Vanille and Viol had been walking the path for quite some time, and their feet were tiring. The light in the forest was beginning to dim, and they had set off from the last gym at dawn. The light from the waning sun glimmers through the canopy, coating the path in glittering specks of light. It was a beautiful sight, but one that the pair didn't even notice; they hadn't eaten all day and their stomachs were complaining, and though they fought for every step, the other foot always came forwards defiantly. It was not without effort though.
 
"We can't carry on much longer," groaned Viol, "We need to eat."
 
"Just a little longer," Vanille insisted, "We'll get to /v/ soon, it can't be far now!"
 
"That's what you said hours ago!" Viol complained, "Wha-"
 
Viol was cut off suddenly by a rustling from the bushes from the side of the dirt path. The pair stopped immediately, and brought out their pokeballs, just as a battle theme began to play from nowhere in particular.
 
"Come out already!" Yelled Viol meekly, then muttered, "I bet it's just a bidoof or something anyway."
 
Out of the bushes jumped a creature, one which Viol's pokedex couldn't recognise. Viol whacked it repeatedly, muttering about how that usually works, whilst Vanille sent out her Vaporeon. The beast before them was strange indeed, it had the head of an owl, but the body of a bear. It had pounded out of the bushes, then stood upon its hind legs to let out a screeching roar that resounded throughout the forest. Viol didn't hear Vanille's command to her pokemon, but Vaporeon certainly did, letting out a massive torrent of water from her mouth that hit the owlbear squarely in the chest, sending it flying backwards, hitting a tree with a great deal of force. The creature slunk down, collapsing onto the floor from the force of the hydro pump.
 
"Pokeball, go!" Vanille shouted gleefully, throwing an ultra ball at the wounded creature. It hit the owlbear on the shoulder, and a red light enveloped it, and then in a flash, the owlbear was gone, and in its place a quivering ultra ball. It shook for a few moments, before clicking to confirm the capture.
 
"Yes! I caught it!" Vanille celebrated gleefully.
 
"If you could catch us some food next time I'd be happier."
 
"Shush!" Vanille huffed, skipping over to collect her prize. She picked up, beaming with pride, before sinking to her knees as her body remembered its hunger. "I guess we could camp here for the night?" She said with a meek grin. Viol just shook his head and sighed.
 
*
 
Night had fallen upon their meager encampment, and the pair were fast asleep in their bedrolls. There was a thudding noise in the distance, but this did not seem to bother the sleeping trainers. They had been asleep for barely an hour, when they were both roused from their slumber by loud, heavy thuds in the air. Viol rubbed his eyes quickly and looked around. Vanille did the same, but Viol saw it first, gasping, and following his gaze, Vanille looked up into the sky to see...
 
It was huge, and red, and scaled. Like a Salamence but larger, and somewhat more elegent. It was a great red beast of a dragon, hovering just above them. It let out a mighty roar, and landed with a crash by their camp. By this time, the pair had quickly got to their feet and grabbed their pokeballs, the comforting warmth of their bedrolls just a memory now. Vanille yelled as she threw her pokeball into the air, and her trusty vaporeon came out, standing ready to fight. The thuds were not so distant now, but neither Viol nor Vanille had noticed them, the great wyrm before them demanding their immediate attention.
 
"Hydro pump!" Vanille yelled, and Vaporeon obeyed gladly, spewing another torrent of water from it's mouth, only to be met by a thunderous plume of flame from the dragon, so fierce that neither water nor flame reached its target, creating a foggy mist of evaporated water between them.
 
Thud.
 
Whilst Vanille yelled for Vaporeon to use water pulse, Viol looked up, finally noticing the thud.
 
"Hey, Vanille!" He yelled, but his words had barely left his mouth when another torrent of flame came splurting from the mist. The trainers both dodged to the side, and the flame went between them, turning the ground there molten.
 
The dragon looked upon the trainers closely, and even though vaporeons water pulse hit its target, it appeared to do nothing, the great beast shrugging off the attack like a mountain does a breeze. It opened its mouth again, and the pair could see the beginnings of a ball of flame appearing in the back of its throat. They spared each other a weak, fearful glance...
 
THUD.
 
The dragon paused, and turned its great serpentine neck around to look behind it.
 
BA-BOOM!
CRASH-CRACK!
 
The dragon howled, as something crashed into it, and collapsed onto the ground, quivering. Viol looked over at its side, and saw that it had suffered a great wound, a gaping hole, as if a great explosion had been directed into the body of the beast. He looked up, following Vanille's gaze, as a monstrous beast covered in massive scales as thick as a Golems skin thudded onwards with four great spider-like limbs. It had strange arms at its front, where it appeared a massive organic gun was welded to its flesh. The heat haze around the gun made it seem like it had been used recently. Viol looked back at the wound in the dragon, suddenly more fearful than before.
 
Then the beast turned, and walked as if to go around them, and as it turned, the great tank that it pulled behind it became visible to the trainers, as did it's owner, wearing full plate with an angry yellow face painted on the chest.
 
"Ho there!" Teej called down from his ride, signalling the Tyrannofex to halt, "You should call ahead next time," He called to the pair, smiling, "The forests of Dungeon-Crawl are a dangerous place for the inexperienced. Care to join me? I'll give you a swifter ride to the ball. Plus, we have some pizza and snacks ready for our next session, and you look half-starved."
 
To his credit, Viol tried his best to look unhappy with the situation, but try as he might, the promise of food was too strong for him to ignore, and he let a weak smile break out upon his face. Vanille on the other hand, was already climbing onto the hovering tank from a rope ladder Teej had lowered for her.
 
"Hey, not so fast!" Viol yelled, jealously, remembering he wasn't supposed to like Teej, "We haven't got our stuff yet!"