บท 14: Chapter 14

"Get back!" you shouted.

Just in time, Nidoran kicked off the ground with her Double Kick, and launched herself carthweeling backwards, just in time for a large Golem to smash into where she was standing previously with a roar.

A second Golem, rolled in a moment later, jumping out of its roll and keening in worry, fretting over the pair of Graveler that picked a fight with you a few minutes ago, and were quickly defeated by Nidoran.

"Well, this is a bad start to the morning." you growled.

And to think things were going so well too. You'd camped at the bottom of the Diglett Cave last night, done some light training with your pokemon, and in the morning began your hike up over the mountain.

There'd been a Fearow you'd been tempted to catch, it had been a bit small, so probably a Spearow that evolved young, but it went down so easily to Nidoran, that you didn't find the desire in you to capture it.

Another two hours into your hike over the mountain top, and you were waylaid by a pair of Graveler trying to pick a fight, and were quite honestly, beaten really easily by Nidoran just like the Fearow before them, obviously another pair that evolved really early, they couldn't hope to compare to the strength of Brock's Geodude.

Your hand went to your belt, grabbing another pokeball. Two Golem, probably the parents of the two Graveler. The smaller one, fretting over the two probably the mother, and the large one with livid red eyes glaring at you and Nidoran, the father.

Just your luck. Regardless, you felt a smile tug at your lips.

The smaller of the two Golem swung its head towards Nidoran, unleashing a howl of rage. It opened its mouth, white light forming into a sphere.

"Go, Sandshrew!" you released your pokemon, the ground type in front of Nidoran in the blink of an eye.

Just in time. From the white sphere in its mouth, Golem fired dozens of large, jagged rocks towards your pokemon.

"Sand!" Sandshrew threw up his arms, guarding as the attacks slammed into him and began pushing him back, but protecting Nidoran all the same.

You were about to call for Nidoran to help him out, when Sandshrew snarled, twisting his little clawed arms out and slashed his arms wide. And then exploded into white light. He grew, and changed. Sharp quills growing along his back as he expanded in size, and large bladed claws growing out of his hands, the light dying down a moment later to reveal your newly evolved pokemon, large claws still glowing though with shimmering silver energy.

"Slash!" Sandslash snarled, jumping forward into a ball and rapidly spinning towards the smaller of the two Golem. Before it could react, Sandslash came out of his spin, using the momentum behind him to slash at the Golem with a pair of Metal Claw attacks.

You recognized the steel type energy, you'd seen a few pokemon use it before.

The Golem shouted in pain, and was sent rolling back, legs and arms going limp as it crashed into a large rock face, unable to continue.

The other Golem, upon seeing its apparent mate go down, roared like a beast. Jumping into the air and retracting its limbs into its shell and rapidly shooting towards Sandslash while spinning.

"Double Kick!" you ordered quickly.

Nidoran kicked off the ground with her Double Kick, accelerating into a rapid cartwheel and picking up even more speed as she came out and delivered a two footed glowing white drop kick to Golem's rapidly rotating shell.

And to your utter astonishment, the white glow travelled up her entire body as she grunted and pushed even harder into her kick against the Golem. Like Sandslash before her, Nidoran's body expanded in size, so much so she was nearly four or five times her previous body size.

With her new increase in size, Golem was sent veering widely off course, slamming into a boulder and shattering it to pieces.

Nidoran, now Nidorina landed nimbly on the ground as the white glow receded to show off her new body to the world.

"Nida!" she smiled, flashing you a thumbs up.

You grinned, flashing her one back. You saw Golem pulling itself out of its shell, shaking its head and standing up with a growl. It wasn't over yet. Your hand slipped into the side part of your bag and pulled out a blue disc. "Catch!" you shouted, throwing it like a frizbee towards Nidorina.

She jumped and caught it i her mouth with a flourished spin, and you saw the TM glow with blue light that was suffused into Nidorina's body, and the disc turned grew.

"Water Gun!" you followed up and ordered, as she landed, spitting the disc out.

