “Just back off if he tells you to,” he warned.

“Of course.” Isaac set the lanterns down, limped over to the new Pokemon, and carefully started examining the tree’s limbs and asking him questions in a low voice.

Jordan watched Isaac for a little bit, then nodded and turned to me. “Monroe, was it? It looked like you and Drowzee were taking a beating before we showed up.”

I nodded, blushing a bit. “I think we’re a bit inexperienced for this cave,” I admitted. Next to me, Drowzee snorted in agreement, though he was still unsteady on his feet.

Jordan chuckled. “It’s alright, we all have to start somewhere. The two of you will toughen up eventually!” He then crouched down to examine Drowzee and clucked his tongue. “You look pretty exhausted. Did you all bring any berries?”

“I did!” Florence interrupted, digging through her bag and producing a handful of bright-blue oran berries. She moved to drop them into Jordan’s hand, then paused. “What is that, Trainer Jordan?”

Jordan turned his hand over so that we could see the metal bands that were wrapped around the bases of his fingers. “Brass knuckles,” he said offhandedly. “I’m not made of rock like my partner. I need a bit of extra help if I’m going to fight alongside him.”

I looked Jordan over warily. He was pretty short for an adult and not very muscled; I wasn’t sure how much use he’d be in a fight, even with a weapon. Still, he’d certainly be more useful than I was, so I decided not to press the point. “Do you go looking for fights a lot?”

“That’s basically our thing,” Jordan said with a grin as he watched Drowzee accept the berries from Florence and eat them one at a time. “We travel around Johto, training to become stronger and fighting off wild majū who have gotten too aggressive. We’re sometimes paid by a village to handle a problem, but otherwise we live off the land.”

I glanced over at Florence and smiled when I saw that her eyes were huge. “That sounds amazing,” she said quietly as she hugged her bag to her chest.

Jordan turned to look at her more carefully; then his eyes softened. “You want to become a trainer too?” he asked. Florence nodded eagerly. “Keep at it. Don’t let anyone tell you it can’t be done. You’ll find your partner someday.”

Florence’s eyes somehow got even bigger, and she nodded eagerly.

I wanted to ask Jordan if he had any advice for me, but Isaac and Sudowoodo rejoined our group at that point, done with their own examination. “We are truly thankful for your assistance, Trainer Jordan and Sudowoodo,” Isaac said, bowing again, “and I am afraid we will need to ask for it once again. We knew how to get back to the western exit before, but after the battle, well…”

I looked over at the corridor we had come through earlier to find that it was now entirely blocked by a pile of rocks that had collapsed in from the ceiling. I felt a chill run up my spine at the sight; that could have easily killed one of us if it had landed in a slightly different location.

Jordan looked the pile of rocks over and whistled. “That’s not going anywhere until another Onix comes through, or at least a pack of Sandshrew,” he commented. “You’ll need to take another route. Sudowoodo and I can help you there. We’ve been all over these caves the past few days, so we should be able to get you back to the other side of that rockfall with a detour.”

“That would be greatly appreciated,” Isaac said. He sounded relieved, and I couldn’t blame him. I was extremely happy to have a more experienced trainer join the group myself.