Dungeon 18 – Breaking The Armor

Leaving the market again, the Riolu and Zoroark now carried each a bag full of items. Today was the day they had agreed to arrest the mercenaries. Walking towards their apartment, they saw the ally who helped them during most of their stay: detective Apollo.

“What are you doing here?” Lance cringed, as he was not expecting to see the Arcanine there.

“I will help you take the crew down, what is better than a Fire type against a gang of Steel-type Pokémon?” Laughing lightly, he smiled at the boys.

“We’re already leaving, they must be on their way too… But look!” Opening the bag, Brian showed the the Arcanine items he had bought.

“Hm, are you going to use all this?” Apollo looked at the bag with a curious smile.

“After that beating we took, I wanted to make sure I could settle the score…”

“I understand… you have my full support, today I will take part in the action!” Apollo let out a little ember from his mouth and blushed.

“I see you will be useful for this expedition… finally, let’s go…” Lance put his backpack on his back, walking towards the exit of the city, being followed by the two companions.

On the road outside, the three mercenaries walked silently, checking the map to make sure they were on the right route. Atlas was the one that stayed ahead, paying attention to the surroundings. In the middle, Flint checked their supplies in his backpack. Finally, Napoleon walked with a wide smile on his face, he was enjoying this job.

“Today we free ourselves from it and we can move on with our lives,” the Aggron started the conversation, talking without looking back at the others.

“Someone here is very paranoid,” Flint couldn’t help but laugh.

“You scare me sometimes. Like, holy shit! This is where I’m glad we’re not enemies,” the penguin said apprehensively, alternatively looking at them.

When they arrived at the divide, they looked at the sign, indicating that they should go west. Turning to the left position, they continued on their way.

Far from them, right at the exit of the city, the trio consisting of Riolu, Zoroark, and Arcanine walked in silence. Already knowing the location of the dungeon, they didn’t even need the map.

“Can you believe I’ve never been to such a place? I’ve lived in the city all my life,” Apollo smiled at the brothers, trying to break the ice.

“We’ve been several times, because of the guild training. It was hard… but worth it,” Lance sighed. “So, Mr. Apollo, have you never wanted to become an explorer?”

“Well, I admit I tried to,” he laughed, tail swishing around. “But then I realized that being too far from home wasn’t something I’d like to do, so I became a cop.”

“Cool! We’re a long way from home… it was shorty’s idea here.” Zoroark pointed to Lance, who just shrugged and kept walking.

“What made you want that? Now I’m curious,” after Apollo said that, Lance stopped walking, staring at the Arcanine.

“I love my family, but I have some bad memories from when I was little… and I didn’t want to be in anyone’s shadow,” he started walking again.

“The last one to arrive is a rotten Exeggcute!” declared Brian, before starting to run, having already seen the sign.

“He… is very energetic,” Apollo blinked, trying to hold back the laugh as he started to run.

“There are two of him now…” Lance covered his face with his hands, before running after the other two.

Inside the cave, the mercenaries were already beginning to feel the heat of the place, except for Napoleon, who was walking like normal. When they saw some wild Pokémon, the penguin used his Liquidation move, knocking them out and allowing them to advance, entering a corridor.

On the other hand, the explorers and the detective had arrived inside the dungeon. Apollo, because of his typing, wasn’t Even bothered by the temperature, although his companions were sweating.

“So this place is like this… these caves change the organization when you leave, don’t they?”

“Yes, I always wanted to know how this happens, maybe someday,” taking the sweat off his face, the Zoroark kept walking.

Stopping in a wide, empty area, the criminals were obviously angry. They had already been in that cave for a long time and they found no sign of the boys. Atlas kicked a small stone while growling, sending it across the wall. His friends just watched him, without wanting to interrupt that demonstration of hate.

“I’m beginning to think that we’ve been fooled,” Flint spoke in a low voice to the penguin, who nodded in response.

“Unfortunately, you have indeed been deceived!”

The voice forced all three of them to turn around, seeing a Zoroark with a broad smile on his face, showing his tongue to them. At that moment they realized what had happened the night before.

