Dwayne's Salamence

**Dwayne's Salamence** (Japanese: **ドゥエインのボーマンダ** *Douein's Bohmander*) is the ninth Pokémon that Dwayne caught during his travels in the Sinnoh region, and his thirty-ninth overall.

Before her capture at the hands of Dwayne, Salamence was the main battler and form of transportation of notorious Pokémon Hunter Cage.

## **New Era**

### **Sinnoh**

#### **With Cage**

Salamence was previously Pokémon Hunter Cage's main Pokémon, as well as his main form of transportation when not on his airship. Salamence made her first appearance, being used by Cage to help steal Melodi's Gardevoir.

Sometime later, Salamence and Cage's Drapion battled against Robyn Oak's Magnezone after Robyn and Dwayne attempted to stop Cage from stealing a group of Shieldon. Drapion and Salamence managed to swiftly defeat Magnezone before fleeing from the area. Later on, as Cage attempted to steal a Riolu for his clients, Dwayne and Riolu managed to escape within a forest, and Salamence was ordered by Cage to burn the forest completely with her Flamethrower in order to draw their enemies out.

During Cage's mission to capture the Legendary Pokémon Regigigas, Salamence was used to destroy the pillars containing Regigigas, which led to the Legendary Pokémon's awakening. Cage prepares to turn Regigigas to stone, but Regigigas stops him with Hyper Beam, forcing Salamence to counter it with Dragon Pulse. Cage retreats while Regigigas goes on a rampage.

When Cage was hired by Team Galactic to steal the Lake guardians, Salamence was used to battle against Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie, which ultimately leads to their capture. Upon returning to his ship, however, Cage, his henchmen, and their airship were struck by a Future Sight unleashed by Mesprit and Uxie, and as the ship flooded and exploded, Salamence's Poké Ball safely emerged from underwater and was returned to surface, along with Cage's Drapion and Dustox's Poké Balls. After the crisis was dealt with, Dwayne was led to their Poké Balls by Azelf, and summoned all three Pokémon from their Poké Balls.

Dwayne becomes wary, but calms down as he notices Salamence and the others looking around for their Trainer. Dwayne knows that most Pokémon only follow their Trainer's orders, despite being evil, and sadly informs the trio that their Trainer was gone. Salamence momentarily expresses shock, before firing out a Flamethrower skywards out of happiness, which greatly confuses Dwayne, with Drapion and Dustox following this by expressing happiness. As Salamence flaps its wings happily, Dwayne becomes confused, and decides to summon Gardevoir to talk to the Pokémon and translate why they were so happy. When Gardevoir talks to Salamence, Salamence's response causes Gardevoir to let out a small gasp and gently put her hand on Salamence, with Dwayne noting that it seemed that Gardevoir felt sympathetic towards the Dragon-type Pokémon.

Using her telepathy, Gardevoir speaks directly to Dwayne, saying that Salamence, as well as Dustox and Drapion, merely followed Cage's orders because Cage constantly threatned them with harm, and obeyed him out of fear, not loyalty. Feeling bad for the Pokémon, Dwayne makes a decision and shatters all three Poké Balls with his feet, and informs them they were all free. Dustox and Drapion let out happy cries before running off into the distance, while Salamence remains, clearly hesitating. After talking to Salamence, Gardevoir explains that Salamence felt ashamed of her actions, recalling all of the painful things she'd done to others while Cage's command, and felt she was undeserving of freedom, and even if she didn't believe she was at fault, Salamence felt like there was nowhere for her to belong, as she didn't have any family she was aware of. Dwayne tells Salamence that she wasn't to blame for Cage's actions, saying that up until this point, he'd never met a Pokémon that was inherently evil, and says that she shouldn't blame herself. Still, Salamence feels uneasy, afraid of being alone without a purpose. Then, Dwayne offers out his hand and asks Salamence if she wanted to join him, which catches Salamence's attention. Dwayne promises Salamence that she'll never feel unhappy and miserable again, and asks her to consider his offer. Recalling Dwayne's bravery and selflessness, Salamence agrees and bows down to him, mumbling something, with Gardevoir explaining that Salamence was thanking him, while referring to him as "master". However, Dwayne says that he wasn't Salamence's master, and this takes Salamence aback, who assumes that Dwayne changed his mind, but Dwayne says he wanted to be her friend, not her master. Upon hearing this, Salamence fights back tears and nods, and Dwayne promptly catches Salamence with Poké Ball, and promises to make her happy.

