Inside Shimmer Hill

Shahinne is slightly Intimidated by the Metagross's ugly looks, implacable marching and PMD-Skill, but as the Pokémon comes closer a skree is heard across the cavern and he is engulfed in a Flamethrowaaaaahhh!

Shahinne: <...! Aunt Salamence♪>

The Starly turns around and goes pick Swalou up...

Mr. Swalot: <@_@>

...which will take her some effort because of the size difference and the Pokémon being now limp.

Meanwhile, Metagross turns to Salamence, his mood and body heated.

Metagross: <Damn more intruders? Teams are supposed to come in unprepared thanks to those magic portals!> -- to Salamence -- <Take this!>

The Metagross floats up a short distance, barely holding up, then casts four energy orbs around himself, granting them Fire-type then fires his Hidden Power at Salamence.

Golden Forests

Maekrite -shakes head: <It's OK… I'll just have to drink something afterwards.>

One of the Espeon squees.

Local Espeon♀: <Awww, look at that they're so shippable. Just like the couple in the myth!>

Local Ursaring♀ -Hammer Arms the Espeon: <Can you can it? You shipped me with a Blitzle last time!> -- growls.

Inside Shimmer Hill

Metagross: <ugh @_@>

Arcanine used Roar! The shockwave from the roar pushes Roc and Shahinne away! Salamence is not pushed away because her slender shape and cotton wings offer a better resistance to subsonic waves.

Salamence: <Wait! I'm smacking you next!> -- leaves her perch.

Meanwhile Arcanine has taken his chance to turn tail and reach the center of the room, where he picks Shahinne's badge up; the Starly stands up and puffs her chest feathers.

Shahinne: <That's mine!>

Shahinne takes off and goes pick Swalot up, then flies after the Arcanine, as does Salamence; however the dog Pokémon already has some terrain and home advantage as he Flame Wheels his way up the wall towards an opening. Salamence notices Shahinne has trouble carrying their charge, and points it out.

Salamence: <Lil'bird, that a friend?>

Shahinne nods.

Salamence: <Give it to me, here he'll be well protected! ^_^>

…And Salamence picks up the Swalot to store him in Fluffspace.

The two birds chase Salamence into the opening. Roc meanwhile gets up and shakes his head, a bit annoyed at being taken by surprise. He fans his wings and prepares to take off… but then notices he can not move his talons. He looks down to see a feeble attempt to hold him with a Grass Knot.

Metagross: <I said... I'm not... done... yet~>

Roc: <You are already lost.>

Roc simply swings his legs and breaks free from the attack; however he notices this has just been a distraction as when he tries to straighten himself, he finds the world around him becoming bluer and blurrier… and his own body becoming much heavier and weaker! Roc turns his head to see a large blue ball of pulsating psychic energy above the Metagross.

The Metagross, using the few energy he still has available, levitates itself slowly towards Roc. The bird notices that the intensified gravity is causing some small spires and stalagmites around to crack, some pebbles from the walls are also falling around. He tries to step away, breathes with more difficulty as the Metagross now dominates his field of view.

Roc: <You could have… left it there, what little you… had left.>

Metagross -raises an arm: <Ugh, if I'm going down… I'm savoring the moment. Ca-can't let you get away and denounce us anyway…>

Roc watches the arm start cackling with electricity and manages to move aside right in time to avoid a Thunder Punch downswing; the attack lifts some small pebbles from the ground and leaving a crack. He turns back to the Metagross, the two Pokémon facing each other…

Roc: <You attack like this, you bring this cave down…>

Metagross: <Steel type… can… can handle it. Now, avoid this!>

With all his remaining strength and a buzz of fury, Metagross swings his other arm at Roc's body, in a powerful Frustration!Meteor Mash! The two Pokémon are engulfed by a yellow light as the shockwave covers them in dust and updrift, the entire room coming down around them from the gravity and the sheer shockwave.