She growled, whirling around to face the Golem, and spat out a large, compressed stream of water from her mouth. Not as big as Kingler's was, but it got the job done, the high power stream smashing into Golem and ploughing it through another boulder, where it fell limp, just like the other three rock type's that faced your pokemon.

"Woo!" you cheered, "Way to go guys!" you knew they were both incredibly close to evolving, should have already considering their size and strength, you weren't expecting them to evolve at nearly the exact same time though!

_________

It was so very tempting to capture the largest of the Golem. For all that it went down quickly, it did get blindsided, once by an attack that dealt double the damage normally to it, and the other it had a quad weakness to.

A little training in spacial awareness, and it would be a fine pokemon. And would be a massive help against Surge. From what little you'd managed to find out about the man, he didn't stick to general outlines of rules, he battled how he liked. One time you could lose to him in a one on one, and in the rematch, he'd steamroll you in a six on six.

So a Golem, plus Sandslash, and a possible Nidoqueen if you could get your hands on a moon stone, plus maybe that Rhydon would be a massive help just in case.

But in the end, you couldn't tear the family apart. It was tempting to catch them all, just to keep them altogether and get the strongest to help you out. But, you figured it would be incredibly hard to secure the help of a parent raging over their kids getting the crap kicked out of them.

Because that's what Nidorina, as a Nidoran did. She kicked the ever loving shit out of them with Supersonic and Double Kick. Poor things didn't stand a chance.

So you continued on your way. Well, after celebrating with your two newly evolved pokemon. Sandslash was definitely warming up to you now that he'd shown such an obvious increase in strength. He might even like you a decent bit now.

Still, it wasn't long before you were on your way, switching the both of them out for Charmander to let them get a rest. Plus, the little guy liked it when you put responsibility on him alone, made him feel strong you think.

You didn't manage to run into any other pokemon for the next two hours of your hike again. Though, the reason why soon became apparent.

With a boom of thunder, a thick bolt of electricity tore through the air, piercing up into the clouds.

"Brriii!" a garbed roar filled the air.

Charmander immediately jumped into action, taking up a defensive position in front of you. And together, you both cautiously made your way over to peak up at the rocky ledge where the bolt was fired from.

Atop it, winging its arms around rapidly, body crackling with a powerful coat of lightning, was an Electabuzz!

"Elect!" it roared, thrusting out its chest and expanding its aura of electricity outwards, and firing it up as another massive bolt of electricity, right into the cloud it had aimed at before. And just like the time before, the thick yellow bolt of power tore a hole right through it, drawing a shout of frustration from the electric type pokemon.

"An Electabuzz!" you exclaimed.

The electric type must have heard you, how it did over the din of booming thunder was beyond you, but it did. The yellow and black humanoid pokemon dropped its cloak of electricity, and looked at at you curiously, "Buzz?"

Its eyes lit up when it noticed you, and you saw its eyes trail from Charmander, to the pokeballs on your belt. It let out an excited holler, and bounded off of the ledge before you could blink, swinging down towards you excitedly like a Mankey. "Elect!" it cheered, eye smiling.

Charmander snarled at the electric type as it landed before you both nimbly, powerful padded feet slapping into the rocky mountain top with ease. It ignored Charmander for a second and pointed at you, then itself and began hopping up and down, throwing shadow punches through the air.

You understood.

"You wanna battle?" you asked.

"Brii!" Electabuzz nodded, head shooting back and forth like a bobble head.

You smirked, "Well, I'm fine with that, but if you lose, I'm gonna capture you." you replied.

If anything, that just made Electabuzz even more excited.

"You good for this?" you asked the fire type beside you.

"Mander!" Charmander raised a clenched fist and nodded. Good, good. You honestly didn't see what Cross's problem was. did he just load it up with Tm's and expect it to be instantly strong or something?

The stupid prick. You'd make sure to rub his face in how strong Charmander got later.

"Alright, bring it on Electabuzz!" you challenged the electric type.

"Brii!" Electabuzz barely gave any warning before it exploded forward in a quick attack, one large fist crackling with electricity slamming into Charmander's stomach before the little lizard could react.

