Not much happened during the next two days. As far as life or death.
The training went well, as far as Carlos could tell. Mankey had a decent grasp on detect compared to a couple of days ago but his efficiency and mastery was still piss poor.
Even with Mankey’s superior talent he burned through 20% of his TE, by over focusing and only had about a 10% efficiency, compared to the efficiency Carlos had with the move.
Poochyena kept up a front of strength and dependability but it was clear that a mon wasn’t meant to run itself dry each day. Her constant training with using tackle had actually upgraded it to a cardinal move and also granted her quick attack, which wasn’t a cardinal move yet but belonged to the cardinal domain of tackle.
Both the moves had a huge overlap. quick attack and tackle would both count as 1 cardinal move if poochyena could master it.
Both mons had also gained their first level. To Carlos’s surprise, this also leveled him. Although his stat increases were way less than the mon’s. He was mostly shocked that both had 3 aspects that had gained a whopping 20%
Updated in pre chapter notes
Quick attack: (U/A)eligible for nimble ability
A utility move. Buff your speed and reflex by doubling both for 1 second. May follow up with unmodified normal attack. Or another attack move known by user.
utility mastery: novice
utility cost: 10% +50 flat normal TE.
Poochyena was terrible at quick attack, much like Mankey was bad at detect. She couldn’t keep up with the speed and often overshot her target or tumbled onto her snout. Which she hated. All her focus was now on mastering quick attack.
Mankey on leveling up. gained 20% in HP, Defense and his TE. Mankey hitting himself in secret to test Carlos’s theory of a berserker build, paid off. His smug smile was absolute. He had won, the boss mon had lost. All the aggravation Carlos had felt when he caught Mankey pummeling his own face behind a tree, had been for naught.
”Yea keep smirking you smug bastard. Wait till I figure out how to make you suffer.” Carlos muttered darkly but in jest. If anything, it only encouraged Mankey. He feigned a jab to his own jaw teasing his boss mon and pretending to faint.
Carlos chuckled at his antics but let Mankey have his victory.
Poochyena gained her 20% in TE, reflex and speed.
Somehow his basic training routine and the constant marching had caused this but how, was a complete mystery. If the partial journals of Reid were anything to go by, getting 20% in 3 aspects had been exceedingly difficult for him. Carlos chalked it up to his own mon’s being low level delta and Reid mostly talking about alpha mon’s.
Regardless of Poochyena’s struggles with quick attack. She seemed to have won a ongoing competition between her and Mankey, who’s victory of leveling was quickly getting soured by some underhanded comments from Poochyena.
“Hey poochyena, it’s not entirely fair to make a contest, when you trained something you are already good at and meant to be good at, while Mankey is learning 2 things at once that are diametrically opposed to how he thinks.”
Poochyena took it like the big girl she was and stopped making teasing underhanded comments to Mankey.
Carlos continued: ”That’s right. We are a pack now. The pack has eachothers back. You both might need to trust eachother with your life. In such a moment you should not feel doubt but comfort from one another you hear?”
She nodded. ”besides I told you, it’s a BAD idea to train taunt, on Mankey.”
”Yes alpha. Pooch I won’t tease mankey as much from now on” she walked over to the pouting monkey and gave him a playful headbutt. Mankey grumbled but playfully shoved her while looking the other way.
Carlos sighed, feeling melancholic but satisfied. “The two of you will be just fine” he thought.
As they settled down for the night on the 5th day. Carlos called Mankey over.
“Hey sit down and let me show you something”, Carlos waited for mankey to sit. He got up and showcased a simple block and counter motion Carlos had learned from observing kickboxing in his many sparring sessions. His own style back on earth was an extreme version of karate, that still taught lethal moves.
However Carlos felt that kickboxing or hell, if he could find it in, tai boxing would be a beautiful style for Mankey. He showed the motions a dozen times and sat down. “Tell me mankey, what was the most important part?”
Mankey didn’t think long. “Punch the punch so you can punch the face.”