#### **With Dwayne**

Dwayne and Salamence battled together for the first time, when they faced off against Flint of the Elite Four, and his Infernape. Flint takes a good look at Salamence and recognizes it as Cage's Pokémon, having seen it from a news broadcast, and Dwayne explains Salamence's story, and Flint understands and smiles at how Dwayne was capable of redeeming Salamence. Salamence attacks with Dragon Pulse, but Infernape jumps in the air and the attack misses. While in the air, Salamence uses Dragon Tail, but the attack is blocked. Salamence then uses Hyper Beam, only for the attack to be countered and overpowered by a Flare Blitz, and Salamence is taken out.

During Dwayne's match against Sadie at the Lily of the Valley Conference, Salamence was chosen as his first Pokémon to battle against Sadie's Gallade. Up in the VIP room, Cynthia notes that Dwayne's Salamence was the same one that used to belong to Cage and she smiles, glad that Dwayne was capable of giving Salamence a second chance at redemption. Dwayne tells Salamence to use Flamethrower whilst Sadie has Gallade use Signal Beam, and the two attacks collide. Sadie then commands Gallade to use Close Combat, but Dwayne orders Salamence to use Hyper Beam, which lands a direct hit, Gallade out in one shot.

Sadie recalls Gallade and sends out Gastrodon. Sadie commands Gastrodon to use Hidden Power, as Dwayne commands Salamence to use Dragon Tail to block the attack and redirect it back towards Gastrodon. Gastrodon dodges the rebounded attack and lands a Water Pulse. Gastrodon follows up with Sludge Bomb, and Dwayne commands Salamence to dodge, which she does so. Ryder then commands Salamence's Hyper Beam, which lands and severely damages Gastrodon. However, knowing that Salamence was unable to move for a while, Sadie knows this is her one and only chance to gain the lead, and orders a barrage of Blizzard attacks, all of which land and severely damage Salamence, who's barely able to remain in the air. As Salamence recovers from Hyper Beam's after-effects, Dwayne commands Salamence to use Hyper Beam again while moving foward towards Gastrodon, and Gastrodon replies with Blizzard, and the attacks collide, causing an explosion that ultimately knocks both Pokémon out of battle, leaving Sadie with only one Pokémon left, while Dwayne still has two.

## **Personality and Characteristics**

When first encountered, Salamence seemingly appeared to have no problem in following Cage's commands, even cruel and ruthless ones, such as burning an entire forest with her Flamethrower to draw Dwayne and Riolu out. In actuality, however, Salamence completely despised her own Trainer, and detested following Cage's commands, but unbeknownst to everyone, Cage secretly threatned Salamence should she not follow his orders.

After Cage's demise, however, Salamence expressed pure joy and happiness upon being free from his tyrannical ways. However, despite her freedom, Salamence felt hesitant to explore the world, feeling ashamed of her actions, recalling all of the painful things she'd done to others while Cage's command, and felt she was undeserving of freedom, and even if she didn't believe she was at fault, Salamence felt like there was nowhere for her to belong, as she didn't have any family she was aware of, and was shown to suffer from monophobia, afraid of being alone in the world and without a purpose to exist.

After Dwayne responded in kind, reassuring Salamence that she wasn't at fault for Cage's actions, and offering a place in his team, Salamence, remembering the countless times Dwayne had risked himself for others, and wanting to serve an honest and kind-hearted Trainer, gladly accepted, showing that unlike her previous Trainer, Salamence shows tremendous regard for righteousness and selflessness. She originally viewed Dwayne as her "master", but when Dwayne pointed out he wasn't interested in being her master, but rather her friend, Salamence quickly grew to view Dwayne in the same light: as equals.

In terms of battling, Salamence proved herself extremely powerful, being able to battle toe-to-toe with Legendary Pokémon such as Regigigas and the Legendary titans, with Salamence battling all four simultaneously, as well as the Lake guardian trio of Azelf, Mesprit and Uxie. However, her strength has been shown to have limits, as when she was soundly defeated by Elite Four's Flint's Infernape. Furthermore, Salamence has also shown great durability, suffering a barrage of super-effective Blizzard attacks from Sadie's Gastrodon after being unable to move from Hyper Beam's after-effects, but she was still able to keep battling, although seriously injured.

## **Moves used**

 A **†** shows that the move was used recently, unless all moves fit this case or there are fewer than five known moves.