[Shel's Log
Entry 43.
At long last, I find both sufficient time and the resources required for me to enscribe my events once more, having found my way to a general store after many a night without noncritical supplies. Sadly, I and my cohorts in the Identity Thieves found it necessary to sacrifice both my metal flashlight and the batteries therein, so we might lure out whatever ferrovorous troublemakers were blighting this land. At the start, we thought it a group of Arons, mayhaps even a murder of Murkrows under the tutelage of a Honchkrow don, but we were sorely mistaken. As fate and ill fortune would have it, we would find ourselves face to face with a monstrous amalgamator of epic proportions. And so, I must tell the tale of our fight, waged with thunder, and fright, and all the desperate energy we could rally, that we might put an end to the metal-masticating menace that surely would have encroached upon a hapless townscape, and stripped it to the core of any and all metals found withing, all to grow ever stronger.
Amblin, Amber, Mercy, Ripley, and I found ourselves there; full of misplaced confidence, and all too eager to locate both the source of the disappearances, as well as the source of these strange metallic oozes that we had discovered at more than one site. These mercurial lumps of silvered slimes had shown no previous magnetic tendencies, yet still seemed oddly attracted to each other, as well as a com-like sense of direction, being individually pulled slightly in one direction. When we unearthed each, these pulls were negligible, non-existent to the naked eye, but the closer we got to the epicenter... looking back, I now see why; they were being recalled. We had set up camp for the night, I had just finished my nightly journal entry, when Amblin called a team meeting. Now, we were tracking what we believed to be, as previously mentioned, a group of Arons, and there was no certainty as to knowing the tactics of this particular band of ravenous pokemon just by prior experience alone, so we formulated a plan: that night, we would leave out a lure of my light's metal battery, so that we might attract one of the culprits. Our plan was to capture it, gauge the intelligence of this drone, and send me in instead, concealing my metal flashlight to replicate the iron-heavy scent while I transformed into the Aron to take their place. It really was a decent plan, but there was a fatal, unforseen flaw with it; it wasn't an Aron.
You know, I should have realized before, when I was investigating the two samples, that they couldn't have been from an Aron, they were too animated, too fluid, too... strange. I had been hoping that it wasn't Aron waste, but now I wish that it was. That night, as Amblin stood guard and I stood at the ready, we received an unwanted intruder, ready to purloin my much-needed battery. Amblin saw it first, slithering at a seemingly cautious speed, avoiding mud puddles and trees, plowing through all other obstacles it could. This... this abomination was no mere Aron, nor a Murkrow, not even a Lairon; this was a silvery slime, much like the samples I had collected, formed very similar to my own body shape, but with a wire sticking out the back, and with a single black bead suspended in an oversized bronzed hexnut. This was Meltan, or, at least, a single Meltan.
Due to this unforseen development of a seemingly fictional Mythical absconding with my property, my own start to intercept it fell behind the movement of something else that I had not anticipated; my specimen jars being propelled towards the creature, alloys ready to merge once more with the source. The shattering of glass and the sloshing of a strange metal liquid were warning enough to Amblin, as he leapt from his perch, futilely slashing away at a liquid body that would reform in an instant. I rushed to tackle it, knowing that, while I could not damage it, I certainly could incapacitate it, even if momentarily. Unfortunately, I misjudged the force required to propel myself at the main body proper, and instead struck the pitch-black eye floating above, which seemed to be a far more fortuitous occurrence than the norm for my adventures, as it blinded the creature, while Amblin ran back to the cart to withdraw more containers with which to imprison this threat, as well as to gather reinforcements for this altercation with a being of literal mythology. As jolts of electricity surged randomly at anything they could arc to, and as tides of electrical surges eminated from its charged body, I nearly lost consciousness; my body only being saved by the timely arrival of a wooden barrel being slammed over the beast's body.