Atlas was the first to notice how everything seemed… off. How that Garchomp just conveniently had a mission about the kids, how his friends didn’t question it, and that led them to this exact place.

Damn it. His blood boiled with rage, and his tail thumped on the ground, sending a few pebbles in the air. With a shiver all over him, Atlas snarled.

“You son of a bitch. I knew there was something off with that Garchomp, how could I be such an idiot?! I swear… I will kill you…” Atlas clenched his fists.

“I think it’s a shock that you guys have been getting along all this time…” Lance approached his brother, the Arcanine standing by his side.

“The police too? Wow, wow, you brought allies! How exciting!” Flint let out a loud laugh and put himself in a combat position.

“Oh, thank you for the compliment… but I don’t accept one that comes from a criminal!” Apollo’s body got involved in flames and he ran, crashing against the Bisharp, throwing him against the wall, at the same time increasing his speed.

“You think you’re so smart, cop?! Well, I’m still a water-type!” Napoleon growled, creating two water blades and launched them at the canine

However, Apollo was faster, and noticed the movement before it was thrown at him. Using his accelerated speed, Apollo effortlessly dodged all of them. He quickly backtracked, now standing right at the side of the siblings.

Lance charged energy in his right palm and dashed as fast as he could. He took aim at Atlas and prepared the attack, right as the Aggron roared.

“D-Damn it!” Lance stumbled back, but forced himself to stay up, launching a devastating wave of blue energy towards Atlas.

In order to protect his friend, Napoleon put himself in front of Atlas and extended both arms, generating an energy barrier that blocked the attack. Neither sides wanted to give up the fight. Grouping with the other two, Lance panting. His enemies were also gathered, Flint in particular having some noticable burns on his body.

“Brian…n now!” Riolu said to his brother, running towards him.

“You can count on me!” the Zoroark’s eyes shone in a red tone and a wave of energy covered the area, changing the scenery from cave to forest, but limited the illusion only to their enemies.

The mercenaries saw the field change and on impulse, they moved away from each other, seeing only the tall and broad-leaved trees, covering the roof of the place.

“Shit, his illusions are stronger now. Argh!” Flint screamed in pain, feeling a large amount of flames hitting his body, forcing him to fall to his knees. Taking an Oran Berry from his backpack, he swallowed it without even chewing properly, healing part of his injuries.

“It’s not over yet!”

Flint’s eyes widened as the illusion seemed to break momentarily, revealing brian with a huge smirk on his face.

“Here is the new move that I learned just for this!” Brian opened his mouth, releasing a wave of flames in Bisharp, which rolled to the side, dodging. Realizing this, Zoroark hid in the illusion.

“Tsc, they’re playing dirty.” Napoleon looked around, unable to see his allies, and filled his arms with water in case he needed to use Liquidation again.

“…Says the mercenary!” suddenly appearing in front of the penguin, Lance fired another gust of energy at Empoleon, causing him to stumble back, despite his efforts to hold off the attack with his fins, Napoleon was bleeding.

The Aggron, looking around, could only see the forest landscape. Irritated, he roared, when he heard the noise of a growl. In front of him was the Arcanine, with his body shining in a pinkish tone.

“Well, I’m not a big fan of fighting like this, but… I have to!” he darted, giving two kicks on the Aggron’s body.

In order not to be thrown, Atlas put his claws on the ground, holding himself with all his strength. Away from there, Brian kept trying to shoot flames at Bisharp, but for that he had to undo his invisibility, giving just enough time for the enemy to spot him and evadee. Until he reached a point where he was beginning to pant, the illusion of trees being undone.

The two rival groups were divided between them. Apollo was close to Atlas, while Brian was with Flint, and Lance, with Napoleon. Breathing deeply, Brian shot more embers.

However, Flint thought fast and jumped, throwing some seeds against the move, creating a huge explosion on the spot that threw everyone away from each other.

“Is everyone okay?!” Apollo looked at the boys, a little worried about them.

“I feel like an Onix fell on me,” the Zoroark stood up, putting his hand on his head, still dizzy from the impact.