Carlos had to suppress a chuckle. In a way Mankey was right, blocking or deflecting an incoming attack, was basically: “punching the punch”.
”Correct I’m punching the punch but no. The most important part are the feet. Look again but only at the feet this time.”
Carlos showed him again. Mankey looked at Carlos feet and didn’t get it. So Carlos showed him again. By the 7th time Carlos got bored of showing it slowly and sped up. By the 12th time he was going full speed forgetting he was trying to teach Mankey footwork. It felt nostalgic to go through the exercise again.
”OO!! Me gets it! You kicks ground without lifting feet. to make punch, go punchy punch!”
Carlos was elated that mankey got it. Even though the words he emoted were simple. The fact he understood that footwork needed your feet to never leave the ground so quickly, was evidence of the depth of his latent talent. If Carlos had to he honest he was a bit jealous. It had taken a while for him to truly comprehend the importance in theory.
”Yes kicking the ground like I did without feet leaving ground is called footwork.”
”Me calls it kicksdirt. Easier to keep in head. Footswork too long a word”
Carlos was about to correct him but he stopped. He had no idea how mankey’s brain worked. And as long as Mankey understood the concept, the term didn’t matter.”
”Ok kicksdirt easier for the mind. Now mankey I will now show you a series of punching the punch to punch the face. follow my lead ok?” Carlos looked at Poochyena who was observing.
”Hey girl come over here and observe. You might get something out of it. If nothing else, it will teach you how bipedal pokemon fight.” She nodded and trodded over and made herself comfortable.
“Ok im going to show you the first kata of karate ok?”
and so Carlos worked through a series of flurries of blocks, counters and punches. He told Mankey to adjust for his body type and the jealousy Carlos felt for mankey’s latent talent flared. The little furball was a Mike Tyson in the making.
It didn’t take long for Carlos to be drained of all the kata’s he knew from the few years of karate. He improvised more complicated and complex blocks and counters, telling mankey to practice it. Seeing Mankey’s eyes glitter as he absorbed it all was a reward in of itself.
”Dis makes me tingly on the inside boss.”
“Im glad it does Mankey. Im glad it does” Carlos responded while absentmindedly giving poochyena belly rubs.
The next day they got up bright and early and began their march. In some ways the routine was comforting. Carlos checked his bag and noted that their supply of jerky was dwindling fast. Running your mon’s ragged makes them hungry. They had found a TE fruit but none of them had liked the idea of eating it. It was the ultra sweet one. Everyone hated the flavor. Carlos was a bit of a sweet tooth but this atrocious thing pretending to be a fruit was an insult to the sophistication of sweetness.
It felt like he was biting into sugar. Both his mon’s had aggressively refused to eat it at first. Eventually they had bargained him down to a shoulder ride for an entire morning.
So Carlos was stuck on a hot day. With two of the smuggest furballs this side of the mountain, sitting on his shoulders.
Carlos had a very stern face, a face that promised some very tough training tonight but secretly he was happy that these two had been so assertive. In hindsight the fruit might have been more torturous than he gave it credit. Poochyena had struggled keeping her breakfast down. And after 2 quick dismounts and barfing, Carlos decides that the sweet TE fruit wasn’t worth the time.
When reaching the top of a large hill side, they were greeted by a huge valley with 3 rivers converging into a big lake. Even from this distance he saw many water pokemon, grass pokemon and normal pokemon. A verdant paradise. Carlos felt the relief settle in. They could rest here. Recuperate from their mental fatigue. His eyes roamed the huge valley.
Slowpoke’s, psyducks, oddish and their evolutionary forms including some pokemon thar were unmistakably fairy types. The ethereal aura they had was palpable. Although he had no clue what their names were.
The long hillside that stretched a few miles in each direction. Was the home of a Diggersby and Lopunny colony. many holes had been dug out, hobbit style. Each hole sported flower decorations and small little gardens with vegetables and fruit bushes he didn’t recognize. It looked cozy, friendly and lovely. It felt surreal looking at this peaceful life.