Hmm, odd. You're sure you could have reacted to that.

Charmander cried out as he was punched into the air. But showing that grit he had shown since you got him, the little fire type righted himself in mid-air, flames pooling in his mouth.

"Yeah, Flamethrower!" you shouted.

Charmander struck back, blasting a massive torrent of flame that struck Electabuzz in the chest before it could dodge itself, blasting it back a good dozen or so feet.

It hit the ground hard, just as Charmander cut off his attack and landed. But in moments, the large electric type jumped to its feet and began pounding its chest with both of its large fists

Suddenly, Electabuzz stopped, thrusting both arms out and conjuring a shower of energy stars that shot from around its arms towards Charmander.

"Ember!" you ordered swiftly.

Charmander met the energy stars head on, firing dozens of small flame pellets from his mouth. What it lacked in size and power compared to Flamethrower, it made up for in sheer number and speed.

The stars were shot down before they reached Charmander, and the little fire type kept up the attack, even as Electabuzz speared forward in another Quick Attack, running right into the flame pellets.

It grunted, but didn't try to dodge at all, instead it shot right through, taking the damage, to unleash another Thunderpunch into Charmander's stomach that lifted him off the ground again, and then used its other hand to deal another.

One, two, three, six and more electrified punches Electabuzz began laying into Charmander's stomach, keeping the fire type aloft with each punch.

"Flamethrower, cut it off!" you shouted to your pokemon, gripping his pokeball hesitatingly. Obviously Ember wouldn't be enough to shake it off. Though, you didn't want to just let him take a beating like that.

Charmander's mouth pooled with flames, but before he could unleash them, Electabuzz delivered another blow into his stomach that cut his breath off, choking the fire type.

"Damn it, Charmander ret-" you were about to call him back, when the fire type's eyes snapped to yours despite the electric assault he was under. Then he roared, voice deeper than it ever was before.

He exploded into bright light and Elecabuzz was stunned, trying to shield its eyes from the sudden blinding light that hit them. Stunned as it was, it couldn't react to the torrent of compressed flame your glowing pokemon unleashed and was carried dozens of feet back, roaring in pain from the sudden burning that hit its chest.

Charmander, blindingly white fell to the ground and you watched as his form grew much larger, easily doubling in size, and a thick horn like shape grow from the back of his head.

And when the light died away, in Charmander's place, was now a tall powerfully built Charmeleon!

"Meleon!" he roared, spitting a gout of flame into the air, and you noted his flames were much darker orange now.

He pointed a clawed finger at the downed Electabuzz struggling to its feet, and then to your utter surprise, exploded forward with a very familiar white energy coating his legs.

Charmeleon returned the favour, electricity sparking around one of his own fists and driving an impressive uppercut into Electabuzz's chin just as the electric type forced its way to its feet.

Electabuzz groaned in pain and the force of the blow lifted it into the air. But Charmeleon wasn't done. Quick Attack still enhancing his legs, the fire type jettisoned into the air and grabbed Electabuzz by the tail with both arms and began to rapidly rotate in the air, building up a lot of speed, before throwing Electabuzz down into the ground with all his might.

Quick Attack, into Thunderpunch, into Siesmic Toss. You whistled as Electabuzz hit the ground hard, cratering the rocky area with ease and falling limp in the hole it made.

Charmeleon landed and shaped two clawed fingers into a V-shape and held them over his eye, "Char!" he posed to celebrate his victory.

"Way to go buddy!" you praised him, clapping your hands.

Charmeleon beamed and bounded towards you, you noted he ran like on the parts of his feet just before his toes, legs inclined up a bit and making him seem a little taller, and it really amped up his speed.

"Meleon!" with a happy cry, he launched himself through the air towards you.

You caught him in your arms, hugging him tightly and spinning around to bleed off his momentum a bit. You noted how much heavier he was now as he hugged you back.

You celebrated with him happily for a good few minutes before you actually remembered Electabuzz and captured it, its pokeball blipping away to the Oak Ranch moments later.