I took a moment, as well as some Sitrus berries, to refresh myself and regain my composure before transforming into an approximation of this amalgamative abomination, sadly leaving my customary eyebrows behind to look the part. And so, with flashlight stowed away, I slithered away, leaving Mercy to obscure the eye in my place. I did not know what a mouthless pokemon would sound like screaming at the sight of something so horrifying, it is said to kill those who look upon it, but now I can recall that horrid sound perfectly. Amber was my guide, leading me down the path of subtly disturbed leaves and broken twigs, until we as a unit found the entrance to a cavernous lair; the den of Meltan. As a friend, I ed the Thieves as we searched for the cause of metal disappearing, but I helped them end it as a member of the family.
I led the descent into the hollow, Amblin trailing after me in his own illusory disguise, with Mercy in the shadows and Amber making her greatest attempt at camouflaging herself to fit the grey, rocky environment. Ripley stayed hidden outside, as Amblin knew her luminescence would jeopardize the stealth portion of this incursion. And so, with marching order established, we sank into the inky depths of this solutional cave, ready to find a way to cease the devastation of an entire economy. Onward I went, slowly being surrounded by the streaming of sinister silvery slimes, pooling in from cracks and crevices, sensing the metal I had brought, eager for a share of the spoils. I know I would have been impelled into sacrificing my flashlight to prevent my ruse from being discovered, if not for the voice that echoed through the cave network, creaking and groaning like the sunken wreck of the S.S. Cactus. It was a voice that commanded with but a single, booming utterance:
"Metal."
The individual Meltans trembled at this voice, retreating from view into the corners of my vision, slinking back into the shadows. Shadows like the ones from whence the figure, undoubtedly the master, lurched. This behemoth, a collosal Meltan like no other, sent a shiver down my back, and indubitably sent one as well down Amblin's spine. Yes, this was the boss, and I could feel in the back of my mind a thought most unnerving; one that said that, if this monster amalgamated the metal in the nearest burg, then it would surely become the exiled titan Melmetal, Mythical reaper of civilizations. If that occured, then who could stop it?
"Met. Tal."
A tribute was demanded, I could assume. Subtly, internally, I unscrewed the rear of the light, before moving it into my pseudopodous arm. It snatched the morsal of metal from my person, but even that fleeting trace of sent pain reeling through every artifical nerve in my body, as well as its own. I glimpsed my arm; the agonizing sensation following the path of corrosion streaking around my limb. I must have misjudged the type of metal comprising its body, and the chemical reaction was the price I paid for my folly. I had to transform back to my standard, non-corrosive state, but as I did so, that's when they attacked. Joules of electricity arced from behind stalagmites and rubble as the giant's minions projected Thunder Shocks at their intruder, and I was only spared from certain death by a familiar black claw, swiping through globule after globule of galvanic goon; timid Mercy was defending me from a grizzly fate, bearing them aside to clear a miniscule path through which I knew I had to force myself to squeeze.
The opening was but a few inches wide. Luckily, the same is said of me.
I made my way through, enduring Thunder Shocks and devastating charges at my body all the while. Current wailed through the air, and swipes echoed against the walls of the cavern, and the collision of stones against brass heads clanged throughout the clamor, as a light began to shine from our end of the tunnel. Ripley had arrived, and she was on a warpath. Hurling a cerulean orb of plasma at the largest of the Meltans, casting potions to those of us nearly unconscious, and writhing through the maze of stalactites far above the reaches of the foes, she was the one to turn the tide. Unfortunately, it seems as though it was a conscious effort for the Meltans to remain apart from each other, as the more we took down... the more mass was added to the alpha. And the greater the boss, the more damaging its attacks. We were, quite literally, only making it stronger with every rock thrown, every swipe of a claw, and every ampere of electricity.
"Mel-TAAAANNNN!"
It belowed, bringing spears of limestone down upon us all, ending its brethren to add to its mass, and causing us all significant harm. But not the Meltan, and, happily, not Amber. A moment was what we needed to free ourselves of our rocky entombment, and that was all we received, as silvery slimes slithered and engorged our oppugner. We clawed, and we struggled, and I squirmed to right myself in this wasteland of sinter and scrap. And so, with a battlefield cleared of all enemies but one behemoth, now filled with debris and obstacles, our altercation began anew.
