When the wind and sand finally died down, a towering giant stood in front of Reiji.
It was so tall its head nearly reached the roof. Golden spiral patterns covered its huge body, glowing under the moonlight like the rings on Umbreon.
But the giant was still asleep.
Reiji had no idea why. Then Gengar rose from the shadow again, slipped into the giant's shadow, and returned a moment later.
The giant's body began to tremble.
Buzz.
"Is it waking up?" Reiji watched as the giant slowly stood.
So it had been crouching earlier. If it was already over three meters tall while crouched, how tall was it standing up?
Now that was a giant.
"Go… lurk?" Golurk had only just awakened. It looked around, confused. Everything was new to it.
It was like a newborn life, curious about everything nearby and completely unable to control its own strength. One simple turn of its head punched straight through the ruined roof, leaving its head exposed above the tower as it stared at the lights of the city.
Golurk stirred and looked around, confused. Everything was new to it.
It seemed lost.
Who was it?
Where had it come from?
Where was it supposed to go?
"Golurk, look down here."
Reiji only came up to Golurk's knee. He had not expected the core stone to awaken straight into Golurk instead of starting as Golett.
Maybe it had eaten too many good materials. It had skipped the growth stage entirely and come out complete.
Golurk had originally been created by ancient people as a tool, a labor force. In other words, something like an ancient intelligent machine. Thinking of it that way made sense.
Artificial Pokémon made by ancient humans could not be judged by normal rules. If a core stone awakened as Golett, that might simply mean it lacked energy and needed to grow by absorbing more over time.
Reiji had given this core more than enough.
So it made sense that it awakened directly as Golurk instead.
"lurk?" Golurk scratched its head and looked down at Reiji.
Was this little thing calling it?
Was its name Golurk?
"Tch. This again. My head hurts." Reiji took out a Poké Ball. He wanted to catch Golurk first and teach it slowly afterward.
But the moment the Poké Ball pulled Golurk in, the ball burst apart. Golurk popped back out and stared at Reiji in complete confusion, then sat down and crushed the broken ball under it.
"Damn it. A regular Poké Ball won't work. Let's try a Heavy Ball."
Reiji took out a black Heavy Ball and threw it.
This time, the capture worked — for a moment.
Then Golurk broke back out.
It did not understand why it had to be caught. It did not know who Reiji was, or why Reiji was trying to catch it.
All it knew was that it hated being inside that tiny ball. The space felt cramped, and its instincts rejected it. It wanted to leave. It wanted to get away from Reiji's Poké Ball. It had no idea how much strength came with a body that size.
Thud. Thud. Crack—
Golurk had barely stood up before the old, burned floorboards gave way beneath its weight. The whole section collapsed, and Golurk fell straight to the bottom of the tower.
Reiji and Gengar rushed after it.
But the moment Golurk saw them, it tried to run again, giving Reiji no chance to catch it.
"Gengar, put it to sleep."
Reiji was nervous, but not because Golurk might get hurt. There was no way a fall like that would injure it. He was worried the noise would draw people over, and then Golurk would be discovered.
"Gar."
Gengar sprang out of the shadow and appeared in front of Golurk, using Hypnosis.
Golurk did not look into its eyes.
Seeing a dark shape blocking the way, it raised a hand and swatted at Gengar.
"Gar? No effect? And it knows Dark moves too?" Gengar realized Hypnosis had failed. Golurk had avoided its gaze and answered with Knock Off. This was going to be annoying.
Gengar tried several more times, but Golurk's mental resistance seemed high. After the first failed attempt, it became wary, making it even harder to hypnotize.
Reiji chased behind them. Every step Golurk took forced him to run several of his own. When he realized Golurk was heading toward the city, he really started to panic.
The city lights had probably caught its attention.
"Gengar, hurry. Think of something."
Gengar was helpless too. If Darkrai were here, this would have been easy. One Dark Void and it would be over.
It was actually starting to miss that friend.
Then Gengar noticed the golden light on Golurk's body.
Wait.
It knew that glow.
It had stared at a similar light all night before. It looked a lot like the glow on Umbreon.
With no better idea, Gengar flew back to Reiji, pulled out a Poké Ball, and released Umbreon. Then it pointed at the giant ahead, telling Umbreon to convince it to return to the ball.
"Mmm?" Umbreon looked at Golurk's towering body and immediately lost confidence.
How was it supposed to talk to that thing? They were not even related.
"Gar, gar." Gengar pointed at Umbreon's rings, then at Golurk's body. The golden light was the same. Just go stand in front of it and glow.
"That's right. Umbreon, go. At least lure it back this way."
Reiji understood what Gengar meant the moment he saw the light on both Pokémon.
"bre… fine."
