Pokemon: Mega Tactics - Chapter 6.2

When you returned to where you left Serena, Charmeleon and Gible walking by your sides, while Ralts continued to ride your shoulder, you were surprised.

Not by the fact that Serena had changed out of her soiled clothes, yet was wearing a set that looked exactly the same, no it was just good sense to have multiple versions of the clothes you liked. What was surprising was that she was sitting on a rocky outcrop, a big smile on her face, with all her pokemon surrounding her.

All of them.

All of them including, a certain Sandshrew. A certain Sandshrew that sprang into motion the moment you came into view, flipping around to face you, arms up in what looked like a sloppy boxer's stance.

"Sand!" it hissed...threateningly...at you?

Gible just rolled his eyes, while Charmeleon snorted a small plume of fire from his nostrils in amusement.

"Come here you!" Serena stood up and reached down, picking the little ground type up and hugging it to her soft bosom, "Sorry..since I let him out and he realised what happened, he's been fussing over me a lot and I think he's a little protective of me now."

"Saaaaand." Sandshrew drawled, pointing two little fingers at its eyes, then you.

You felt yourself begin to grin widely, "Well, looks like you've got yourself a real keeper there." you noted.

"He's a big tough sweetie pie." Serena agreed with a nod, grinning herself. Pressing a small kiss to the top of Sandshrew's head and getting a little flushed face from it.

It was good to see a smile back on her face now. And that Sandshrew was a tough little thing. Not on the level of your pokemon, but it had defeated Budew and done quite a bit of damage to Fenniken before the little fire type had brought it down. It would be pretty strong in the future and a good pokemon to protect Serena. Honestly, if it wasn't for the little bit of training you'd given Serena and her pokemon, to help her get a feel of how to do it in the first place over the week, then there was probably a good chance Sandshrew would have defeated her previously entire team of three.

You blinked as a thought occurred to you and you pulled out your Pokegear, "Hey Sandshrew," you said, drawing its attention as you turned it on and went to the message you got from Mr. Lysandre, bringing up the photo of the mountain cave, "Do you know where this is?" you asked, showing it to the ground type.

Sandshrew eyed the photo before looked up at Serena, "It's alright if you don't, but if you do, can you tell us?" she asked her newest pokemon gently, "It's quite important that we do find it."

Sandshrew turned back to you at her words, "Sand." it nodded, and you grinned.

"Can you lead us there?" you asked.

"Sand Sandshrew." Sandshrew shrugged, before nodding again.

Excitement filled you. You were so close to getting your hands on a Garchompite you could practically taste it!

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Surprisingly it wasn't very far away from your current position. And with Sandshrew leading the way, it wasn't very long before you reached your destination, no more than a half hour at most.

You whistled as you took in the large sheer cliff face. It probably one of the biggest rock plateaus in the area, a good few hundred feet high, and near the top, you could just make out a cave opening.

The most problematic thing about it though, was that beyond the bits at the top right at the cave entrance, there really wasn't much footholds for you to climb up on.

"Err, that's really high up," Serena noted with a nervous swallow, "Don't tell me you're going to try and climb that?" she asked.

If you had to, you would. You had a few rock picks and rope in your bag. But, you had a better idea. Placing your bag down, you retrieved some rope from it and hammered a spike through it, knotting it nice and tightly.

Then, you grabbed a pokeball from your belt and released Pidgeotto. "Hey buddy, you think you can fly this up to that cave up there and wedge it in good and tight for me?" you asked.

"Pidgeot!" Pidgeotto gave you a firm nod and saluted you with his wing and grabbed the rope in his beak, before taking off into the air and flying up.

Just as he winged his way to the top, and his wings began glowing with the newest move he learned during the past week of training, Steel Wing, a massive multicoloured beam erupted from the cave opening and slammed into Pidgeotto.

You heard your bird pokemon shriek in pain over the roar of the beam, and when it died down a moment later, you saw Pidgeotto, bruised, beaten and feathers sizzling with smoke, but still in the air, both Steel Wing enhanced wings crossed in front of his body in a guarding position.