Amblin began the charge we made, a leader in title and spirit, scaling the walls of the cavern to propel him along the side. Ripley and Mercy followed, a veritable rocket and an umbral streak. I, knowing my only potential in conflict lies, not in my own power, but in copying something greater, transformed myself into a doppelganger of Amblin, and ed the surge while Amber hurled her stones from a distance. Onward, into the maw of death, ran we five: a leader of unknown speech, a surly stock keeper, a timid ghost, a false tree tracker, and a slime with too many books. Dared we to fight, and to save, and to live to tell the tale. But first, we would fight.
Mercy began the fray by scratching its side, emerging then retreating back into her shadow to hide, making use of her small size and semicorporial form to ease through the detritus that now litters the floor. Amblin then leapt from the wall, claws shimmering with dark miasma as he slashed deep into the surface of the creature, as I followed; mocking and tormenting as well I could, that it would be forced to split its focus further. Ripley launched again that azure sphere from the trail of electricity that follows her flight, only to be impacted by a vicious bolt of lightning. Only through her own innate resistance and the metaphorical gritting of her teeth did she power through, sparks then flying from her sudden erraticism. A stone was flung from behind us, striking the ceiling of the cavern above the Meltan to send a shower of pebbles down, pinning the wire upon its back to the floor.
Again came the lacerations, and again came Ripley's sphere, and Mercy this time saw fit to perform this herself, even as an arc of energy broke her disguise, newly repaired after an unfortunate accident a few days prior. Amber's rocks, however, missed their mark this time, instead striking a small crack in the wall before skittering to a stop. That brief hiatus, lamentably, was ample time for our adversary to free itself from the debris that pinned one of its only solid pieces down, as it formed its pseudolimbs into hardened spikes, breaking through our desperate attempt at a blockade, charging at our girl in the back. This wasn't anything like the tactics I had seen watching battles and raids on television with Allen; this was blind, unchecked, feral aggression. An attempt was made by Ripley to divert the beast's attention, but all that accomplished was my getting picked up and thrown at her, sending us both violently crashing into the wall. I nearly blacked out, if not for the trickling of water down my head.
Water, I ed, was something that the metal in its body reacted with! And quite helpfully so! We needed to drive this thing into the wall, or, at least, open the crack wider to flood this cavern! We were going to need to place the "Solution" back into "Solutional cave" before the situation became far too dire to fix. I informed Amblin of my strategy, he barked the orders to Amber and Mercy, and the other three of us were tasked with keeping the grotesque mass of metal occupied. It was time to finish the job.
I surged toward it, striking its back in an already wounded spot, eliciting a howl of pained fury from my foe, while Ripley blasted it with yet another orb of plasma. Amblin, however, opted to down an orange and off-white berry he had hidden in his mane, as he dove away from a spike swung down towards him. The evasion of the spike, however, soon led to blunt-force trauma as a glob of metal surged down the arm, and slammed into Amblin's ribcage. This monster was building momentum, and its attacks were growing more elaborate. It was learning.
"METTTTAAAAL! MELTTTTTTAAAAAAAN!"
It screamed, a cry of fury and hunger. The bellow, however, soon died out and was replaced by a far sweeter sound; that of a small burbling, as Mercy's frantic clawing and Amber's hectic pounding chipped a large enough opening in the limestone to let in a trickle from the stream right outside. Step one, accomplished. Now, we would need to push this thing back, and it would take all of us to do so. None of us were skilled in battle; Mercy and I least so. But when all one has to stop a ferroravenous abomination of religion is a ragtag fellowship of misfits and fools, one learns on the fly to work with what one has.
Ripley blinded by flying into the Meltan's bolt-head, allowing her electric aura to sear away any vision possible. Amblin and I grabbed its pseudolimbs as best we could, while Amber charged, slamming her head into its mass, pushing it back a solid three feet. Still, half of a fathom wasn't sufficient. The Meltan flung Amblin and I away, splattering me back into my original form, and nearly knocking Amblin unconscious. I wasn't going to be any help as I was, so I had to Transform into someone who could help. Amblin wasn't sufficient in the long run, Mercy was cloaked with a costume, so I couldn't actually see her to change into her, Amber lacked any attacks that would damage it significantly, and the last time I imitated a Meltan, the briefest with the main Meltan sent crippling pain down my pseudolimb as I was nearly amalgamated. But... but what if I wasn't making direct ?
