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[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD DREEPY APPEARED!

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[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD ONIX APPEARED!

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"Meriru-, I mean, Marill!" 
Shouted Zac, as he lept after the rolling blue ball. Unfortunately, Marill's marui nature made it far more rollodynamic than Zac could hope to match, even with his powerful legs. What am I gonna do? Zac thought, heart and legs pounding. If I lose this little bugger in the trees she's gonna be distraught! He forced himself harder, faster, better, but it was't enough. The Marill lengthened the gap between them, and then noticed something terrifying: Marill was heading for a boulder. "Slow down you little speed demon!" Zac gasped, trying and failing to close the distance.

Marill barelled onwards, her trajectory straight and true as she shot towards a massive bounder. And then Zac heard the telltale grin of rock-on-rock. "Of all the bloody times to not have a camera." He wheezed, finally slowing as he watched the beach ball pokemon harden and burst straight through the car sized boulder with a devestating Rollout, spraying the hillside in scree and throwing up a considerable dust trail behind it. 

"Unconscious, protective move usage." Zac said, smiling despite the pain tearing up his side. "Would have loved to get a shot of that."

Meanwhile, the blue menace crashed through another, smaller rock, reducing it to dust. "On the plus side, i'm no longer worried about losing track of it."

But before Marill could crash its way to the bottom of the hill and into the treeline, some of the boulders in its way started to move. "Oh you've got to be bloody joking." Zac said, as the Onix raised its head and roared at the fast approaching Marill.  

Visions of Marill flashed before Michi’s eyes. The time she’d seen it sitting roundly at the resort hotel, mixed in with the beach balls. The time she’d picked it up and put it inside her beach bag. The time she’d walked all the way home carrying it and put it on her bed until the next morning when she’d caught it in a Pokeball. The time she’d shown it to all her friends at yoga class and they’d all applauded. All these beautiful memories, slipping away, as she watched the spherical mouse Pokemon slowly gaining speed down the hill. “Goodbye,” she whispered, wind stirring her hair. “Meriru...”

Fortunately, Zac was on the case. Relieved that the red-haired man was in hot pursuit to fetch back her roundest and therefore most precious Pokemon, Michi sat down on the side of the stream next to Matchan to wait. The Machamp sat down cautiously next to her, dangling his feet in the water. They both looked up when there was a mild crash and explosion downstream. Dust seemed to be rising from something down the slope. <Matchan matchan...>

“That’s nice,” Michi said, patting him.

Meanwhile, Meriru was absolutely asleep. Its thick fat naturally insulated it against the rough-and-tumble nature of the descent down the slope, and it slammed through the first boulder with not hardness, but the force of its buoyant body absorbing an impact and reflecting it right back. The Onix was no exception. Ordinarily, such creatures rested underground, but the new stream flowing from the ruined Meteor Falls had disturbed the usual groundwater, and today the rock snake was snoozing outside in the sun.

Of course, one could not simply smash through a living, breathing Pokemon the way you could an inanimate boulder. So when a second-stage Rollout hit the central stone of the serpent’s body, a tangible ripple passed through the Marrill’s fat, traveling from the point of impact— and then reversing.

An explosion of force rocked the two Pokemon, and both were shuttered backwards against the strike. The Onix roared in pain and surprise as small chips of its body burst from its wound, but its weight was in its favor. Faced with an immovable object, Meriru ricocheted from the Onix’s body like a rubber ball and went flying back into the air, sailing back up the hill towards Michi.  

Michi had been playing with a tiny little dragon on the bank of the stream, letting it pounce on a little stick she was holding, when the high-pitched whistling of an incoming projectile reached Machamp’s ears. <Maa!> he said in alarm, standing up. Michi looked up, the floating lizard taking advantage of the situation to zip forward and grab the stick in its toothless jaws. “What’s that, Matchan? I should take a picture of Doreepi? Good idea, where is my phone-“

Matchan was already running down the riverbank like a quarterback trying to catch an incoming pass, lunch supplies still clutched in his lower arms. He leapt and caught Marill as it thundered back down, managing to roll and absorb most of the shock like a seismic toss. He held the Marill up, tired but victorious.

“Say chee-zu!” Michi said brightly, taking a picture of Dreepy with the stick.

As Marill disappeared into the sky, Zac slowed his run to a gentle trot. "Well...huh..I guess...I should head back up."

The little blue dot soared, the force of its collission with Onix sending it arcing perfectly towards the riverbank. "Uh...HEADS UP DEVIN!" Zac shouted. I'm sure he'll be fine. Matchan is up there anyway. He shook his head with a disbelieving smile. That pokemon sure has its work cut out for him.