A real roar resounded from the cave, and then a split moment a blur shot out from the opening in a display of raw speed you could barely even track.

Pidgeotto gave a piercing cry and shot forward with Quick Attack, and a moment later, swung his Steel Wing enhanced wings out and clashed with a wall of blue scales that was just there in front of him, lashing out with a huge and familiar glowing green claw of energy. Dragon Claw.

You bit your lip as you took in the familiar features of the large, dark blue scaled pokemon, with a large fin on its back and finned tail. A Garchomp. Just what you were looking for.

And just as Lysandre said, around its neck, hanging from a piece of rope, was small shiny sphere.

The air shook from the clash of the two pokemons attacks, but a second later, Garchomp roared again and pushed harder and Pidgeotto was sent flying back. Before Pidgeotto got far, Garchomp followed and was upon him in seconds, raising a finned arm above its head which was suddenly glowing with barely constrained power and bringing it down hard.

"Aerial Ace!" you shouted.

Just before the attack made contact, white energy exploding out from around Pidgeotto's body, and he disappeared for a split moment, Garchomp struck only air, and Pidgeotto appeared behind it slamming his entire body glowing with flying type energy into Garchomp's back and slamming it into a rocky plateau hard enough to make it shake.

"Gaaaaaarchomp!" the Garchomp roared angrily and busted out of the rocky plateau.

"Protect!" you shouted, and just in time. Pidgeotto conjured a large spherical green barrier  around his body, just as Garchomp blitzed forward, both arm fins glowing white this time and slammed into the shield. The shield rippled, but held, only for Garchomp to pull back, and swing again, and again! Rapidly raining down blows on the shield until it began to crack and break.

Then, just as it buckled and was about to break apart, you saw that same multi-coloured light form within Garchomp's mouth! "Mirror Move!"

Pidgeotto's eyes flashed with silverlight, and the same multi-coloured light formed in his beak. As one, they both opened their respective orifices, and fired Dragon Pulse attack!

At such close distances, both attacks exploded in their faces and both pokemon fell from the air, hundreds of feet up, slamming hard into the ground, craters forming from where they landed.

Garchomp gave itself a shake, and it looked a bit bruised and scuffed up, but it pulled itself up after just a few moments. Pidgeotto, barely moved at all, he shook and struggled up on his wings, a fierce look in his eyes, before his body went limp and he collapsed unconscious.

Serena gasped behind you, "Pidgeotto lost!?" she sounded aghast, as if she couldn't believe it.

Well, as hard as it might be to believe for her, but you were nowhere near the top of the trainer circuit right now, and as strong as Pidgeotto was, that was a damn Garchomp. One of the vaunted and whispered about in awe pokemon species throughout the ages, belonging to a group of pokemon known as Pseudo-Legendaries, known for their insanely huge natural strength and power. There were very few pokemon that naturally grew strong enough without intense training to reach the level of a Pseudo-Legendary. They were called Pseudo-Legendary after all, because at their height, they had potential that could near compare to the legendary pokemon!

"Pidgeotto, return!" you said, bringing him back. You pressed the pokeball to your forehead, "Good job, you did amazing." you praised. The fact he'd managed to do such damage at all was an amazing feat in of itself. Not only the Aerial Ace, but managing to land a super effective Dragon Pulse and turn its own strength against it for a few moments with Mirror Move. Pidgeotto was a real trooper.

As the Garchomp turned to face you and Serena, a growl on its lips, your hand went to your belt, switching Pidgeotto's pokeball, with that of your first and by far strongest pokemon. This was a Garchomp after all, and with a possible mega stone too. You had to take this seriously!

"Gible, Dragon Claw!" you ordered as you released your trusted partner.

With a snarl, Gible burst forth from the pokeball, shooting forward the second he appeared, green energy claws exploding into existence around his stubby claws.

With a snarl of its own, Garchomp copied him and two pairs of glowing green energy claws clashed and rent into each other, slamming together hard enough to make a massive 'boom' sound shake the air and generate enough air force to push you back a few steps.