I am a Ditto; mimicry is what we do, but improvisation... that's what I do. I Transformed into the collosal Meltan, and grabbed two hunks of broken stalactite, and swung them both at the head of my duplicate. Cerulean flashed again as Ripley bombarded the face, covering her escape as she flew down to aid Amblin. It swung a spike at me, but my ability to rapidly change back to my normal self, then become that Meltan again proved to be just fast enough to evade the attack, as Amber lobbed a projectile square at its hexnut. We could actually win this, if we played the field intelligently.
I could see the puddle forming, growing larger and faster, as rocks tumbled away of their own accord to open the floodgates ever wider. Rather than thirty feet, we would need to push back only twenty-five, then twenty-two, then eighteen. Mercy grabbed its tail, pulling with her unnatural strength while I pushed with my stolen power, aided only by the natural slickness of the floor and a natural pillar, broken off in the initial conflict. Amber ran alongside, pelting the eye of the beast with debris all the while. Twelve feet, ten, seven...
The cavern walls rattled when the Meltan roared that thunderous roar of pain, and anguish, and death. If before it sounded like a shipwreck groaning with the tide, then this sounded like a building being destroyed via Exploud. So cacophonous was this wail, it caused us all to retreat, lest we take any more damage and faint from the pain. But we left that foul creature in the pool of water, helpless, growing white, and brittle, and breaking apart. And as the cave imploded upon it, entombing it forever, we turned our backs to it, and headed back to the city.
"Simungandiphe, oyamba wamkulu wa pinki."
I turned, terror obviously chiseled into my face. How? How did this... thing survive not only dissolution, but a cave-in as well?
And was it speaking, albeit in a tongue I didn't understand? Ripley shot around too, horror even more evident in her expression. A small arm shot up from the rubble, tarnished and muddy, but still streaked with that unmistakable silver. We hadn't won yet.
As the monster squirmed and clambered up from the wreckage, hexagonal head nearly unrecognizable, I and Ripley sprang towards it, knowing that if it escaped, it would begin its hunt again. Meltan may be a Mythical creature, one whom ancient aeons surround and submit to, but what choice would we have? What adventurous team would we be, to turn tail and cower before this threat, not just to us, but to this land? No, we couldn't run, couldn't claim ignorance of this danger, we could ignore this threat no longer. Into the fray flew we two, then Mercy and Amblin, and Amber at the rear. Into the valley of death charged we five Thieves.
But as we few came forth to finish our duty, the Meltan fought back, self preservation the only thing it could acknowledge. Amblin was stunned and staggered by an pulse of ionized air, Mercy struck by a metal spike, ripping the stuffing out of her costume's head! Even I was hit, lashed at by a metal whip. But what obeisance would I merit, if I were taken out by the desperate thrashings of a manic creature not much larger than I? So I rose, to charge alongside Mercy, and Ripley, and Amber. Into the valley of death charged we four Thieves.
Amber was struck first, shoulder impaled by a spike, though she hurled a rock afore the injury, striking the center of the Meltan, toppling it over for but a moment. Still it allowed us five feet more, as Mercy slung a similar stone and Ripley her sphere. Halfway there, halfway there, halfway yet more; halfway to the Meltan, the stream, and salvation of a town. Slowly and steadily, we advanced through metal missiles and waves of paralyzing lightning. Cover low, and though we were smallest among the crew, we yet had a chance not afforded to the taller two.
was made, Ripley sailing through the salvo to discharge a massive amount of electricity, undiminished by distance or air. This attack thrust the creature back, flinching briefly as its pseudopodous bottom half glanced the creek behind us, current amended by the destruction of the cave. It must have learned our strategy before, as it altered its strategy to charge us, instead of keeping distance and slowing us down. Still, it immobilized poor Mercy, striking her with a vicious pulse of energy, just ten feet shy of the beast. Onward, to close the gap, charged we two remaining Thieves.