Inside Shimmer Hill

Salamence is frantically fighting some Rhyhorn and Girafarig, one of the ground mons is smacked silly with a Dragon Claw while a Girafarig behind him is blasted with an Aerial Ace; after that the Altaria has to fly up and evade a Strength and an Ice Beam. She turns around to see some lil’stars Swift stars flying at her and dives with a nervous chirp, trying to evade the attacks, prompting a Primeape and the Espeon to follow. She calls for lil'bird, but can not see her in the fray.

Shahinne is some distance away hopping and flying away avoiding some attacks. She turns to face a Rhyhorn about to stomp on her, and responds by landing a Secret Power on the mon's head that, acquiring the traits of the cave, causes him to flinch. This gives her enough time to Quick Attack a Linoone that was about to leap at her then she flies up to evade a Primeape.

Wild Camerupt: <Blast them off the sky!> -- tries to Eruption Salamence.

Wild Mareep: <Get them, baaa! With the Thundershocks, baaa!>

Wild Castform -Psychs Up Salamence, copying the Dragon Dance boost: <Take them one at a time, peoplemons!> -- Powder Snows Shahinne.

Shahinne: <Eeeeeee~> -- is knocked off course, manages to fly away.

Meanwhile in the previous room, the buzzing of a Metagross can be heard, the Pokémon struggling. With the effect of the Gravity, the dust subsides quite quickly, as does the remaining strength of the Pokémon when he looks up and sees that the Staraptor not only has blocked his powerful Meteor Mash with a wing, but also is standing upright and looking angrier than before, if that was even possible. Roc's wing is missing some feathers but is encased by what looks like a faint gel barrier.

Roc: <Now… you mistreated my daughter a lot. And wanted to nom her.>

Metagross -falls to the ground under the effect of the Gravity: <B-but how…>

Roc spreads his wings, fans them out without any problems and then just walks closer to the Metagross and steps on him, as easily as if he was just immune to gravity.

Roc: <I'm done with you. You are now my prisoner.>

Roc then steps back and whtihout any flair, swings a talon slashing the Metagross upwards, lifting him off the rocky ground.

The Metagross is flung upwards, with such strength that he is left rolling in midair a couple of seconds and at a fair altitude despite the Gravity. He then heavily lands on his back and a cracking sound is heard. Just a moment later the Metagross is definitively defeated, and the Gravity effect begins to subside.

Roc calmly ruffles his feather as he walks up at the Metagross again. After a quick sherlock scan that confirms the Pokémon is unconscious, he looks around. No one to the left... No one to the right...

Perhaps a minute, little celebration is on order…

Roc: <♪~> -- trills a happy note, like Shahinne does. -- <Oh, feels fun~>

Roc then picks up the fainted Metagross on his talons and takes off, effortlessly carrying him as he follows the direction Shahinne and Salamence took.

Roc: <Hang on…>

Golden Forests, Yesterday

(After this post and this post)

Guide Donphan -shrugs: <Well, fine, you can stay together.>

Nidorina: <And the kit? :3> -- hugs Silentran♂.

Silentran♂: <it's warm in here~>

Guide Donphan: <Hand it over, come on. Probably the Nidorino with the markings is his father!>

The Nidorina growls then puts Silentran♂ down. After flickering her whiskers a couple of times, she turns around and walks away.

Guide Donphan: <I guess we should go celebrate and sleep now. We can talk about the old wars later...>

And Toothless's group is taken along the others to a large clearing for celebration. Minus two, actually, because Xavier and Autura are busy talking about the connections and mapping of the tunnels in the old city of Golrod.

(After this post)

Salamence is flying around chirping Shahinne's name while looking for her. Oh and DISHING OUT DOOM in all directions via Ice Beams, Flamethrowers, and Dragon Pulses against the horde of Mareep, Rhyhorn and Primeapr. Roc, seeing that Salamence is dealing with most of the trouble, spends some time swiping some Girafarig and Linoone, then Metronomic Mook Massacres the Camerupt for information.

Roc: <Once again… where is she?>

Camerupt: <Ugh… I a-allready told you… efff yo-eeeeeeeeep!> -- is flung around again.

