It didn’t take too long for a rumbling noise to catch his attention—but then he remembered, Beldum technically floated above the ground. Sighing, as he knew it wasn’t what he was looking for, he then let whatever it was approach him—only for Lars himself to legit back away a few moments later due to the sheer size of the face of the…of the Pokémon approaching him!

Now was definitely a time to test out his new Pokédex, and once he’d managed to dig it out of his coat’s inner pocket and read the information flashing across its screen, he then chanced a look down at the additional application hooked up to the thing—and to nobody’s surprise, the Bastiodon was a male.

And was extremely angry.

Before he could even do anything, the dual-type in front of him flung an Ancient Power attack right at him, forcing him to quickly throw his arms up to protect his face from the incoming attack! “Yeesh,” he muttered, quickly searching his pockets for a random Pokéball and popping it full-size, tossing it forward. He wasn’t expecting to see his little Trapinch suddenly appear from the flash of red light—but realized a few moments later that this was practically in the bag.

“Okay, let’s go! Bulldoze the ground first!” he began, bracing himself as his companion then slammed both its stubby little feet into the dirt, causing the nearby area to rumble and quake. At the same time, the jolting attack threw the Bastiodon off-balance; the far larger Pokémon then bellowing out loud before boosting up with an Iron Defense! Oh no, you don’t… he thought, before continuing, “Again! Bulldoze one more time and then switch out to a Sand Tomb! Keep it there and don’t let it get close to you!”

A second rumbling of the nearby ground shook the area, which made the dual-type bellow out loud once again, before a sudden swirling mass of sand and grit then surrounded the Bastiodon. “Alright, keep it trapped in there as much as possible! Don’t let it get near you!” he went on, watching as the dual-type then used Protect to block off the impact of the attack—and that made him raise his eyebrows as high as they could go.

Cheating little… he thought to himself as he added, “Okay, Sand Tomb again! No way that thing can use Protect twice in a row!” before another attempt at the swirling vortex of dust and grit surrounded the dual-type. A hint of a grin crossed his face as he knew his guess was right—and now that the Bastiodon was trapped in the Sand Tomb, all he could hear from it was more bellowing roars.

Geez, that’s annoying… he thought to himself, sticking a finger into his ear. Once the Sand Tomb had petered out, the rest of the dust and grit blew away. Another sudden Bulldoze attack from the Trapinch caught Lars by surprise, and he almost fell to the dirt—right as the dual-type charged forward, a sudden avalanche of boulders caught it by surprise as the Ground-type suddenly used Rock Slide in an attempt to wall itself away from the much-larger Pokémon.

Another Bulldoze attack forced the Bastiodon to back away, bellowing its lungs out angrily as it had been unable to approach the little one. What caught Lars by surprise was what happened next: a sudden burst of white light poured out of the little Ground-type’s body, and in mere moments what had been a large-jawed antlion was now… a little dragonfly?

Ooh, sweet… he thought with a grin on his face as the now-Vibrava beat its wings and hummed for a few moments before turning around and showing his companion the shiny new form that came out of the whole encounter. “Congrats on the new form, you deserve it…at least you won’t get knocked around so much anymore,” he said with a grin on his face.

“Now, what the hell do I name you…” he mused out loud a few moments later.

Just as Lars had decided on what to name his newly-evolved Vibrava, a sudden movement from the nearby bushes caught his attention. Eyebrows going up slightly, he then sighed—before realizing that there was a feline headed his way, chasing after something that was supposed to have been its lunch…

And now turned its sights towards his Vibrava.

“Oh, hell no. No way, man. Not on your life,” he muttered to himself, as the small dragonfly then turned around and saw the incoming Glameow come in with a Scratch attack. “Well, you’re much faster now, get out of the way and bite down on its tail with a Feint Attack!” he began—and the Vibrava flew into action. The dual-type suddenly disappeared from the Normal-type’s sight before suddenly reappearing behind it and attacking the Glameow from the back.

“Well, you can’t bite stuff that hard anymore. But that works,” he continued with a slight shrug. The Normal-type then turned around before trying to Charm the dual-type’s pants off; and while that worked and left the dual-type shocked for a few moments, it was more than enough for the Normal-type to turn around and then smack the dual-type with a Scratch attack to the face.

The Vibrava let out a high-pitch keening shriek, which caused Lars to suddenly cover his ears with his hands. What the hell was that?! He thought, blinking a few times before checking to make sure the ringing noise wasn’t going to catch him off-guard again. When none came, he then cautiously lowered his hands from his ears and continued, “Let’s try your Bulldoze attack again!” but wasn’t exactly prepared for what was coming next.

A much more violent tremor shook the area, and Lars was literally knocked off his feet and landed rather hard on his behind as an Earthquake struck the area; causing several trees to suddenly drop their leaves. Even the boulders nearby trembled and quaked as the Glameow tried to keep its balance but ended up smacking itself on the ground as well. “Whoa, what the hell… was that… was that Earthquake just now?!” he asked the Vibrava, to which it hummed in the affirmative.

Yeesh, these things are apparently extremely dangerous when they evolve… he continued to muse to himself, before the Glameow tried to Charm its opponent again—but this time the Vibrava was ready. Once it had flowl low and close enough to the ground, it then smacked its tail to the ground, setting off another powerful Earthquake attack—and Lars didn’t even bother getting up this time as another tremor shook the clearing and caused the boulders not too far away to tremble and shift around.

At the same time the Normal-type was also getting tossed around, before eventually falling down into one of the cracks that had appeared in the ground. Both human and Pokémon heard a loud yowling noise as the Glameow fell into the earth…

…oops.

What just happened?!

The last encounter had drawn the attention of a Loudred, who began causing an unholy racket with its Echoed Voice, ranting about something that Lars couldn’t understand at all. He could only tilt his head in confusion before looking over at his Vibrava, who then flapped its small, tiny wings before looking back at him.

“Well, let’s take care of that one, shall we? And then we can go back for another day’s rest,” he said, waving his hand at the little dual-type, who then floated its way toward the angry Normal-type who then continued with a loud Screeching noise. Both human and Pokémon flinched at the loud noise that came from the loudmouth Pokémon; before the Vibrava suddenly slammed its tail onto the ground and caused another Earthquake to rip through the nearby area.

Lars heard the fluttering of wings as several shadows suddenly took flight—their trees having been unceremoniously disturbed by the powerful Ground-type attack. The Loudred tried to cause an Uproar; but a sudden vortex of sand caught it unawares—as the dual-type then used Sand Tomb on it, trapping the much-larger Loudred within it. Another loud noise of displeasure came from the Normal-type, before it caused another Uproar despite being pelted with sand from so many sides at once.

“Keep it trapped in there! Don’t let it break free!” he continued, picking himself up from where he’d fallen before the dual-type suddenly caused an avalanche of boulders to crash around the Loudred while it was still trapped in the vortex of dirt and grit. As the Rock Slide continued to rain down around it, the Normal-type then used Echoed Voice again in an attempt to break free from the boulders that were crashing down around it; to no avail—as the Vibrava then used Earthquake once again.

Why did I bother getting up… he thought as he unceremoniously fell down on the ground again as another powerful tremor shook and rocked the clearing, causing a second chasm to split open underneath the Normal-type’s feet and then eventually swallowing that one up as well; followed by some of the boulders from the earlier Rock Slide attack.

Whoops.