The Meltan swung an arm wide, flinging metal into Ripley, weighing her down as it clung to her body. All she could do is squirm her way free, a moiling for even one so semicorporial as herself. An attempt was made to paralyze me, as well, but I powered through. I endured, and I closed the gap, and I pushed on with all my might. Pushing myself on, pushing the Meltan closer still to the one weakness we ascertained, pushing onward with all the might in my miniscule mass. Punctures sprung up across my body, pain wracked every square inch of me, as this creature fought with me to survive, as we shifted back and forth, to escape or block or stab or avoid. Onward, to the brink of death, pushed the one remaining Identity Thief.
Onward, to the bank's edge we went. Ripley had made her way out of her entombment, just in time to see us both fall in. At this time, as I heard her yell, I ed one thing; I cannot swim, not in my normal form. Luckily, I can change my form at will, especially if there were, say, a Wishiwashi swimming nearby that I could spot. Unfortunately, I could also spot the Meltan, charging to fire a jolt of electricity at me, now quite weak to such a thing, especially when surrounded by water.
I leapt from the river, narrowly evading the arc of energy, crashing onshore and struggling to breath for a moment, as I returned to a waterlogged, but more naturally viscous state. Ripley was free, and her help, I knew would be invaluable at this time, as she was the only reliable source of damage output on our side of the skirmish. Still, why had the water not finished off the Meltan? When completely submerged, it didn't even seem particularly bothered by it, let alone pained. Unless... it was a mixture of the water and exposure to air which caused the chemical reaction! With this hypothesis in mind, we struck up a plan: first I would have to draw the creature's attention, luring it to a shallower portion of the brook. Once accomplished, Ripley would fire all the electricity she could muster at the creature, superheating the water around it to allow the Leidenfrost effect to create a small, superhumid atmosphere around sections of the creature. If I could keep it from escaping through the ensuing cover of steam bubbles, we could, in theory, completely corrode it away.
Once more, I took the plunge, sinking to the bottom of the rill, with a deep gulp of air, and gravel in whatever part of me would act as a gut. It came to me, a ponderance that said that I was insane and about to die. It may very well have had some truth about it in the first half of that statement. Nevertheless, I lured it in successfully, and as it tackled me, I grabbed tight the hexnut it used as a head, and let out as much air as I could spare as a signal to fire. As the bolt came down, and I felt the ionization creep across our entwined bodies, I transformed into a stone... and blacked out...
I came to three hours ago, strewn across a plank aboard our recovered wagon. To my left, Amblin was seated, holding his head and massaging his legs. To my right, Mercy was stitching a new head to replace her costume's damage. Amber was sitting up front, bandaging around her arm, holding a jar with a vermillion chunk of ore in it. As I recently was told, this rock was found embedded in my rocky body when I was dredged up from the stream. She considers it a trophy, since the silver streaks in it are similar to the body of the beast. Ripley, I was informed, disposed of the head in the forest, swearing that nobody would be able to unearth it for quite some time.
The trek back was uneventful, thankfully, and ever so unhurried. Ripley, as should be obvious, was the only one not wounded, paralyzed, or unconscious after the battle. She also was the one least fit to pull a heavy cart for hours at a time. But, I believe, we all needed that time to clear our minds. And as the sounds of chittering Aipoms and chirping Rookidees filled my mind, I drifted off, once more, into a far more willing slumber until we reached Mello City.
End Log.]
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I hope you guys enjoyed this biggun! If you didn't, would you please take the time to tell me what you want to see from me? Also, yeah, about 2/3rds of this is just a repeat of the last two Logs I did, but I really didn't want to force anyone to read something from a month ago just to know what was going on in this (supposedly) three-parter. Also, I really wanted to do a looong post at least once this year! Don't worry, they'll be much shorter after this. I'll see you next time!
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