Roc crashes the Camerupt against the ground, then notices he has fallen unconscious. He then looks around and notices a couple of Arcanine countering Salamence's attacks and running around, plus a Rhydon and a Castform who is barely coming to his senses again.

Roc: <Oh… then I'll have to content myself with THEM...> -- flies ahead, letting out a shriek.

The Castform meanwhile manages to levitate himself and looks around.

Castform: <Ugh... eh.... what happened here!> -- looks around, noticing the chaos -- <Oh no! H-hang on guys! I'm almost there!>

Then the Castform is swept by Roc and sent spiraling to crash against a rock. He falls unconscious again while the raptor goes "parliament" with the Rhydon.

The Rhydon licks his paws then is hit by a very angry Dragon Pulse, being pushed a couple of steps back before trampling on a rock and falling. The Pokémon growls and grumbles, rubbing his body in pain, then glares at Roc and Salamence.

Roc: <You better stay down.> -- to Salamence -- <Don't harm him much, I want to rip him open to see if Shahinne is OK.>

After getting up, the Pokémon looks quite hurt and keeps his muzzle shut. He then digs his arms on the ground and lifts a couple of large boulders, Rock Blast'ing them at Roc and Salamence.

(After this post)

The Rhydon looks pretty intimidated and tries to think of how to escape, deciding that his best chance (yeah, right) is to try and drill into the nearest wall then collapse the cave if necessary.

Unfortunately for him, when he is decided with this course of action and turns towards Salamence to fire a distraction Hyper Beam, it's already past the ten seconds Roc gave him.

Rhydon puts hands together to start focusing energy…

Roc -shrieks, unfolds wings: <That's it… you're giving my chick back!>

…And suddenly the Rhydon's expression changes from defiance to pain as a rhythmical, faint, but growing sounds of knocking can be heard coming from inside the Rhydon's head. Then the Rhydon starts shaking, though the sound doesn't stop, only becomes stronger.

Rhydon: <AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~> -- flails.

The poor Pokémon starts flailing around and thrashing out of control, takes a hand to his cheek and points at his muzzle, his expression changing from pain to pain + fear as he starts crying and yelling. After running around for a moment, still in incomprehensible pain, he starts punching his own face.

Rhydon: <Get it out please get it out! GET IT OOOOOOOOOOOOUT!>

Before Salamence's and Roc's eyes the Pokémon is reduced to a pile of crying, sobbing, convulsing Rhydon hide that once and again pounds his head against the ground and the nearby rocks while only one sound (and one critically dangerous reverberation) dominates his head...

peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck  peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck peck

After a moment of shaking her head and scratching the Rhydon tooth with her talons, a very cute but annoyed Shahinne gets help in the form of Roc very carefully picking her up, then plucking the tooth off her beak. Then he puts her down on the ground where she is picked up by Salamence again, the Altaria tries to comb / preen the Starly's feathers, frowning at all the saliva.

Shahinne ._. : <…Dad?>

Roc picks up the tooth and observes it for a moment, turns to his daughter.

Shahinne: <We were busy with mission… no party.>

The Staraptor blinks and shakes his crest in a "make nothing of it" motion. Shahinne however quickly stands up and goes hug her father's chest. Roc looks down a bit surprised.

Shahinne: <You can keep tooth! I got it myself~ ^.^ Happy father's day...> -- sinks in Roc's plumage.

Roc -looks at the tooth for a moment: <Thanks…>

Salamence looks at the father and daughter enjoying nuzzles then chirps loudly.

Salamence: <Well lil'bird is safe and everything around is destroyed so everything is fine. That reminds me!>

Salamence starts looking for something in her plumage. After a moment of pecking around, she somehow produces a very confused Mr. Swalot from it.

Mr. Swalot -sweatdrops, looks around: <W-wha-? Er… Where am I? What happened with the giant fluffy trails? And the tower? :3> -- notices Shahinne and the beaten mons around -- <Oh! Those were the bandits!>

Roc and Shahinne go hug Mr. Swalot and explain, very concisely, that the Metagross is dealt with (Roc picks up the beaten Metagross and flings him around for show, earning a 8.8 from Salamence). Then the group looks at all the beaten mons around, including the Arcanine from before, and Shahinne picks up her Badge.

Shahinne: <We won the mission!> -- trills a happy note.

Roc: <Good, good.> -- affectionately pecks Shahinne -- <We can return then.>

Salamence -claps with her cotton wings: <Oh, very good! Not 12 posts too late!> -- smiles.

Shahinne and Mr. Swalot turn to Salamence with blank stares then blink a couple of times; for an answer, Salamence simply chirps again. Mr. Swalot blinks again.

Roc -remembers something: <Oh, Mr. Swalot, mind if we take the door as an extra fee?> -- points to the cave -- <Hopefully this won't happen again to anymon.>

Mr. Swalot: <Er, I'd have to ask my wife but after all this,> -- looks at the cave of beaten mons around -- <I'd say you can take an entire wall of the house if you want. :3>

Roc -nods, looks serious: <The door will do.>

After Roc and Salamence go pick up some prisoners (most importantly the Salamence and the Arcanine) and Salamence goes on a quick inspection of the cave after which she returns with a big golden chest holding the Dungeon's Skull Key [Ꝑ65000], the group of three plus a guest gather near the opening of that room, then Shahinne uses the Badge to teleport the group back to Treasure Town.

Feeding Grounds

(In response to this post)

Silentran♂: <It means they believe they are better than everymon else for very specific reasons, Riana.> -- pats her (carefully).

Meanwhile Cleo gets quite an assortment of weird looks and blank stares from some mons around. One of them Spit Takes, and a random Miltank feeding some mons snorts.

Random Miltank: <Hey! My species takes offense to that!>

Random Buizel -shrugs: <Well, the fish is not that far off, you know… Those so-called ancients are pricks of level 8 in a scale of 1 to Dragon.>

Random Druddigon in the group: <Hey! We take offense to that!> -- pounds in a table.

Quickly an argument is started between various mons noming in different tables and shortly after tension begins to build in the air as from one table to another various groups of mons start calling each other names.

However, all is put to a sudden stop by a not very delicate warning from a Loudred noming near the higher end of the clearing.

Important Loudred: <HEY!!! NOMS ARE NOT FREE HERE PEOPLEMONS! SHUT UP AND ENJOY, OR THERE'S THE DOOR!>

Silentran♂: <~aaaaaaaaaah!> -- yells in pain from the high volume of Loudred's voice.

Guide Donphan: <…Well, that settles it in three, two, one.>

And suddenly all of the mons around become silent again and continue with their meals.

Fey -to Cleo: <Summoners or something I don't think so, but shadowy, Empire and sort they are,> -- nods -- <they established themselves in the ancient land of Firuzland Freesbielane long ago.>

Guide Donphan: <They used to attack these lands, and are ruled by an Archeops who thinks the fact of being a prehistoric mon makes him special… please, they are not more uncommon than any Salamence at this point.> -- points to a table -- <I'll tell you some things about them over dinnertime.>

Silentran♂: <@_@> -- has fainted from the high volume.

(After this post)

Fey: <Awwww...> -- pats Cleo -- <Whatever you say~ :4>

Guide Donphan -pokes Fey: <Hey… about time.>

Fey: <Oh? Yes then, this will be good...>

Fey sits with the group, noms a random pear (not a dis pear) and starts talking about the Empire to the west.

«They've existed for very long… not as long as the draconic revolt though. Some say that after the humans were gone, the prehistoric mons they revived with their devices were left to hunt and breed unrivaled by any but the strongest mons around.» -- points in the general direction of Olivine -- «They established themselves in a wild land called Freesbielane that they took from some early colonizers. And in the depths of a large forest behind some forever-clouded mountains they build their "capital"…»

Some other mons are also paying attention to the tale.

«In the beginning they warred wars against anymon who was unlucky enough to live close to their kingdom, and enslaved countless. They moved many powerful Pokémon into the old settlements and the island to the west, hoping to dominate. But for some reason, after some unknown point in time every attempt they made to cross into these lands they were met with disaster…»