As expected, the natural inhabitants of the tunnel didn't exactly take kind to the intruders. A feral Cubone approached them, eventually seeing no option but to thrash about with it's bone club. Smashing down on Machamp's foot, he was otherwise just trying to show the wild pokemon they meant no harm. But now?

"Hit it, Randal." Swiftly delivering an ice punch in retaliation as much as obedience to it's trainer, the Cubone was quickly knocked aside and sent running. Derek felt bad, knowing where that skull helmet on it's head came from. Maybe now it would learn to play nice when it saw a trainer and their pokemon...

Seeing as they had bigger fish to fry, Derek motions for his pokemon to keep moving along with him. Which was perhaps a little inconsiderate to the Machamp, whose foot was in moderate discomfort thanks to the Cubone. Noticing this, Derek speaks up. "We'll get some ice on that later, unless you're telling me a little Cubone is all it takes to tap you out?" Randal liked to flex and act tough, so now was his chance to prove it by pulling through without complaint.

SKIPPED CUBONE

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"Oh, hey there little g-"

Before Derek can even finish greeting the wild Aron, it charges him with the intention of landing a headbutt on his shin.

While his pokemon could sustain such a blow, they knew Derek would be hard-pressed to walk out of here on his own two feet if it landed. As such, both the Zeraora and the Machamp launched a coordinated attack. Gheleon engaged in close combat while Randal employed a dynamic punch, both successfully landing something akin to a double lariat and sending the Aron flying away. Whether it was knocked unconscious or ran away after hitting a wall was unknown.

"Phew...thanks, both of you." With that obstacle out of the way, they were able to continue delving deeper in search of whatever it was Derek was hoping to find.

SKIPPED ARON

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The deeper the got, the more Derek realized he wasn't going to be finding any clues down here. At the very least he was able to ease his nerves, which had been driving him up a wall since that meeting.

Eventually covering all of the tunnel, he realized they were facing a dead end. Upon turning around, it appeared a Scizor had been staring them down. It seems they were in it's hunting grounds, which made them fair game.

The pokemon's advance begins with a night slash, which is met with a quick guard by Derek's Zeraora, sending it sliding along the gravel. Randal then steps up, using a plethora of rocks he found along the floor and walls to pelt the wild Scizor with his rock blast attack.

Apparently a seasoned fighter, their adversary uses it's bullet punch to break their munitions. The only reason it goes down is when Gheleon and Randal collapse on the pokemon during the time it took to break every rock thrown.

Gheleon is first to clear the distance, striking the Scizor towards Randal with it's close combat. Randal, easily landing the hit as the Scizor was rag-dolled towards him, sent the pokemon flying into the wall with a dynamic punch.

Let alone the power behind their attack, the shock of being struck and then slamming into the tunnel wall was enough to stun the pokemon. Dazed and confused, it struggled to fight back at this point, trying to double team the pokemon it was fighting.

But instead of that, it bashed it's head into a wall and hurt itself. Staggering to the ground, it appeared to have gone unconscious. "Well, that was...something." Derek hadn't seen a lot of that kind of thing, but out of respect for the pokemon that fought well, he wouldn't laugh at that last display.

"Well, we're done here. Let's get back to town, alright?" Nodding in agreement, Derek decided to hop on his Machamp's back, allowing his two pokemon to race for the exit.

END OF THREAD

SKIPPED SCIZOR

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