At first glance the lopunny were a furry, hot, sexy rabbit woman. However any and all deviant notion that might have popped up in his head as an intrusive thought, got thoroughly crushed within the span of time it took one Lopunny, to leap from the bottom of the hill, to the top and shake his hand before his mon’s could react.
She flashed a smile with razor sharp Piranha teeth, that she retracted and immediately replaced with human looking teeth. “Two sets of teeth” Carlos thought, slightly freaking out. She bend forward and whispered into his ear.
”Lo~ hey there… sexy” she teased with obvious over the top sultry tones. Her eyes told Carlos she enjoyed teasing him. It felt like he was staring at a lethal viper.“Puuuny~ We don’t often get visits of such a … tasty male morsel of the hewmon’s~. whats a juicy bite like you doing all alone?”
Both Mankey and Poochyena growled and bared their teeth in anger. “Away you creepsy female! You cant eats him!” mankey yelled.
Poochyena growled. “GET your FILTHY paws of him you F****** SL**!” Carlos hand snapped Poochyena’s maw closed before she could say that last word. “Are you nuts!? You can’t talk like that to someone!! Where did you learn that anyway? Poochyena stubbornly kept her mouth shut, and scoffed. Carlos was really touched though by his pokemon so readily protective of him.
The lopunny didn’t seem to be bothered, laughed even. “Ow don’t you worry tasty hewmon. We carry that title with…. Pride. I think it’s cute, how possessive she is of you~”. Poochyena stammered and Carlos swore he saw a pink tint to her cheeks.
Lopunny shrugged. “This is in our nature. Much like howling at the moon is for you little girl~” her tone of voice unironically reminded Carlos of Jessica Rabbit. She turned to him again striking a sultry pose.
“You haven’t answered my question ~ are you one to keep a dame waiting~Looopuny~?” Her voice went low and soothing. So smooth. So sweet.
Carlos smacked himself in the face and snapped out of it.
”what the fuck did she just do?” He wondered. He answered her question with a bit of a tease himself.
”ow you know, me and my mons are just taking in the sights. decided we should go on a leisurely hiking trip in the mountains. Can’t say I’m disappointed so far.”
“My, my, quite the resistance you got there. Definitely not like the other few hewmons I met in my life. But come along now, I would be remiss in not inviting you to my old man’s place.” She began strutting down the mountain. Carlos, with his guard up. Decided to follow along.
Carlos&co walked into bunny town.
The bunny pokemon were very cute but incredibly touchy. The Buneary were all over Mankey pulling on his fur, shyly offering him flowers, which he ate but spat out. The goofy Diggersby, were all trying to show Poochyena their attempts at digging holes.
However Carlos had not been prepared for the dangers of the Pokemon world. The young Lopunny were all over him.
The Lopunny, were the very definition of sultry and seduction. From the looks of it, the Diggersby were the homesteaders, digging the holes out, turning them into living spaces and sometimes beautiful hovels.
It was not a pleasant experience. It terrified him and he began to stammer his way through each conversation. unable to focus on simple thoughts. Poochyena and Mankey tried, without success, to pull him out of the mess.
This went on for a bit until a larger, older? Lopunny walked up to the scene, fuming at the young Lopunnies. She ruthlessly whacked them all. Apparently they had been using a born ability on him. Most Lopunny were born with a ability called cute charm.
His dark typing gave him some form of immunity but not to the extend of a full fledged pokemon and getting bombarded by multiple sources of cute charm was too much for his innate resistance.
Each lopunny guilty of using it, including the one that had initially greeted him, was forced on their knees and made to apologize. Carlos had no idea how to respond but he was glad it was over.
The older Lopunny explained it was a huge faux pas in Lopunny / diggersby society, to use it on someone, without their consent.
Most Lopunny had cute charm and from what Carlos could tell. They were all female.