You heard Serena let loose an 'eep' sound and looked over your shoulder to see her struggling to hold her skirt down. A sight you'd normally love to burn into your memory, but you had to focus!

Gible and Garchomp pushed hard against one another, but you grinned when Gible slowly began gaining ground, and this time it was Garchomp's time for its eyes to widen as its arms buckled under Gible's strength.

Garchomp opened its maw, multi-coloured light forming into existence, but before it could fire the Dragon Pulse attack, Gible snarled and opened his mouth, firing a rapidly formed cyclone of draconic energy from his mouth that slammed the fully evolved dragon and ground type and carried it through the air, slamming it into a rock pillar.

Gible wasn't done though, rushing forward in rapid bounds, he leaped through the air, Dragon Claw still alight with both stubby claws sand slammed them into Garchomp. He hit so hard Garchomp was ploughed right through the rock pillar.

The pillar fell apart, raining massive chunks of debris down onto the earth, each huge piece slamming into the ground hard enough to shake it beneath your feet.

"Hone Claws!" you ordered, while Garchomp was down.

Gible landed on the ground and grunted. A moment later, a familiar black aura springing up to swirl around his form.

Garchomp burst to its feet, bleeding and bruised pretty badly just as he finished, and then its eyes began to glow crimson red. Followed by a crimson red glow surrounding its body.

'Oh shit!' your own eyes widened, 'It's using Outrage!' you realised. Outrage was one of the most powerful dragon type attacks. It enhanced all of the pokemons physical capabilities and added draconic energy to every attack from then on, making them stronger. So that Brick Break it used against Pidgeotto earlier, would be an attack of the fighting and dragon typing. It was massively powerful, but it came with a huge drawback. It was incredibly hard to control, and most pokemon went on berserk rampages when using it.

"Scale Shot, quick!" you commanded.

Gible obeyed, and his body began glowing green. A moment later, he threw his stubby hands out and from his body, erupted tens of dozens of small fang shaped energy blades that shot through the air and slammed stabbed into Garchomp, just as it exploded forward, so fast you didn't even see it move.

It appeared in front of Gible a moment later, swinging a glowing finned arm down at him. But Gible didn't even try to dodge, just kept firing more and more of the dragon type attack into the Garchomp's body.

It slammed its draconic energy enhanced Brick Break into Gible and sent him flying backwards, where he himself slammed into and through another rock pillar, destroying it just like the one before.

Garchomp roared crazily, body spasming from side to side. Dozens of glowing green energy fangs were piercing its body and blood ran freely.

Its red eyes turned to you and Serena, but before it could focus on you, there was an angry little snarl form above you, and you looked up to see Sandshrew opening his small arms wide and conjuring a mass of golden glowing energy stars that he thrust out and fired.

Garchomp barely twitched as they all slammed into its body, but it did draw its attention to Sandshrew.

It roared again and you saw its foot drawback, then it was exploding forward too fast for you to see again! Your hand went to your belt, reaching for Charmeleon's pokeball, at least Sandshrew would keep it busy for long enough for you to send another pokemon out.

But you were stopped in your tracks. The ground rumbled, and suddenly, in just a split moment, a massive dragon of blinding blue energy, gargantuan in size almost rent the very air apart and slammed into Garchomp.

It was ploughed into and carried through one rock pillar, then another, and another and finally stopped after slamming into and cratering halfway through a forth.

"That was Dragon Rush!" you gaped for a moment. And an incredibly powerful one at that.

You looked over to where it came from when you heard a grunt, and saw the yellow gleaming eyes of a large Gabite staggering out from the devastated rock pillar Garchomp had slammed Gible through with that Outrage enhanced Brick Break.

it-he stopped in front of you, and looked you in the eyes. You held his gaze. Before as both together, you began grinning together, "You evolved! That's amazing!" he opened his now much larger arms open and welcomed you as you threw your arms around him and hugged him tightly. "Guess you can't ride my shoulder anymore." you chuckled, drawing a snort from your new evolved Gabite. He was now almost as tall as you!

