EVERYONE: Shadows Over Hoenn (A Choose Your Own Adventure Story)

[Lone_Garurumon]

You command the final attack.

The Zigzagoon is surely on maximum alert, so body press is probably not going to be as effective as before, so its better to use something else: Lairon, dig!

Roaring, Lairon strikes the ground with its claws, easily tearing through the flooring and underlying foundation. As it's digging, you notice something, and a pit forms in your stomach. Lairon's letting off dark wisps. Within moments Lairon's disappeared into the ground, and all traces of the wisps were gone. The Rocket Grunt, having apparently regained her composure, shouts an instruction of her own.
"Supersonic!" She calls. Loudred blasts a wave of super-high pitched sound directly towards Zigzagoon. Its eyes cross and its stance becomes unsteady as the sound's effect takes hold. Zigzagoon stumbles in all directions, trying desperately to regain its composure. A few moments later, the floor behind Zigzagoon bursts open in a blast of dark flame, revealing Lairon, cloaked in that same sickly dark aura. Snarling, Lairon grabs hold of Zigzagoon's tail in its mouth and begins to swing it around like a rag doll. Lairon slams Zigzagoon into the ground a few times before tossing it into the air. As Zigzagoon falls toward the ground, Lairon rears back onto its hind legs and roars. Just as Zigzagoon impacts the ground, Lairon slams back down, causing dark spikes of stone to burst from the ground below Zigzagoon, knocking it back into the air before retracting as it falls. Lairon, still cloaked in the dark aura, stares at its foe lying defeated on the ground. Seemingly deciding that there was nothing more to do with Zigzagoon, Lairon turns towards Loudred and growls.
"Seriously... What the hell is going on..." She whispers, more to herself than to you, as she takes in the situation in front of her.

Let's hope your ally has a ball to capture it, because leaving it around, unconscious and clearly beaten up, may be very well more suspicious than it seeming to disappear.

Something tells you this isn't quite the time for such a thing. We'll get back to this later, but for now, how do you handle Lairon's disturbing development?

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

Spoiler: Author's preamble and short story recap

Oh, hi, it's been a while, huh? Yeah, I kinda fell off of updating this and then just couldn't bring myself to come back to it 'cause it's just kinda awkward to a point, y'know? Like, I have a reason, kinda, I guess, but not really so much an excuse. But I'm back to it now, and I'll try to keep updating it until it's done.
A quick recap of events so you don't need to run over the entire story again (though you could if you wanted, it's only 21 updates up to this one):

• You woke up in a strange place, unable to remember anything before the last day or so, with your two Pokemon, Lairon and Corphish, missing.
• You located Lairon, who has been transformed from his sweet and cuddly self into a vicious beast.
• With the help of a Team Rocket Grunt, you placated Lairon with some poffins and returned it to its ball.
• You traveled through a short underground tunnel with the Rocket Grunt to the R&D building to learn more about the strange phenomenon plaguing Lairon.
• You found a Zigzagoon suffering from the same affliction as Lairon, and together with the Rocket Grunt defeated it in battle.
• After the battle, Lairon became wrapped in a dark aura and turned its anger towards its comrade, bringing us to the current moment:

Just try to placate it with the Poffins currently around, and/or talk it into approaching; then get the critter back home in its ball.

"Hey, buddy." You say as you slowly slip your bag off your shoulder, reaching in to get out the box of poffins. They calmed it down last time, so maybe they'll work again. But it also wasn't this bad last time. "It's ok, don't worry, it's all gonna be alright." You produce a poffin from the box, Lairon glaring at you and growling the entire time, its dark aura still blazing. As much as you desperately want to reach out to it, your survival instincts scream at you to keep your distance from whatever is happening here. You gently toss the poffin towards Lairon. Its eyes instantly lock on to the flying bun and it leaps, maw wide. It snaps its mouth closed on the bun as it lands. It gnashes down on the poffin and shakes its head back and forth, half-chewed chunks flying from its mouth. It didn't eat it. Heck, you're not sure if it even really tasted it. Once Lairon had finished demolishing the poffin, it turned at you and charged.
"Thunder Punch!" You feel yourself being flung sideways as the Rocket Grunt's Loudred buries its electrically charged fist in Lairon's face, sending it skidding a little bit, the Grunt herself lying on top of you after tackling you to the side. "I'm sorry, but we can't deal with whatever this is." She says, helping you to your feet. You get up and take in the scene, Loudred standing between you and Lairon, who was getting up. Desperately, you pull Lairon's Dusk Ball from your bag and aim it at your Pokemon, calling for a recall. The red beam shoots from the ball, and dissipates on Lairon's aura. The return beam can't even touch it like this. It's not responding to poffins or your voice, and it can't be returned. You're either going to have to cut your losses and get out of here, or try to weather this down in a battle.

You have 5 poffins left.
You can definitely make it to the door to the rest of the R&D building if you go now. You might be able to get back to the tunnel if you're quick. Or, maybe, you can have Loudred and the Rocket Grunt try and battle Lairon down.

 

[Lone_Garurumon]

make it to the door to the rest of the R&D building

Taking one last look at Lairon, you tear yourself away and grab the Rocket Grunt's arm.
"Come on, we have to get out of here." You say, trying your best to keep your voice level. You both sprint to the door to the rest of the R&D building. She extends her Great Ball and recalls Loudred as Lairon leaps for it. Its head snaps around to the two of you as you flee and it begins to give chase. You slam the door shut behind you. Thinking it best not to take chances, you run all the way to the other end of the hall. The door you can from bangs a couple times, then falls silent.
"What... What was that back there?" The Rocket Grunt says, visibly shaken. "I've seen some of the Pokemon that they do... Whatever it is to. And they're always aggressive, but I've never seen them just go crazy like that." Meanwhile, you simply slump against the wall, dejected. You'd found Lairon, and you'd thought you'd gotten through to it. But now you'd been forced to leave it behind as it went wilder than ever. What else was there to do? Was it even possible to get Lairon back to normal? And what about Corphish? You still had no idea where it even was. Well, you are in R&D. Maybe there's something around here that could be helpful. Couldn't hurt to look, right? You stand up straight and place your hand on the Rocket Grunt's shoulder.
"Hey, you ok?" You ask. She straightens up and takes a deep breath.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm ok. Gonna take more than that to scare me off. Although..." She trails off as she looks back down the hall. "I've never actually been in this building before, so I'm not actually sure where we wanna go next. I guess just pick a door?"

Spoiler: Currently known map with known rooms labelled

You have lost Lairon.
What's the next course of action?