The diggersby pokemon, were all male from what he saw. This seemed to be a safe place for them because judging by the numbers of bunnelby and buneary. They multiplied like rabbits on earth. There was a LOT.
The female bunnies were definitely higher on the scale of intelligence and if Carlos didn’t know any better he would say the Lopunny, had on average a higher IQ than him.
The initial Lopunny, a lot more humble and reserved in her demeanor. Finally brought him to a gorgeous hovel of a hole and lead him inside. She kept apologizing and begged Carlos not to tell her mom. Carlos shrugged and agreed.
Carlos was greeted by a huge, friendly and overly fat looking Diggersby. His home was littered with simple furniture and it created an incredibly cozy atmosphere. His mate for life, the mother, was all over the goofy looking diggerby, constantly complementing his girth.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“well whatever floats your boat” Carlos thought.
The freakishly powerful bunny couple, warmly welcomed him and invited him for dinner. The food was amazing but for some reason his memory was hazy of that night. Sleeping in a soft bed had him knocked out completely. When he woke up it was midday.
One particular Lopunny that day, who was born without cute charm, was appointed to him as a liaison to prevent any unfortunate accidents.
“Lo Don’t worry Carlos, I’l protect you~ from those slutty sisters of mine~. Punny~ You are lucky the gardevoires Lopunny left not that long ago. Those whores were really freaky”
”Note to self, never catch a lopunny or whatever a Gardevoir is” Carlos made a mental note.
Mankey POV
“By the 7th day, the alpha saw that the work was good and blessed the patch of bunny fur he had slept upon stating, and I quote: We are resting today.”
Mankey was telling his dead-dad, quietly in his head-mind. Dead-dad wasn’t as bad as he told the boss-mon. But dead-dad had told him clearly, never show your softies to the boss of the troupe.
“The new soft-boss is mysterious in his ways. Today the creepy bunnies brought us to their food. Grass pokemon. The weak grass mon’s we were surrounded by, tasted like grass and will never grace the insides of my mouth ever again.”
Mankey shivered, remembering the anger of boss-mon.
“Boss-mon sure wasn’t happy I bit someone’s butt. He became scary again just like when he told me he wanted me to hit myself. Stupid meganium, her fat ass wouldn’t miss a bite. I tried hitting myself when Boss-mon wasn’t looking even though he told me not to. He thinks I need to hit softer first. But you know me dead-dad, I had to try and it works! I don’t need to hit others for the mind-fog to go away! But then boss-mon found out and he got super scary again. I don’t know how he does it. he isn’t super-strong or nasty-triksy but he’s still scary-strong.”
Mankey grumbled and mumbled deep in thought. he struggled putting his tingle deep thoughts and conversations he had with his dead-dad into actual words.
When boss-Mon-Carlos called him deep. it tingled far in his mind, his himself. All that fire he had inside, all that desire. All the knowing, all the words, he didn’t know how to express or use. It frustrated him to no end. He felt the soft hand of boss-mon plop down on his head, scratching behind the ear. Felt good.
”I think I know what you can improve mankey, you have lots of anger and rage. A fire inside right?”
Big-boss-mon was big but soft. But his voice was deep and hard like stone. Boss-mon’s eyes looked at him and saw his inside fire, his inside himself. Boss-mon eyes always made his fire warm and calm.
Mankey nods. Mankey knew that fire ever since he could think.
“the fire guides you. But you don’t guide the fire and then the fire begins to consume you. Eat you on the inside. If you don’t guide the fire, the fire burns you and you get mad. No longer angry but failing and weak.
When fire wants to guide, you must guide just as hard. Not less, not more. Just as much. When you can do that. Your fire will listen.”
Mankey looked at boss mon. He didn’t understand a word boss-mon was saying but it made him tingle inside. He liked those tingles. So mankey nodded.
”Punching myself also punches my fire so it listens to mankey, me gets it Man.”
”yea something like that, now it might take a while for it to start listening ok? So take your time and take it easy. Don’t knock yourself out you hear?”
Boss-mon had that soft worry in his voice again, it felt like his words punched his fire. Boss-mon wasn’t super strong like mankey, or huge-boss-primeape or dead-dad. Boss-mon was soft-strong a different strong that made funny and good tingles on the inside. Felt good, like winning. He nodded resolutely.
”Yes boss!” Mankey snuggled into the sleeping bag and fell asleep.
A little earlier that day
Carlos sighed. Today was meant to be a rest day and somehow it was more exhausting than marching for a full day.
First, it had been the constant badgering of the Lopunny, that luckily simmered down. But he was the “talk of the town”. So obviously they had lot of curiosity. Then his Liaison had lead him away from bunny town and lead into the fields and meadow that contained the grazing chikorita and a big chubby looking Meganium.
This is when Mankey decided to be a cheeky little shit and needed to taste Meganium, by chomping into her rump. The absolute chaos that ensued had been a whirlwind of him trying to prevent them from getting stomped in a stampede.
Poochyena usually a good girl had drooled when Mankey had described the taste of Meganium’s dry-ass butt. The exit he made after that, had been very, very speedy.
Currently both his mon’s had made themselves scarce, but not before the Lopunny, his Liaison, made clear which mon’s could be hunted around here. She was quietly staring at the fire.
He noted that even though she didn’t have the cute charm ability, she was still a femme fatale type of character, constantly putting on the charms.
she giggled.
Carlos chuckled awkwardly. “What’s so funny?” He asked.
”ooow nothing~~~ just, I’ve never seen Meganium look so perturbed, she’s usually so regal and stuck up” she did her cute uncanny giggle again. “I think Your mankey is really cute. Especially when you scolded him. That was super sex..” she coughed and scooted away. “Sorry I know you think we are unattractive, it’s in our nature to seduce. Diggersby can be so slow on the uptake.”
“You are beautiful creatures but I’m not compatible with you” Carlos didn’t know how else to say it.
Lopunny nodded her head sagely. “I understand, many of the Lopunny are like that, many of the pokemon are like that. But don’t you think there can be room for something more …. Unconventional?” Although the question was controversial, and scandalous to Carlos’s ears. He picked up on the Lopunny’s genuine innocently tinged curiosity and decided to bite.
”Absolutely. Love knows no bounds. Look at my rag tag group of ruffians for example. A Poochyena taught to hate Mankey and a Mankey taught to hate Poochyena. Now only a week later traveling together, I caught mankey grooming poochyena’s fur.”
Lopunny tilted her head and stared at him blank.
”In a Mankey troupe, grooming eachother’s fur, is part of how they bond as a culture and group.”
Lopunny nodded and looked at the fire. “That makes sense. It’s a different love then what im talking about though.”
Carlos sighed. “How many summers have you lived?”
“16”
”A conjugal relationship needs both parties to be roughly on equal grounds, equal strength, same species, shared values. And a commitment that needs to grow overtime. If any of these is out of balance, resentment will inevitably be seeded, fester and destroy the relationship.
There is a reason why the elders of a society, place sometimes ludicrous restrictions on such relationships. It’s far too easy to walk into something so profound when you are young and inexperienced. Becoming damaged beyond recognition. Conjugal relationships are complicated enough on the best of terms. The more complicated you make them, the more you risk getting hurt.”
Carlos was quiet for a bit, realizing he was talking to himself just as much as the Lopunny. Idly he wondered when his mon’s would be back.
“How old are you? You sound just like my dad.” The Lopunny said jokingly. “I hear you though. It’s tough enough as it is, trying with someone who is like you, whom you feel like, is your soulmate and they don’t respond to you for the longest of time.”
There was as sadness to her voice that Carlos knew too well. He had dreamt about that sadness not that long ago.
“This a Diggersby slow on the uptake?” Carlos asked. Lopunny nodded.
“You have no idea! Been seducing this dude up a storm for months, close to half a year and he’s just playing hard to get, no responses at all. I had given up a month ago. Then yesterday out of the blue he invited me to his hole. I ask him what this was all about, turns out, he started digging that hole in the rockside of the hill half a year ago. Because he wanted to make his house solid. For me.” Lopunny looked conflicted. “Id already given up. Already had my heart broken.”
Carlos didn’t know what to say. He walked over and patted her on the shoulder. “Sounds like an absolute moron.” She laughed hard. Nodding at that.
”But… it sounds like, he’s your moron.”
She snapped a bit ”Yea I fucking know that. It was an incredible sweet gesture but he should have told me from the get go.”
“Men often feel inadequate, and get paralyzed with fear especially when young and awkward, which seems to be universal.” Carlos shrugged, “I wasn’t that different to be honest.” She gave him an indescribable look. Carlos couldn’t place that one, she was about to say something but turned her head back to the fire.
They remained quiet, the Lopunny deep in thought. Until Both Mankey and Poochyena came back all exited. Mankey was lugging 3 small nickits in his paws and poochyena had a pidgey in her beak. “Ah it seems they brought a peace offer.” Carlos quipped.
Lopunny laughed sweetly at that. ”well I should get going” she brushed herself off and waved at his mon’s. “It was good to talk to you Carlos, you gave me something to think about.” Carlos nodded and with that she hopped off.
The experience with the Arbok could have resulted in the loss of his life. Bunny town felt like he could potentially lose something of himself.
The fact that cute charm had worked on him at all, meant there was some deep hidden latent attraction inside of him. He was utterly disgusted with himself on that front but he also knew that this instinctive urge was only a small partial reason why he reacted so strongly. The biggest reason this was such a big deal at all, was his own emotional vulnerability.
This whole ordeal had shoved his face into his own emotional turmoil. A turmoil of which he only had fragmented memories. He was an emotional mess. He could be a trainer. A surrogate dad to his mons but a man? He didn’t even know what a man was supposed to be like anymore. His memory was still fragmented and after the initial memory cascades he had the first few days, the cascades had stopped completely. But the sore and raw feeling in his chest didn’t lie.
Carlos was utterly exhausted emotionally and looked at mankey using his knife quite deftly, to strip the nickits of their meat. Poochyena, who was missing opposing thumbs carried her bounty to him and he began plucking the pidgey.
He got the fire roaring and after about an hour all of them ate their fill. The Nickits had a spicy flavor that mankey adored. And Carlos liked the strong gamy flavor it had.
Poochyena was savoring the dry bird meat. It tasted like dry chicken. Just how she loved it.
”Hey you guys. I think I want to give you names.”
Both pokemon looked at him with starry eyes.
Poochyena POV
“Alpha told me I was a good girl today and I should go play today, Alpha gave me lots of belly rubs and sadly scratches to the not-that-stupid monkey. He should only give me belly rubs. Not-that-stupid monkey, monkey is smelly, loud, stoopid but I can’t let Alpha hear that, he makes stern face when he does. Alpha says monkey is simple but deep. Just like me say! stoopid monkey happy when alpha calls him simple-deep! Me say he’s simple, he’s mad! Says me mock him. Pff off course me mock him.
Monkey says that he’s super-strong and alpha soft-strong and that we needs to be soft strong too. Pff Super strong can’t even hit me once today.
Stoopid monkey can’t see that alpha is strong in the head. so strong it makes both our head’s hurt. Me proud it hurts me less then monkey.”
Poochyena looked up at the starry night through the slit of the tent, at the end of that 7th day. A day full of wonderful playing, hunting and eating pidgey. Her belly was full.
It had felt good not to have her uncles spirit in her belly. But both mommy and uncle had been super strict in making sure their little girl would be strong enough to take their spirit when the time came. Poochyena was glad it was almost over, she didn’t know how much longer she could have kept going.
“Ok time for me go sleep mommy. I hopes awkeus is nice-strong like new alpha.”
Poochyena yawned and dozed off snuggling a bit closer to alpha, his smell almost masked the smell of not-so-bad-mankey.
Before she fell asleep. She said one last thing to mommy, making sure she wouldn’t wake alpha.
”oow mommy before you go! Alpha says he will give me name! Just like you! Ok bye, love you mommy.”
Poochyena was asleep half a minute later.
Carlos had been awake for the whole thing, tears were falling from his face silently and it took him all he had not to start shaking.
Carlos ended up spending a week in the Valley. As uncomfortable he was at first with the bunnies. Once they understood where the boundaries lay, they were very careful not to cross it. At the end of the day they turned out to be nothing more than sweet lovable bunnies. He talked to the various pokemon he encountered.
He tried talking to a slowpoke. It took the pokemon a full minute to say hello, to then respond to Carlos next question all perfectly in order just with an intense delay. Carlos decided to be polite and wait for the mon to finish each of his perfect immaculate series of responses.
longest 10 minutes of his life.
Both his mon’s hunted together and had figured out how to hunt nickits and the occasional pidgey. Their training went well.
Both would be able to use detect and quick attack in combat soon.
after the week was done. Traversing the last hill of the valley, fully stocked up on food. Both his Mon’s with a raggedy backpack made of nickit furs.
He took one last look and turned back to the road. He was happy with his time here and relieved to continue. Overall it had been a great experience. Grass pokemon were basically hippies and super chill and didn’t have a competitive bone in their body. The water pokemon had been a surreal experience as well. Many of the fish pokemon had Swim as their ability. Sounded super mundane until a goldeen gracefully swam through the air.
A golduck had explained that most water Pokemon had latent psychic abilities. The fairy types stayed very far away from him. He didn’t mind, he had enough to mull over. For the first time since coming here, he felt that pokemon experience that people resonated with while watching the show and playing the games.
The next day they made good progress, both Mankey and Poochyena were perched on one of Carlos’s shoulder. He thanked arceus again for his brick of a body. He estimated both were around the 60 pound mark and he would never been able to do this back on earth.
The 3 rufffians were walking up a small hill. Just as Carlos was trying to think on how to tackle the connundrum of possibly scaling 1 of the two mountains that came after this hill. Both looking like mount Everest.
A bone chilling roar ripped through the forest followed by a howl of two other Pokemon. Carlos hadn’t heard either before. Carlos instantly tapped the return button for both his pokemon and hid in the bushes, frightened and looking for better cover. A battle somewhat close ensued and the intense roars of fire and rage heated up the near vicinity. The chill of the late morning was dispelled over a few seconds.
As the battle between what sounded like huge pokemon continued, Carlos crawled over the crest of the hill.
What he saw was two massive badger like Pokemon, wreathed in flames standing in front of 3 smaller badgers, fight a flock of three headed dragons. The Badgers were hopelessly outnumbered 3 to 1.
Badgers if you didn’t know, are fearless, gutsy, don’t take no for an answer and have zero chill.
these two massive badgers dialed this concept up to eleven. Didn’t take Carlos long to figure out these were 2 parents protecting their young.
Carlos was quietly rooting for the Badgers. But he had seen this scenario a few times already with other Pokemon. One of the parent Badgers barreled forward in a spin and curled up. He rolled towards a Dragon swooping in and the Badgers fur gained a stony sheen. Instead of slowing down, it flared the fire on his back to increase the spinning. His fur gained a molten rock texture to it and the Dragon overextended too far and the Badger slammed into the dragons center head. The other two heads didn’t hesitate and chomped down into the badger who casually grabbed one of the side heads, planted its feet and did a whole body flex, ripping the head off. The dragon roared and 2 of the other 5 dragon-mons flew in to assist. Meanwhile 1 dragon was constantly harassing the 3 smaller ones.
Credit due, were credits due. The 3 worked together in tandem. When one got snatched up by the maw of one of the heads the other 2 jumped into him gripping, ripping off scales blasting the bare skin to scorch it and rip and tear further.
the other parent badger was on the defensive blasting each dragon with a constant barrage of flame, infernal balls of White hot fire exploding, reddening the skin on Carlos’s face a 1000 feet away.
“Fuck me! what I wouldn’t give, getting one of those badgers on our team.” Carlos mused. He recognized them as quilava’s and typhlosions. The Typhlosion that was fighting 3 dragons on his own was moving slower and slower. The multitude of bleeding wounds and underhanded cheap shots it suffered took their toll. He had ripped a few more heads off 2 of them had 2, the other only 1 left. They encircled him.
The other typhlosion let out a desperate haunting roar. But couldn’t get close enough. It had it’s hands full protecting itself and the quilava. The 3 quilava’s put up a good fight but they were hopelessly outmatched. The dying Typhlosion in a moment it could catch it’s breath grumbled something to the other Typhlosion.
All the big mon’s frooze. Including the dragons. The defending Typhlosion, hung its head in resignation but the way it snapped its head back in resolution and both mon’s began to glow, made the hairs on Carlos neck stand up. Simultaneously the heat began to build to sweltering degrees. “What the actual fuck?” Carlos felt like he was watching the eruption of a volcano.
The Lead Dragon roared and began whipping the other frightened dragons with it’s tail and managed to get them to attack but it was too late. Both Typhlosions emitted intense heat their bodies white hot, wrapped up in fire like infernal avatars of flame.
The dragons charged but it was too late. The Typhlosion that was dying barked out a gout of white hot flame so hot it ionized the air around it, creating cracks of static electric around it. It hit the now one headed dragon mid charge. thrashing from the heat that consumed it. It’s howls of agony were terrifying. The dying Typhlosion charged the closest dragon, giving it a bear hug burning that dragon to ashes. The Typhlosion slumped down after and died on the spot.
the last remaining Typhlosion tried but the Lead dragon took distance and directed the other 3 dragons and they taunted with jeers and roared hideous laughter. Although it didn’t land any kills it landed nasty burns on all 4 Dragons. But eventually It’s fire burned out.
It slumped down exhausted. Its flame extinguished. Panting it couldn’t get up. It gave up whimpering. That whimper would haunt Carlos for quite a while.
The quilava were dead already. No matter their fearless composure, they simply didn’t have what it took to fight dragons 4 times their own size. They got gobbled up quickly and the 4 remaining dragons didn’t take any chances with the puckered out Typhlosion.
They picked up the dead Typhlosion and flew off. They flew up in a spiral screeching at eachother, bringing them close to where Carlos was hiding under a bush. He heard their deep guttural voices when they flew over.
“Hy that is the last time you convince me to hunt Typhlosion’s drei that was terrifying. Did you know they could do that? Gon!!They almost got all of us!!”
one of the smaller Hydreigon. Complained.
The big one growled and almost let go of the body. ”Shut up Hydreigon! It worked Hy perfectly . I was gonna kill drei those two dumbasses drei anyway for their constant stupidity! Hydreigon! And what are you gluttonous punk Hydreigon complaining about! Now there is more for all of us!!”
At this the other two hackled, laughing darkly.
Carlos sighed. Still hidden. Waiting a good amount of time before he considered it safe. He let out his two mon’s and made sure they were silent. Not that he needed to. They both looked at the dying Typhlosion, half listening to the short summary Carlos gave on the events.
Both were quiet. Although neither was shaken about the Typhlosion family dying like Carlos was. He had to remind himself that this was normal for them. He started walking down the hill. They had to go that way. He pulled out his pokedex and wrote down everything while it was still fresh in his mind. He felt he could never forget this. As they walked in silence poochyena barked.
”Alpha! Alpha! Look a little one!” Carlos had just finished writing it down and looked where poohyena was pointing with her nose. He hadn’t seen the small cave from the crest of the hill. From it, a cyndaquil peeked out and zoned in on the Typhlosion that had passed out. It screamed a horrible gut wrenching screech.
“mommy!l
Carlos mind went blank. “Ow fuck me.”