“THere’s way more where that came from!” Laughing, the aquatic Pokémon threw more water-blade shots.

“I’ve had enough of that!” Lance panted and stood up, launching another energy wave at the water blades, forcing them to dissipate.

“We can still beat them…” Brian began to fill his body with red energy.

Lance closed his eyes and began to analyze the situation. Out of the three, he was the one better equipped to deal with Atlas, and another thought came on his mind. A slight smirk came up on his face

“I am the most capable to face Aggron, so…” Lance started to run, extending his arms backward as they got filled with energy. His eyes shone in a blue tone. “I’ll see you two later.”

Lance jumped while performing the shot, the boy was thrown with force towards the Aggron, who just opened his mouth without believing what was happening.

“Oh, shut up, kid! I don’t have time to deal with this!” from his hand, Atlas fired an electric beam at Riolu, which fell right in front of him.

“I’m not sure what you’re planning, Lance, but I’ll trust you on this!” Apollo nodded, charging towards the Bisharp with his whole body wrapped in a flame aura.

To fight back, Flint filled the blade of his right arm with psychic energy and released a cut in the air, hitting the Arcanine in the stomach and preventing his attack from continuing.

“You’re not the only one who can deal with that, Lance!” Brian copied his brother’s attack, shooting Empoleon, who blocked using the Protect barrier once again, focusing only on the enemy.

Raising the Riolu by the neck, Atlas let out a loud laugh. Finally, he was about to end the threat to his survival. Starting to squeeze the boy’s skull with force.

Lance didn’t flinch. His resolve to live showed on his face. “You know, you have a huge ego, Aggron. But… this ends now!”

Despite feeling pain, he took in his backpack an orb, touching the steel-type’s body with it, filling them both in white energy and they vanished.

“Hey, boy! What did you do?!” Apollo screamed, coughing up a little blood, and getting up with difficulty.

“He used a Warp Orb! He’s somewhere else in this–” distracted, Brian was hit by a white ray of light, dragging him across the floor.

“Hehe… that was a Flash Cannon, kid! Looks like your brother’s not here to help anymore!” Napoleon laughed, enjoying himself.

“Let’s finish them off soon… Atlas will deal with that Riolu.”

“I know Lance better than you do… if he says he’ll face that monster, then he will…” Brian staggered, eating an Oran Berry to heal his injuries, throwing another to Apollo.

“We are still standing and we can still fight,” panting, the Arcanine growled, preparing to attack once again. Filling his body with flames, he was slowly cauterizing the cut he had received.

Meanwhile, in another area of Dungeon Lance and Atlas fell to the ground by the effect of the Orb that Riolu had thrown. Rolling back quickly, Lance was exhausted but had no intention of giving up. He would win, whatever the cost. Looking back, the steel Pokémon saw that they were on the edge of a precipice, with a lava well at the bottom.

“You know you’re at a disadvantage now, don’t you, kid?! I’m more than enough to break all your bones…”

Hearing that, Lance started laughing very loudly, tears flowing from the boy’s eyes. Confused with what just happened, the Aggron gave a roar, throwing the Riolu away. After rising again, Lance gave a broad smile, as he had never done before. Atlas backed away, his heart beating faster.

“Nice words for someone who has four times weakness against my type. Finally… the conditions for my victory were met!”

“W-What are you talking about?! Have you lost your mind?!”

“I lured you away from others of my own free will, this is all… part of my plan!” Lance opened the backpack, he took the evolutionary item his brother had bought.

Finally, the moment had arrived. The ribbon was glowing, and Lance could sense the energy; it was enough to make his feelers twitch. Atlas realized what was about to happen and jumped, only to be blown back by another Force Palm, and watched in horror as the changes began.

The Riolu’s body was enveloped by a wide blue light and he began to grow. His ears lengthened, next to his tail, while two thorns appeared in his arms. In his chest appeared more hair and a small spike that seemed to be cracked. The newly evolved Lucario took a deep breath, concentrating an Aura Sphere on his hand.

“Very well, Atlas… our fight begins… now!”