SLAKING!!!

He’s huge. You pet Runt, trying to soothe her as well as your own anxiety over the giant pokemon. He’s laid out on his side picking through the collected junk brought back by the army of Patrat. He pops a couple loose berries into his mouth, as he picks up one of your bras inspecting it closely. He tries it over his eyes like a blindfold before discovering its stretchiness, you watch as he pulls it over and over before it finally rips apart.

“So how are we going to get the stuff back?” John whispers from next to you. That’s a good question. Your stuff is scattered all around the area, so you can’t really just make a dash for it.

“I’m afraid we might have to fight him,” you gulp, looking over at Runt and Nincada. Runt gives you a look telling you that she’s ready to fight. “You ready?” you ask John.

He takes a deep breath, “You ready, little buddy?” Nincada snickers, and John gives you a thumbs up.

“Alright let’s go,” you say standing upright. “Runt, get in close and make an opening for Nincada to follow up.” Runt barks before charging headlong into the Patrat nest. A couple Watchog let out a cry alerting the group to the presence of the charging Mightyena. Slaking turns his attention away from the can of soda in his hands, he cocks his arm back flinging the can at Runt.

A clod of mud connects with the can midair protecting Runt from the blow. John commands Nincada to scratch at the surrounding Patrat. The imposing wild pokemon takes a while to react to us any further. Giving Runt the chance to sink her jaw into Slaking’s arm. Slaking looked down at her clinging to its arm, he raised his fist above his head. “Runt get out of there,” you warn as the powerful pokemon swung. Runt let go, trying to jump out of Slaking’s range but fell short getting knocked back by the punch.

That looks bad, Runt is obviously hurt but you can’t back down now. You can see Nincada brawling with Patrat after Patrat. The smaller pokemon appear to be apprehensive about facing off against the dark type that is willing to fight their boss. Which is definitely in your favor since it allows Runt to focus on the big bad Slaking. “Runt it’s slow, just make small attacks and get away,” you shout to your hurt partner. Runt lets out a mighty howl, before charging back into the fray. “You doing okay?” you ask John.

“Nincada has the little guys covered, if Runt can handle the big guy.”

Got it. You give Runt commands having her bite and release, dodging the blows and flung items from the lazy boss. It seems to be working, until you see a bright light charging in Slaking’s mouth. Is that hyper beam?!? “Run!” you shout out to your pokemon. You realize too late that with Runt out of the way the hyper beam is aimed straight at you.

You close your eyes feeling something hit you. You cover your ears at the thunderous sound of an explosion. Opening your eyes you see John laying on top of you, he had tackled you out of the way of the attack. Looking around you see the splintered tree trunk standing next to a fell tree. “We’ve got to get out of here,” he says guiding you back to your feet.

You look past John, you can see the damage Runt’s done to the massive obstacle. “But we’re so close,” you lament wanting to give Runt a chance to finish the job. Runt howls again obviously confident in her abilities. “We’ve got this,” you tell John before shouting to Runt, “Let’s finish this!”

Runt charges at Slaking, but your stomach sinks when you see him ready to fire another beam. You shout for her to dodge but it’s too late, she doesn’t have enough time to change course. You shield your eyes at the blinding light. With the blast over, you uncover your eyes to see Runt still standing. How?

Looking over to Slaking, you see a Shedinja between the two battling pokemon. “Nincada evolved!” John shouts pumping his fist in the air. You look over seeing Ninjask diving at the remaining Patrat. Slaking swings wildly at the new pokemon. “His wonder guard makes him immune to most attacks,” John explains as Slaking’s fists seem to bounce off the unfazed pokemon.

Runt takes the opportunity to bite the distracted enemy. Slaking charges another hyper beam aiming at Runt, but luckily Shedinja dives in front of the blast again. You see a blur, as Ninjask turns on the Slaking slicing at the primary target. You look around and see that the rest of the Patrat have been dealt with. With the three pokemon working together, they make quick work of the already battered foe.

You instinctively reach for a pokeball, but your bag is empty. You quickly scan the ground. A pokeball! You run over to it and quickly toss it at the Slaking. The defeated pokemon is pulled into the ball. You watch as the ball shakes, holding your breath for that final ding.

You finally exhale as the ball settles in place. “That should stop him from being any more of a nuisance. He’s probably too strong to listen to me yet, though,” you say placing his ball in your bag.

You and John sort out the pile of stuff. Taking your stuff back, while sorting out what is trash or not. You have a large collection of keys and other items that you’ll take back to Victor. Let him deal with getting the belongings back to their rightful owners, who are likely his neighbors. You each take a good share of the scavenged berries. The final pile is a loose collection of casino tokens.

Victor is thankful to have his keys back, even if he has to try a few dozen similar keys to figure out which is his. He agrees to return the lost items, and offers the lost casino tokens as payment for helping the locals with their pest problem. And with your good deed done, you and John set off towards Celadon City.