Zac turned back to the wounded Onix, who was dazed, curled into a ball around its central, cracked sphere. He approached cautiously, and as he did the Onix unwound, the car-sized, crested head following Zac's approach. There was something dangerous in the way it watched him. Something terrified yet terrifying. The wild intensity of an unpredictable, injured beast. 

Zac's body shuddered as a deep rumble emanated from the pokemon. The ground shook underfoot, and the air around him rippled, like he was standing next to the speaker at the rock concert. 

"Easy big fella. I can help you." Zac said, approaching low and slow, hands out, non-threatening. He reached into his back pocket, where he kept his emergency pokeball. "I'm going to catch you okay?" 
Zac's world shook at the Onix unwound fully. The rock snock reared up, boulders grinding. It let out a roar of pain, and rock chips fell like stony hail. The Onix sagged.  
One chance. Zac thought, hurling his only pokeball at the Onix, before he ran for cover, hoping that it was weakened enough that the capture would work. If it doesn't, then I hope I can outrun it.

---

A good fifteen minutes later Zac reached the top of the hill. Exhausted, yet satisfied. He held out the full pokeball to Devin, who was sitting next to Michi, feet dangling in the water. "Got 'im." Zac said to the pair, taking deep breaths. "Full sized Onix. Biggest i've seen. Needs a poke center. You guys alright? Get the Marill?"

"Oh yeah." Devin said happily. "And lots of pictures." 

[attr="class","wildbgsaf"]

[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD MIMIKYU APPEARED!

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[attr="class","wildtitle"]A WILD RELICANTH APPEARED!

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As the now expanded group headed towards Rustboro City, Michi asked Zac a deceptively simple question.

"Zac? What is good way to catch... dog Pokemon?"

His brain went into overdrive, and he actually had to stop for a moment to think about it. "Wow. Well, that's a big question. You see, roughly speaking there are three groups of dog pokemon.
You have your true canids, which are then often split into the subgroups of bipeds, like Snubull, and quadripeds, like Furfrou. These are what I think of when someone talks about dog pokemon."

"Then you have your mislabelled canids." Zac continued, getting more animated. "Riolu, Fennekin, Eevee. I know it sounds wild but people without enough knowledge of biology often mislabel those pokemon as dogs, when really they are more like foxes, or cats, or raccoons or something."

"The last group are the legendaries, and I only separate them out because they play by their own rules. If you're wanting to get your hands on Entei or something then that's a whole other ball game."
"You're not after Entei, are you?" Asked Zac with unbridled excitement. 

"Because if you are I have a ton of great tips to share." Zac started reaching into his bag to retrieve his notebook, but look on Devin's face told him not to open that can of worms right now. 

"Uhh...do you have a picture?" Zac asked, gesturing at Michi's phone. "Maybe I can give you something more specific."

As Michi reached into her bag and retrieved her jangling, becharmed phone, Zac saw movement behind her. 

A 'Pikachu' was emerging from behind a nearby tree, only it wasn't a bright, chubby cheeked mouse. Instead it's skin was palid, hanging like a bedsheet draped over a coat rack, with the facial features poorly scratched onto the sheet in dirt and blood.
The malformed beast shambled towards Michi, dragging its broken wooden 'tail' behind it. "Sweet Shaymin's Petals." Zac breathed in horror.
Thankfully, Michi was absorbed in her phone, swiping through dozens of soft-filtered pictures in search of her Dream Dog. 

"Oi Dev, help Michi find that photo, I have to...ummm..get some berries or something." He said, thinking on his feet. 

With Michiko busy texting her daughter, Zac circled around past Devin, grabbing his second to last pokeball. Need to grab more back in the city. He thought, before sneaking over to the Mimikyu. "Can't have you getting close to Michi." Zac said softly, kneeling down a safe distance away from the monster. "Tell ya what. You come quietly and i'll find you a good home and some...souls to eat. Sound good?"

The creature shambled towards his faster, which Zac interpreted as a yes, and he rolled the ball at it. The horrid visage disappeared inside and was caught with nary a wiggle.

Relieved, Zac returned, laughing as he saw Michiko bring up another picture of Furfrou wearing a funny hat. "Oh those little dogs are definitely true canids, and cute little devils too!"
He looked around at the wooded area. It had provided them with a bounty of beautiful, monstrous catches, but if Michi was after something cute then maybe it was time for a change of scenery.

"Tell you what Michi. In the city i'll grab some dog-catching supplies and after this we can go hunting for a fur baby for you. How's that sound?"