Umbreon jumped down from Reiji's shoulder, ran ahead, and leaped into Golurk's path. It stood there and let the golden rings on its body shine under the moonlight.
Golurk stopped at once.
It lowered its head and looked at itself, then at Umbreon. Their golden glow was almost the same. That caught Golurk's attention immediately.
But why was Umbreon so small?
Seeing that Golurk was watching, Umbreon jumped onto a tree and slowly led it back toward Reiji.
Golurk followed.
But when Golurk saw Umbreon standing on Reiji's shoulder, it stopped again. It looked back toward the distant city lights, torn between chasing Umbreon's glow and following the lights of the city.
"Come here, big guy," Umbreon called.
"Lur...? Big guy means me?" Golurk looked at Umbreon in confusion.
Everything was strange. It could understand what they were saying, but it did not understand what any of it meant.
"Yeah, you. Big guy, can you go back into this ball?"
"I don't like it in there. It's small." Golurk shook its head, refusing again.
"What if we're friends?"
"What are friends?"
"Mmm?"
Umbreon almost slipped off Reiji's shoulder.
After it steadied itself, it looked up at Reiji helplessly. How was it supposed to explain this? Golurk did not even know what a friend was. It was a complete blank slate.
"Umbreon, tell it you go inside the ball too," Reiji said.
He could not understand their conversation, but he could read Umbreon's helplessness well enough. Golurk had just been born and knew nothing about the world. It was even more blank than Mewtwo had been.
"Friends go in balls."
Umbreon demonstrated by letting itself be recalled, then coming back out again.
"See? We're friends. We all go in balls."
"lurk? So that's how it works. We're friends, so I should go in the ball too?"
Golurk felt like something was off, but it did not know what.
It had seen the glowing one get pulled into the little ball. Then another small ball came flying toward it.
This time, Golurk was caught and did not fight back. It stayed inside.
"Finally." Reiji let out a breath. "Gengar, clean up the footprints."
Golurk had left huge prints in the ground. If he left them there, someone would see them tomorrow and Ecruteak would have a new Bigfoot legend by morning.
"Gar." Gengar sighed. What a hard life it lived.
It followed the path Golurk had taken, smoothing the footprints from the shadows. At the very least, it damaged them enough that no one could make out what they were.
Only after cleaning all the way back to Burned Tower did Gengar return to Reiji's shadow.
As for witnesses, none of the wild Pokémon had dared get close. At most, they had seen a huge glowing figure from far away. No need to worry about a few wild Ghost-types.
With the Heavy Ball in hand, Reiji quietly returned to the inn. He shut the windows and doors, lay down on the bed, held the ball in his hand, and opened Golurk's panel.
[Golurk (shiny)]
[Type: Ground + Ghost]
[Gender: None]
[Potential: 89.99%]
[Level: 51.11%]
[Ability: Iron Fist/36.63%]
[Moves]
Ground-type: [Mud-Slap/8.34%, Stomping Tantrum/44.53%, Earthquake/46.34%, High Horsepower/42.23%, Bulldoze/44.67%, Dig/41.33%, Earth Power/46.62%, Magnitude/41.71%]
Ghost-type: [Shadow Punch/48.82%, Curse/45.11%, Night Shade/46.92%, Shadow Ball/41.57%, Phantom Force/45.55%, Hex/44.15%, Confuse Ray/46.41%]
Normal-type: [Defense Curl/30.14%, Pound/33.82%, Mega Punch/38.11%, Mega Kick/35.14%, Take Down/35.55%, Body Slam/36.14%, Giga Impact/32.22%, Hyper Beam/38.27%, Double-Edge/32.23%, Psych Up/31.44%, Self-Destruct/3.53%, Hidden Power/28.82%, Sleep Talk/38.12%, Flash/32.22%, Strength/33.62%, Minimize/14.23%]
Fighting-type: [Hammer Arm/35.84%, Dynamic Punch/31.52%, Focus Punch/34.21%, Low Kick/32.15%, Low Sweep/35.54%, Brick Break/34.35%, Drain Punch/34.14%, Focus Blast/34.55%, Close Combat/34.21%, Superpower/33.14%, Rock Smash/31.22%, Power-Up Punch/29.72%]
Rock-type: [Rock Tomb/34.48%, Sandstorm/35.78%, Rock Slide/31.87%, Stealth Rock/32.32%, Stone Edge/34.15%, Smack Down/32.31%, Rollout/35.37%, Rock Polish/34.22%]
Psychic-type: [Zen Headbutt/33.23%, Reflect/35.63%, Rest/49.56%, Imprison/38.13%, Psychic/49.13%, Gravity/43.66%, Telekinesis/42.33%]
Steel-type: [Iron Defense/33.34%, Heavy Slam/36.62%, Flash Cannon/28.81%, Gyro Ball/29.14%]
Electric-type: [Charge Beam/25.27%, Thunder Punch/25.21%, Thunderbolt/24.28%]
Ice-type: [Icy Wind/23.47%, Ice Punch/23.23%, Ice Beam/24.55%]
Fire-type: [Heat Crash/24.88%, Fire Punch/23.77%, Sunny Day/21.26%]
Grass-type: [Solar Beam/19.88%, Grass Knot/15.34%]
Dark-type: [Knock Off/29.14%, Fling/23.88%]
Other: [Toxic/18.17%, Rain Dance/14.45%]
The first thing he saw on the panel nearly made him sit up.
