Chapter 3: One Way Forward
Rising his left foot, Dust sprinted toward Paras at max speed, not having practiced closing the distance yet, being constantly bombarded with seeds covered in grass energy. Only one managed to hit his leg out of the seven that were shot, but he felt his muscles in it deflate as it hit, and Paras' claw grew slightly.
Absorb was draining not only Dust's HP, but his strength as well, unlike the normal move, demonstrating this Paras' skill with the move.
However, this one seed would not be enough to completely take out the charging boy, as Dust went in for a straight jab. He didn't dare try to use Gangnam Style yet as this Paras might adapt to it after long enough.
Paras tried to meet his punch with a scratch attack, but Dust used the momentum from the punch to pull it back while performing a spinning side kick, knocking the shroom back.
Dust knew this kick would do almost nothing to his opponent, so he grabbed a rock, winded up, and hurled it at the Paras, who watched dumbly as it quickly flew into his face.
What Dust did not expect was for Paras to tank the hit and spit a seed straight into his eye. He screamed as tendrils sucked the very light from his vision, and his body fell to the ground.
"I can't see from my left eye now, you little brat!" Paras charged forward, claws shining, to take the life of Dust, but Dust reeled back until his back was nearly touching the grass, then pulled his fist back with him, putting every last bit of muscle he had into his fist. "It's about drive, it's about power!"
A punch like this could have popped the head off an average person from his old Earth due to his pokeverse increased strength, and he didn't hold back at all, as he had watched the Paras before and noticed its toughness.
Something cracked, Paras made his species' typical noise, and Dust slowly stood up. Paras was shaking, barely up at all, covering his claws in white energy that slowly turned grey and metallic.
"Let's finish this now!" Dust shouted and jumped as did Paras, each hitting each other in the face, Paras with Metal Claw and Dust with another max power punch. Dust fell straight into the ground, brain jarred from the impact, as the poor Paras, whose weight was barely even 15 pounds, was sent again flying back, this time hitting a tree and bouncing off limply.
Dust took out his only Pokeball, tapping Paras' exposed belly with it. Looking back, the Paras numbered 16 and only the Oddish leader remained. They encircled her and began to all use screech. The difference in numbers made up for the difference in power, and she almost fell.
But at the last second, her eyes refocused and she gave a vine whip, lashing at all fifteen apart from the leader, meaning each head weed had to hit three. Out of all of them, four dodged, and the rest were hit.
The Paras leader raised its claw, using scratch on the bright patch on the top of the Red Oddish's head, and blood splattered onto the ground. All eleven that were hit by those vine whips were poisoned, slowly dying even though they were also poison types.
The Oddish had used up the very energy keeping it alive to grant it access to the power of the move Toxic and applied it to its vines.
The Paras began tending to each other, trying to alleviate the pain, but seven of the afflicted eleven died regardless. After the other four were stable, the leader slowly walked up to Dust, who was trying and failing at standing.
Upon seeing him holding a Pokeball, the Paras leader nodded to Dust and walked away.
'That's definitely not what I expected. Usually, pokemon are extremely violent to humans because of the wars between the two throughout history. I mean, not all of them are antagonistic, but still.'
That's when it hit him. "Did you ask them for a duel?"
Dust thought back to when Paras called everyone and nobody came.
"Thanks," he whispered into the Pokeball, "I wouldn't have been able to survive if not for you telling everyone not to attack me."
The Pokeball shook as the capture was complete. Dust checked Paras' status once again and noticed that he had leveled up twice. After putting the Pokeball away, he noticed the option to check status was still there, so he mentally clicked it.
Species: Full-Blood Marshadow
Type: Ghost/Fighting
Potential: Incalculable (>10)
Abilities: Technician
Sex: LGDRY
Level: Incalculable (>100)
Moves: Incalculable
'SHIT, I have to get out of here! Wait, no. It can move way faster than me, meaning it doesn't want to kill me. Yet. Legendaries, apart from Mew, Arceus, and Giratina, are one of many things the people of this world don't know about. So maybe if I pretend I don't see it, it'll leave."
However, even looking away, the option to check status didn't disappear, so he hit it again.
Species: Luckling
Type: Luck
Potential: 10/10 Luck, 4/10 Fighting, 2/10 Psychic, 1/10 Aura, 0.1/10 Origin
Abilities: Lucky Star: Everything works in your favor for five seconds (charge time=one month)
Sex: Male
Level: 1
Bonds: None
Basic Moves: Punch, Kick, Knee, Elbow, Headbutt
Low-Mid Moves: Full Force Punch, Perfect Roundhouse Kick
Mid Moves: Gangnam Blitz
Top Moves: Observe, Block Observation
Dust looked over the status up and down, over and over again, but he knew this was his. After all, there it was under Mid Moves. The Gangnam Style and observe was something that only he should have here.
