The central chamber felt like a pressure cooker of magnetic static and raw aggression. We were vastly outnumbered, and the Steelix—a massive, segmented iron serpent—towered over everything like a living mountain.
"Torchic! Slugma! Hold the rear!" I shouted. "Keep those Magnetons and Arons at the entrance! Don't let them surround us!"
Torchic let out a defiant chirp, and together with the Slugma, they unleashed a wall of fire that created a burning barrier between us and the smaller guards.
I looked at the Steelix and the Skarmory. On this hard, rocky floor, the Steelix's sheer weight and power would crush any ground-bound Pokémon in seconds.
"Wingull, come out!" I released my Water-type into the humid air. "Without flight, we can't survive this. We need to stay mobile!"
Clara, her eyes darting between the silver giants, didn't hesitate. "Treecko, you too! Use the walls! Use the height!"
The battle moved at a terrifying pace. The Steelix let out a grinding roar and dove into the bedrock as if it were water, its massive tail disappearing beneath the floor. Simultaneously, the Skarmory above tucked its wings, its body glowing with the blue-white aura of a Brave Bird.
"It's a pincer attack!" Clara screamed.
I watched the tremors in the ground. I was about to order Wingull to dive and hide behind a pillar, but I caught the glint of Skarmory's metallic eyes. They're timing the impacts.
"Wingull! Fly higher! To the ceiling!" I commanded.
"What? It'll be a sitting duck for Skarmory!" Clara cried.
"Trust me! Just get Treecko up!"
Wingull strained its wings, ascending rapidly toward the stalactites. The Steelix erupted from the ground exactly where Wingull had been a second before, its massive jaws snapping shut on empty air. Because Wingull was so high, it had the precious seconds needed to tilt its wings and spiral out of the way as the Steelix overextended its lunge.
However, the trap wasn't for me alone. The Skarmory's Brave Bird didn't follow Wingull. It adjusted mid-air, hurtling toward Treecko, who had just leaped into the air to avoid the Steelix's emerging head.
CRASH!
Treecko was hit mid-jump. The impact was brutal. The small Grass-type was slammed into the cavern wall, leaving a spiderweb of cracks in the stone.
"Treecko!" Clara rushed forward, her face pale. She fumbled for its Poké Ball. "That's enough! Come back, you're hurt too bad!"
The red recall beam shot out from Clara's hand, but Treecko did something I had never seen a Pokémon do in the heat of battle. It slapped the beam away with its tail, its eyes fixed on the Skarmory with a burning, unyielding glare.
Suddenly, the dim cavern was flooded with a brilliant, blinding white light.
"It's... it's evolving!" I shielded my eyes.
The light didn't just glow; it surged. Treecko's small silhouette began to stretch and sharpen. Its limbs grew longer and more muscular, and the single leaf on its head lengthened into a sleek, swept-back crest.
The white light of evolution faded. Clara was breathless, her hand trembling as she fumbled for her Pokédex. She needed to understand what her partner had become before the Skarmory could dive again.
Grovyle. The Wood Gecko Pokémon. Its muscles are strongly developed. It can fly from branch to branch as if it were a bird. The leaves growing out of its body are as sharp as swords.
"Grovyle..." Clara whispered, her eyes widening. "You've changed so much."
The Skarmory, undeterred by the transformation, screeched and banked for another pass. But Grovyle was no longer the small target it once was. With a burst of speed that left an afterimage, Grovyle blurred across the cavern floor. Its wrist-leaves began to glow with a brilliant, emerald energy, lengthening and sharpening into lethal edges.
"That's Leaf Blade!" I shouted.
"Grovyle, go!" Clara commanded.
Grovyle leaped, spinning in mid-air. The Leaf Blade slashed through the air with a whistle, striking the Skarmory directly across its steel breastplate. The impact was massive; the armored bird was sent reeling, its flight path shattered. It tumbled through the air and slammed hard into the side of the massive Steelix, momentarily stunning both of them.
"Now! This is the timing!" I yelled.
I turned to the Flygon, who was hovering near me, sensing the window of opportunity. "Flygon, take us to the center! We have to destroy that stone!"
I leaped onto Flygon's back, releasing Mawile, Sableye, and Lotad in a flash of light.
"Lotad, Wingull! Keep that Steelix busy! Water Gun at its joints!"
The two Water-types unleashed twin streams of high-pressure water. The Steelix, already dazed by the Skarmory's collision, roared as the water hit its heated metallic hide, causing steam to hiss and obscure its vision.
Flygon dove toward the shining point in the center of the room. Sableye and Mawile clung to its back, ready to strike. But the Skarmory wasn't finished. Despite its damaged wing, it lunged toward us, determined to protect the source of its madness.
"Sableye, Reflect! Now!"
Sableye cackled, holding its hands out as a shimmering, translucent wall of psychic energy materialized, absorbing the Skarmory's desperate Peck. Over the edge of the shield, I caught Clara's eye. I didn't need words—my gaze told her we needed a distraction from the rear.
She understood instantly. "Grovyle! Use the opposite wall! Get behind them!"
The Steelix, enraged by the water stinging its eyes, vanished into the ground once more. The floor began to buckle and groan.
"Clara! Watch the ground!" I warned. "Grovyle, don't land!"
Grovyle tracked the vibrations through the soles of its feet. When the ground beneath it began to bulge, Clara screamed the command: "Jump!"
Grovyle launched itself ten meters into the air just as the Steelix's massive head erupted from the stone like a volcano. For a heartbeat, the two were eye-to-eye in mid-air. Grovyle's wrist-leaves were already glowing, fully charged with the power of the forest.
With a flick of its tail, Grovyle pivoted in the air, landing on the Steelix's snout for a fraction of a second before flipping behind its head. It delivered a crushing Leaf Blade to the softest part of the iron serpent's neck.
At that exact moment, Flygon reached the center.
"Mawile, Iron Head! Sableye, Shadow Sneak! Destroy it!"
The two Pokémon leaped from Flygon's back. Mawile's massive jaws slammed down on the glowing stone while Sableye's shadowy claws tore through its core.
C-R-A-C-K.
The shining point shattered into a thousand dull fragments. The oppressive magnetic hum vanished instantly, replaced by a profound, heavy silence.
As the stone broke, the unnatural energy left the cavern. The Skarmory fell from the air like a stone, and the Steelix collapsed, its massive body sliding back into the hole it had dug. Both Pokémon had lost their consciousness, the exhaustion of the magnetic frenzy finally taking its toll.
Grovyle landed softly on its feet, the emerald glow of its leaves fading as they returned to their normal, supple state. It looked back at us, a small, handsome smile playing on its face, proud of its new form.
"We did it," Clara breathed, rushing to Grovyle and throwing her arms around its neck. "We actually did it."
The Slugma and the Magnetons at the entrance had stopped fighting. Without the influence of the stone, the guards looked confused, their aggression drained away. The desert's invisible plague was finally over.