"Wait. It's shiny?"
Only then did he notice that Golurk's colors were wrong.
A normal Golurk was mostly pale blue and darker teal, with strange spiral patterns across its body. This shiny Golurk was closer to tungsten steel, a dark gray-black.
Had all that metal changed it into a shiny with metallic traits?
Its panel still showed Ground and Ghost, so the metal had not taken over its typing. If it had, the result would not have been Ground and Ghost anymore.
Ground and Steel would make it more like Steelix.
Ghost and Steel would make it closer to Aegislash.
If he wanted either of those typings, he could just catch those Pokémon. There would be no point in making Golurk.
Luckily, Golurk's typing had not changed. It had only gained some Steel-type qualities, mainly a steel-like body that should be much harder than stone.
Its resistances should be excellent. A normal Golurk was weak to Ghost, Water, Grass, Ice, and Dark.
With Steel-like traits mixed into the body, those weaknesses should be softened. At worst, the hits would land as regular damage instead of x2 weakness.
Steel was weak to Fire, yes, but Golurk was still Ground and Ghost. Ground handled Fire well enough. Overall, this Golurk had turned out beautifully.
It had Champion-tier potential right out of the gate. If he ignored evolution, its potential was even higher than Darkrai's. All those materials had not gone to waste.
He had created another monster.
And this one was huge. Reiji estimated it was over four meters tall.
Golurk had been born with the potential and size of a lesser Legendary Pokémon. Against Legendaries like Zapdos or Suicune, it should be a perfect bruiser.
This time, he really had paid through the nose. The materials were probably worth around one billion in total. But getting a Golurk with Champion-tier potential was worth more to him than a pseudo-Legendary. 89.99 potential. He had made a fortune.
Its level was no joke either.
He would need to guide it properly from here. It could become one of Spider's strongest cover Pokémon.
The only downside was that Golurk had just one ability: Iron Fist.
Iron Fist boosted punching moves by 20%, which was excellent for a Pokémon with so many fist-based attacks.
Reiji checked Golurk's other possible abilities and immediately felt better about missing them.
Klutz would stop it from using held items. No Guard would make every move from both sides hit without fail.
Yeah, no thanks.
One would lock it out of items. The other would turn every fight into a slugfest where the opponent couldn't miss either. Compared with that, Iron Fist alone was perfectly fine.
The move list was excellent. The proficiencies were all high, and the strongest categories matched the resources he had fed into the core.
It had plenty of Ghost moves: Shadow Punch, Curse, Shadow Ball, Phantom Force, and more. All of them were high.
The Ground moves were just as strong. High Horsepower, Stomping Tantrum, Earthquake, Bulldoze — it had awakened with them already learned. Its talent was obvious.
Rock, Fighting, Steel, Fire, and other moves were mostly complete too. It barely needed extra move tutoring. What it needed now was practice.
Once Golurk got used to using those moves, its destructive power would be terrifying. It also needed to learn control. That job could go to Gengar and Umbreon for now.
Since Umbreon and Golurk both glowed under moonlight, Golurk would probably listen to Umbreon more easily. The two of them could take turns teaching it. Once Golurk understood basic common sense, Reiji would teach it himself. Raising friendship mattered too.
For punching moves, Poliwrath was the right teacher. And for High Horsepower's burst technique, Hanhan could help.
This Golurk had ridiculous potential.
Knowing High Horsepower as a move was one thing. Learning the combo technique was another. Sometimes Pokémon understood the finer points better than Reiji did.
Looking at Golurk, Reiji could hardly imagine any Pokémon beating it head-on through raw strength, outside of Legendaries or clever kiting tactics. Its four-meter body alone was a nightmare.
Unless the opponent was something massive like Steelix, most Pokémon would be picked up like toys. Remember how Hulk smashed Loki around? Something like that.
Honestly, Golurk might even be able to grab Steelix and slam it around too.
It was perfect.
The only problem was its size. A body that huge was hard to hide, which made things awkward.
If only it could shrink a little.
That would make moving around much easier.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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