"Wow, Gible evolved?" you heard Serena say from behind you, "Let me check this out."

A second later, you heard the automated voice of the pokedex, "Gabite, the Cave Pokémon. Gabite goes wild for precious jewels, first digging them up and then stashing them in its nest."

You broke apart a moment later and Gabite gave you a nod, before jumping and gliding through the air towards the downed Garchomp. It hadn't moved at all since it got hit by Gabite's new Dragon Rush attack.

Reaching down to its neck, Gabite grabbed the sphere tied around its neck and snapped it off, before making his way back to you in a few jumps, closing the hundreds of feet of distance in moments.

When he reached you, the ground and dragon type grinned, showing off his massive razor sharp fangs and deposited the sphere in your hand.

Your eyes widened as you looked over it. A small purple sphere, the symbols within made up of various shades of reds and oranges. "This is it!" you gasped, "This is Garchompite!" you hollered excitedly. You knew exactly how it looked since you'd spent hours staring at the one your uncle had.

You turned to Serena and her eyes widened, a yelp of surprise leaving her as you grabbed her around the waist and lifted her up with a joyful laugh, "Garchompite Serena, can you believe it!" you laughed loudly.

Serena giggled, "I think I can," she replied, "Though since we met I've never seen you this excited."

"Of course I am! We've been training for five years straight, and Gible wouldn't evolve no matter who we fought or how hard we trained, but he evolved today! And not only that, we got Garchompite, so when he evolves again he can become Mega Garchomp!" you hurriedly told her, grin splitting your face.

"Alright! Alright, I get it! Now put me down!" she said, and when you did, she smiled softly at you and pat you gently on the head, she could do that thanks to the fact she was a full head taller than you, "Good job." she smiled at you brilliantly.

You felt your face flush a little bit as you stared at that pretty smile, and those gorgeous eyes.

You almost leaned forward, would have if a certain someone didn't cough at your feet. Breaking from your stupor, you looked down to see Sandshrew with his arms crossed and staring up at you. Now with your attention, he pointed over to the downed, badly beaten and unconscious Garchomp.

'..That's right, what should I do with it?' you wondered. You didn't really need a Garchomp. You had Gabite! And well, you couldn't let Serena capture it, Despite her potential and talent with pokemon, there was little chance she could control a pokemon like that, especially when it could easily decimate all four of her pokemon at once.

Well there was really only one thing for it, wasn't there? Sighing, you pulled out an empty pokeball and started making your way over to it.

"You're going to catch it?" Serena noted, walking beside you after picking up Sandshrew. She bit her lip, "Isn't it a bit unstable?"

"I thought of giving it to you, but no offense, you couldn't control a pokemon like this." you replied.

She snorted, "Of course I couldn't handle a pokemon like that!" she looked at you weirdly, "That thing beat up your Pidgeotto pretty handedly, that same Pidgeotto I watched just yesterday beat up a group of four Graveler with ease."

Your Pidgeotto was pretty great, you agreed with that. "Still, I can't just leave it here just because I don't really want it," you continued, "I specifically sought it out to take the mega stone it had, it would be pretty crummy of me to take it after beating it up and just leaving it there."

"Ah," Serena nodded, "Yeah, I understand. I'm just worried it's going to rampage again when you catch it."

You snorted, "Don't worry, it needed Outrage to enhance itself to get strong enough to do anything to Gabite as a Gible," you replied, gesturing to your first pokemon walking beside you, "And while I don't know about now, but my uncles Garchomp was Gible's most frequent sparring partner and mother for the last five years, and she kicked his ass in their last spar just a day before we started our journey, she won't have any problem keeping her under control."

Gabite's eyes flashed with annoyance, but he crossed his arms and nodded in total agreement. His mother trained alongside him and battled him constantly for the last five years. she was a tough old gal.

Serena sighed in relief, "Well that's good to know."

You reached the downed Garchomp a few moments later, and touched the empty pokeball to its unconscious form, sucking it inside. It was captured without issue, and the pokeball disappeared like Lairon and Steelix's earlier.

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And this sadly is where this one ends.