Chapter 5

Thankfully, you were able to get some rest after dealing with the Beedrill. You didn't have any other unwanted visitors popping up during the night.

So the next morning, you woke up early and fed your pokemon and yourself, before packing your camping gear away, tent and all and continued on with your journey.

You were maybe an hour into your journey before things got interesting. You came across a pair of large Nidorino duelling in a clearing, while a Nidorina watched intently from the side.

"Fight for a mate huh?" you mused under your breath as quietly as you could. Well, best to leave them then.

You were about to turn and leave, when the Nidorina's eyes landed on you, and it perked up threateningly, a snarl leaving its lips. Ugh, so not as cute as your Nidoran will be when she evolves.

That was a problem regardless though. Because immediately, the two Nidorino stopped their duel and turned towards you, eyes narrowed in rage at you apparently disrupting their duel for some pussy.

"For fucks sake." you cursed, hand going to your belt.

As one, both Nidorino's horns began to glow white. And then, they lunged, jumping through the air towards you.

"Crabhammer!" you shouted as you released Krabby from his pokeball to meet them head on.

"Kookee!" Krabby exclaimed, twin pincers glowing himself and lashing out to meet both attacking Pokemon.

Both Nidorino squealed as they were battered aside like a pair of leaves and sent sprawling through the air to smash into the ground, hard.

They didn't move after that.

Krabby had no time to celebrate his victory though, because the Nidorina seeing its two suitors down howled like a beast and shot towards your water type pokemon, a white aura surrounding its body.

"Harden!" you ordered as soon as you saw it.

A red sheen glossed over Krabby's body, just in time for Nidorina to plough into your pokemon with enough force to nearly send you tumbling off of your feet.

Krabby's four legs dug small trenches in the ground as he was pushed back a good solid foot in length, before halting Nidorina's momentum. Nidorina only had time for its eyes to widen, before Krabby's claws glowed once again.

Boom! He lashed down, smashing both of them into the back of Nidorina's head and driving it face first into the dirt with enough force to crater the ground.

"That's what you get!" you taunted with a snarl of your own when you saw it laying there unmoving in the dirt. Krabby nodded alongside your statement, backing you up. And even spat a small, but powerful Water Gun attack at the Nidorina, driving it back a few inches from the force of the water jet.

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With them dealt with, you continued on your way through the forest. Though, you decided to keep Krabby out, though you carried him most of the way so he didn't waste his stamina on a long walk he wasn't suited to.

Along the way, after another half hour of walking, you ran into a Weepinbell being attacked by a Pidgeotto, and you had Krabby take it out. Only, the Weepinbell apparently took offense to that and tried to hit you with a vine whip.

Krabby took offense to that himself. And used Stomp to crush that Weepinbell into the ground for its attitude.

It was a while later though, that you interestingly enough, found a large hole burrowed in the ground of a clearing.

You stuck around and investigated it in interest. And a few minutes after observing, a cute little head poked up above the hole opening to stare at you.

"Shrew?" it tilted what little of its head that was peaking out to the side in curiosity as it stared up at you.

Huh, what's a Sandshrew doing in the Viridian Forest? They generally preferred more open areas or mountain-like areas from what you knew.

"Hey little guy, how's things?" you asked, crouching down. You held a hand full of pokechow out towards it and the pokemon sniffed your hand wearily before partaking. The Sandshrew fully popping out of its hole to get some of the food.

Thinking on it. You're not sure how many pokemon the Pewter City gym leader likes to use in battle since he's so new. And in the long run, a ground type would be a big help against the electric gym in Vermillion City.

Once Sandeshrew was done, it looked up at you with shrewd black eyes and regarded you wearily again.

Not quite as immediately friendly as your other pokemon huh?

"Hey, I'm on a pokemon journey, so what do you say to joining me on it and becoming my pokemon?" you asked.

Sandshrew grunted, its eyes sliding towards Krabby, before back to you. It stared at you for a tense before, before nodding, then pointing at itself, then to Krabby, then you, before curling its arm as if ti show off some muscle.

"You wanna battle first?" you asked.

Sandshrew nodded.

That was fine with you. "Okay, let's see how well you do against Krabby then." you replied.

That was all it needed to hear apparently. It turned and threw itself onto all fours and began running at Krabby.

"Water Gun!" you ordered.

Krabby obeyed and fired a familiar large jet of compressed water at the approaching ground type.

Sandshrew didn't slow its pace at all, instead picking up speed and jumping into the air towards the water attack and curling into a ball, a thick white aura similar to the one Nidorina had earlier coating its spherical form.

Rolling rapidly, Sandshrew cut right through the Water Gun attack and zoomed towards Krabby rapidly.

"Harden!" you followed up with.

Krabby obeyed again, a red sheen of glowing power covering his body just as Sandshrew's spinning form slammed into him. Unlike with Nidorina earlier though, Krabby was rapidly pushed back much further than a foot, the momentum behind Sandshrew's attack pushed the water type back nearly a full ten feet before its momentum slowed to a crawl.

Before Krabby could counter though, Sandshrew uncurled itself and kicked off of Krabby's face, bouncing back through the air to land a decent ways away.

Sandshrew grunted, then threw itself back onto all fours and charged towards Krabby once again, this time opening its mouth and unleashing a barrage of energy stars that started small and grew in size until they were of equal size to Sandshrew itself.

"Push off with Stomp and use Crabhammer!" you countered.

Legs glowing white, Krabby pushed off of the ground hard, leaving small holes the size of his feet from where he pushed off.

Things went a bit differently than you planned though.

As soon as Krabby pushed off, he shot forward in a blur of speed that you barely even managed to follow with your eyes. He blipped through the distance, the stars of Sandshrew's Swift attack suddenly bursting out of existence, and Sandshrew itself let out a keening wail of pain as Krabby suddenly appeared, glowing white claw smashing into the ground types and sending it flying into a tree.

The tree, easily twice as thick as you were wide groaned audibly and splintered into pieces around the middle, the top half galling to the ground and shaking the forest clearing beneath you.

"What the hell?!" you hissed in shock, hand going to your pokedex and checking what Krabby just did.

"Agility, a psychic-type attack. Used for enhancing the speed of the user using their inner power." the pokedex recited to you.

A big grin spread across your face, "Way to go Krabby, you learned how to use Agility!" you cheered.

"Kookee!" Krabby turned towards you, a pair of eye smiles on his face and raised his hands into the air and cheered alongside you.

A grunt caught your attention, and you turned to see Sandshrew throw a large piece of bark off of itself as if it weighed nothing and begin struggling to its feet.

"Finish it Krabby, Water Gun!" you quickly commanded.

Krabby turned, dropping out of his cheering position and fired the large jet stream of water instantly. This time. Sandshrew couldn't repel the water attack, and was slammed hard into the ground by it.

Your hand went to your pocket, grabbing a shrunken pokeball and enlarging it in one beat. And then, when the wave of water washed over Sandshrew and left it on its back on the ground, you lashed out, throwing the pokeball with pinpoint accuracy and nailing the fallen ground type with all your might.

It clicked open and Sandshrew was sucked inside after being turned into glowing red energy. The pokeball clicked shut, and the middle began glowing red.

Then, it began shaking from side to side. Once. Twice. And finally, midway through a third shake, the red glow faded and the pokeball let loose a ping sound of success.

You did it!

Running over you scooped up Krabby and held the small water type high into the air, "Way to go buddy, we did it!" you celebrated.