While other people from the town could come, they would be unlikely to come to this part of the forest. The old Dust had already run for miles away from the path from Team Rocket, meaning Dust had to use the map to get to the river and from there head to Verdain City, as opposed to others who would likely just follow the trail.
While some may come into the wilderness to train, most would not because of the danger of getting lost, as finding landmarks isn't always easy.
Dust facepalmed and sighed simultaneously as he slowly moved to the riverbank, drinking water and, once he was no longer sore, noodling for non-pokemon fish, which were, in fact, existent in this Pokeverse.
It took a solid three hours to catch two fish, and by then, the Paras had taken the bodies of the Oddish back to their main camp and left Dust alone. The Ekans were still there but didn't pay any attention to Dust, who really wished he had another Pokeball for the best of them at that moment.
Alas, there was only one, and Dust used it on his Paras. He went ashore and released Paras, giving him one of the fish, and setting up a fire for his own. The Paras looked around, its time having been dilated, and noticing that everyone else had left, bowed his head to Dust, one claw piercing the sand.
Dust replied with the same, since he was unsure what it meant apart from some sort of allegiance, and Dust abhorred those who forced others under himself. Dust's finger bled slightly from piercing the sand. Paras pricked its right claw with its left, which was clad in normal energy, placing its bleeding claw over Dust's finger, who obliged, curious what it wanted to do.
'Hey there, what are you doing? You're not trying to fight again are y-UGH."
Both felt extremely tired all of a sudden and fell asleep immediately, as they had finished eating a few moments prior.
In the middle of the night, a Krabby tried to kill Dust with its claw, but the HUD suddenly lit up. 'Lucky Star used. Cooldown: one month'
A Pidgeot flew by, picking it up and eating it as it flew away, and Dust awoke only four hours later, his headache and muscle soreness completely gone. Paras stood up the few inches it had to off the ground and turned to Dust, a clunky voice asking, "Can you hear me?"
Dust grinned. "Yeah. Loud and clear. And clunky, oddly enough."
Metal Claw grew on Paras' claws as he nodded. "Makes sense. I'm a steel mutation. Third in my line. My ancestors who had hard mushrooms bred over and over again with others who had similar shell strength. My actual powers won't be revealed until my evolution into Parasect, since my shroom will be much bigger then."
Preparing to walk away, Dust responded with a stunned expression on his face. "Are you telling me your mushrooms are made of steel?"
With a nod, Paras focused normal energy on them, causing them to glow. "Pretty much. We of my line are called the Ironshroom Kings due to the toughness of our mushrooms."
"Incredible, are you guys like royalty? Why would you choose me, then? My name is Dust Highbrook, by the way. "
"Third Prince Chikibzargadink Ironshroom. A pleasure to meet you. Ah, about royalty? Yeah, as you can tell by my title. There are around four thousand Paris in our main tribe, ruled by my family, but the group living in our forest is an offshoot managed primarily by myself and the leader you saw earlier. I'm weaker but more likely to gain power in the future, so he acts as a leader during any fights." Paris explained while climbing onto Dust's head.
"Then why would you go with me? Won't your offshoot tribe thing be in trouble without you? Also, can I call you Chiki?"
Paras clicked in laughter. "They'll be fine without me. The second Prince is there too, and they have around 200 other Paras. I'm there more to gain experience, but I don't want to deal with all of those responsibilities. Why did I choose you? You're my get-out-of-jail-free card! Eh? Why did I say that? What does it mean? Whatever. I also chose you because you beat me in a one-on-one, Dusty."
Although he cringed at that nickname, Dust thought it was honestly a valid price to pay in exchange for calling Paras 'Chiki.'
"Good. Wouldn't wanna mess up the ecosystem because I wanted you."
"Ha! Gay."
"Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean."
"Of course I do. Everything will be fine. I actually have a question for you though."
"Hmm?"
"Are you a human? Father told me about you guys. That a human alone can bring out the full potential of a pokemon, and that if the right one ever came around, I should follow you to your civilization in a small ball."
Dust nodded. "Yup, and I'm on the way to civilization, a city by the name of Verdain."
As he returned to the ground with a hop to train his legs a bit, Chiki replied, "Figured."
The two of them continued for around thirty minutes in companionable silence before Chiki once again began to speak. "So Dust, tell me about your past life."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
King_Rattata
King_Rattata Plz don't drop... Paras is the only one who will know. Nobody else ever. Just gimme a chance. Pre-empting the backlash here.
Also I am a baby Onix. I need lots of stones to grow big and strong.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone