My mouth was on the floor as I watched the chaos unfold. In the distance, towards the docks, I could see flames, and throughout the street I could see people running in terror, strange black creatures nipping at their heels. Bipedal monsters, they almost looked like squat little fishmen or gremlins of some sort: pitch black fish-gremlins, with white, boney plates on their head designed to resemble a mask.
They were chasing after the people with incredibly obvious intent to do harm. A few of the villagers were trying to fight them off: I could see Tellah on the roof sniping them, and a few of them had grabbed spears and shields to try and make a barrier to slow them down, but there were too many coming too fast: each creature they stabbed would fall to the ground, evaporating into a fine black mist, only to be replaced by two more, and there weren't enough people to cover the entire street.
"Aaah, ahhh!" Oh god. Down the street I could see Baba, running from a particularly large creature: it kept letting the old, short woman get into a run before knocking her over and biting. "Help me! Someone help me!" She screamed, trying to scramble away from the monster that was playing with her.
The creature lept...
"IAZИAઘ!" Only to be cut to ribbons by Sam, who had descended from above. Taking a single step forward, the creature fell to its knees, before coming unravelled. "!Ɉɔɒ oɈ bɘɘn υoY !ɿɘɈƨɒM!" He said, jolting me from my furor just in time to notice one of the little bastarts swarming the town leaping at me...
Only to be set on fire, skin crackling and blazing, with it falling over and thrashing as white hot flame immolated it. The Salt Circle! "Sam, get Baba to the Salt Circle!" I commanded, reaching to my belt, doing some quick calculations in my head. Okay. It was go time: optimal strategy and level of force decided on.
I threw two balls. Salty and Faust. "You two, emergency! Wild pokemon attack! Faust, I want you to expand the circle and reinforce it. Salty, tank duty: get as many of those things on you as you can: I want you running Iron Defense and Rock Slide. See if you can make a few barriers to slow them down."
"Yes, my liege!" Faust proclaimed, quicky retrieving a bag of nacl salt from his pack and moving to widen the circle. Meanwhile, Salty quickly started moving, his aura already shifting as he began applying his combat buff. Slamming into one of the creatures trying to make its way up the street, the impact literally caused the creature to burst like a grape.
Okay, vicious but fragile. Felt kinda shitty about murdering them but they didn't exactly leave me a choice. Protected by Sam, Baba finally made her way to us, stumbling inside the salt circle. "The Grimm, the Grimm," She cried, shaking as she fell exhausted.
"The salt circle will protect you," I said, reassuring her. "Now, I need you to tell me what's going on now," I said, closing my eyes and calming myself: this wasn't time to panic. Time to enter Pokemon Professor mode.
"The Sea Gate, it was broken. A Dagon breached it, allowing rest of the Grimm into the town," She said, horrified, her breaths interspersed by sobs, no longer talking like she had in her office. Okay. So the source of these monsters was the sea gate then? Good. I knew where to go to solve this problem. "By the docks, so many trapped!"
I let out a breath. "Okay. Rest. I'll handle this."
She looked at me, unbelieving, still dazed and terrified. "A huntsman, are you?" She whispered, to which I shrugged. I was going to assume that was how they referred to their Ranger equivalents for now.
"Probably not," I admitted, drawing two more pokeballs from my waste and sending them out. On the right, Lucy, who cocked her head and let out a growl when she was what was happening. "Lucy, you're my ride," I said, snapping to get her attention as I rapidly clambered up her, getting into position. "Any of those creepy crawlies try to get me, chomp em," I said, before turning to the next pokemon, a reservist I kept in store for disasters.
"E-LEC-TRODE," Came the synthetic voice of the pokemon, carved elegantly from wood to resemble an monochrome pokeball from the days when they were made from the hard fruit of the apricorn tree, red and brown orb easily half my size borne from antiquity, the lucky discovery of an archeological dig in the ruins of a sunken pre-antiquity Sinnoh fishing village, and probably my most monetarily expensive pokemon. Mostly by dint of how much it cost to revive it from the petrified form it had been found in.
One of the perks of being one of the foremost experts on Crypto-Pokeology: I largely used it during lectures illustrating the effect human society and culture can have on the development of Pokemon. Also occasionally breeding when I needed money: you'd be surprised at how many people loved to collect rare species of fossil pokemon. "Thundaga, I want you clearing mobs: give the defenders more time to rally."
"E-LEC-TRODE?" He asked, grinning, which I matched with one of my own.
"Yeah. Gyroball," I answered, to which the pokemon let out a huge belly laugh, sparks of electricity dancing in the air with the smell of pollen and ozone as Thundaga began to rotate, faster and faster and faster, until its features were an indistinguishable blur, just a giant spinning orb...That burst outward, flattening entire rows of the creatures as it buzzed through them down the street.
"E-LEC-TRODE!" It crowed as it began to wreak havoc. Between it and Salty, the critters were on the back foot: a large group of them were trying to dogpile Salty, crawling all over him and trying to chip at the rock pokemon with their tiny claws, which only bounced off of the Garganacl's iron defence, their weight doing little to stop the rock pokemon as it sent volley after volley of rock after its foes, each boulder reducing the monster it struct to mist from impact. I winced as I watched him pick one of them off of his body and throw it hard enough to knock a winged, flying fishman into the sky. Together with the hole left behind by Thundaga, the defenders were finally getting their act together: I could see them quickly filling the gaps left by the two pokemon and blocking the tide of monsters surging down the street.
Right. "Sam, you're with me!" I shouted, spurring Lucy's haunches as we began to speed down the street down one of the corridors Thundaga had left in the creatures line. "Make sure they stay off of me long enough to reach the big one!" It was a gamble, but these seemed to be...dark types, maybe? And when you had a bunch of aggressive but weak dark types, you usually had one big and strong dark type egging them on.
Take out the leader, morale collapsed, and most Dark Types fled. Some of the more vengeful ones you had to stay on the look out for sneaky stuff after, but I was confident. As we moved, I felt sweat bead on my brow from the increased heat from the much closer and nearer flames. To my left, I saw one of the creatures try to leap at me, only for it to slam into the ground, not being able to identify the cause. Probably Sam. Right, counting him and Lucy, I had three 'mons plus my last two reservists.
(And Destroyorah, but he didn't count because I wasn't dumb enough to unleash him unless things had really gotten dire.)
Lucy wasn't a battler and I needed her for personal defence and transportation, and neither of my reservists were battle ready, so that left Sam, who was weak the the fire that currently covered the town, meaning he had to play it very carefully, and...
Oh. Oh this was going to be FUN. I leaned forward as we raced through the fire, keeping my head low to not breath in smoke as we finally reached the apex of the inferno at the docks where I saw a vast behemoth standing in the wrecked, smoldering rubble of the docks, feet planted in the boiling surf. Every inch of the almost draconic titan was covered in white armored plates, a single, fin like one rising from its back, which combined with the shark like face gave it an almost piscine appearance. I could feel the heat billowing off it in extremely hot waves even as I watched it rampage, a claw swipe from the monster slamming into a building and caving the wooden wall and most of the roof.
And darting between its heavy but powerful blows was a girl. Teenager, I thought, probably around 16: she was putting up a good fight, but it was clear she was flagging, dashing quickly from wooden walkway to wooden walkway. Didn't look like she had a weapon, just her fists, and I doubted you could get in close enough to punch that thing without burning yourself pretty badly, let alone generate enough force to so much as make it budge-
The girl slammed into the monster, kicking it hard in the chest with a spinning kick, causing it to get pushed back by at least a foot, feet skidding in the shore. Okay, statement revised. Didn't look like it did any damage but apparently they feed kids in this dimension the good spinach. Roaring, the creature opened its mouth to unleast a torrent of black mist...
Which reformed into more of those fish-men things. Okay. That simplified things. I drew my next pokeball. Alright Driftwood. Time to enter Professor Mode, because you were about to start schooling these critters.
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Vladdi grunted as she hit the ground, sliding back several feet into a standing stop, quickly shaking her hands. "Hot, hot, hot!" She said, grimacing in pain, feeling the heat drain her aura. Even if it wasn't causing physical damage (yet), it still really fucking hurt. And worse, she didn't have a huge amount of aura left.
"Alright, just gotta stay alive, stay alive and keep its attention," She said, trying to psych herself up. "You can do this Vladdi. Just keep moving, just keep hitting," She muttered to her self, beginning to bounce as she prepared for the creatures counter-attack. Thankfully the Dagon didn't seem very fast: keep it from building up steam and she should be able to hold on long enough for everyone to get to safety...
But she wasn't going to lie, the deathglare the giant grimm was giving her didn't make the bat faunus feel any more confident. "Really hope you hurry Dad," she muttered, bracing herself as she raised her dukes, still bouncing on the ball of her heels. It was then that the Grimm opened its massive maw, breathing out a wave of black, sticky mist.
Reacting quickly, Vladdi dashed under, barely avoiding being coated in the disgusting oil which instead found itself sprayed on the area where she had once been standing, coating it and the surrounding several feet in a layer of thick black tar. Skidding through the sand and water that had once been the underside of the pier, Vladi danced past the descending foot that came down in an attempt to stomp her on approach, dashing into a sweep of her legs, impacting the Grimm and altering her momentum so that when she kicked off its stumbling leg with her other free foot, she shot forward, skidding over the water and then the oil to reach dry sand, the entire sequence done in a single, fluid motion. Really glad I wore shoes today, she thought.
Shaking, Vladdi let out a breath, grinning even as she felt the pain in her legs from both hitting the hard, jagged bone armor as well as the raw heat. "H-heh," she said, not dropping her fighting stance, keeping both fists up. "That it? B-bit of armor, a little fire, and now you toss some gunk at me?" She boasted, waiting for the Grimm to make it's next move even as she kept her guard up. "Starting to think you don't know how to show a girl a good time!"
The Grimm grinned. Ah crap. The oil that it had sprayed began to bubble, a thick, grimy carpet coating the sand, surf, and splintered wood, boiling and congealing, before moving, forming fat, black spheres with moist, rubbery looking membranes that soon punctured, and Vladdi felt her jaw drop as she watched tiny but quickly growing version of those fish-men grimm chew their way out of the black eggs.
Okay. She might need to retreat. Doing a quick spin, Vladdi began sprinting, plotting her escape route...
Only to get clotheslined in the stomach by a fishman that leaped up from under a pile of debris, ambushing her. The air exiting her lung, she stumbled, knocked to her knees as she skidded through the sand, tumbling before correcting into a stop and continuing her run. The blow had surprised her, but it hadn't meaningfully managed to halt her momentum or even lower her aura. Up ahead, she saw an alley between two houses.
That way. Too narrow for the Dagon to fit, and it'll take him some time to go around or demolish his way through. I'll regroup with Dad and then we can figure out what to do next. She continued sprinting, turning to enter the alley, sidestepping each piece of debris in between her and her avenue of escape...
Only to be knocked back when a massive flaming boat landed at the alley entrance, splintering and crashing into a giant pile of smoking wreckage. Crap! Springing up back with a spin, Vladdi saw the Dagon approaching, roaring as it began to accelerate towards her. On her right and left, the fishmen grimm had moved to flank her. They might not be strong, but they're a goddamn pain in the ass, Vladdi thought. Okay. Can't go back, can't go forward, so she'd have to punch through.
I pick...left. Dashing, she quickly bent her knee and launched herself into the air, spinning around to deliver a powerful spinning kick to the mob of Fishmen grimm, causing several of them to explode on impact, before grabbing two more in one fluid motion as she exited her kick, flinging them into their fellows with sufficient force to poof the fishmen used as projectile weapons and knock several others flat on their ass.
Not missing a beat or staying still long enough to observe this, however, Vladdi instead continued her motion through the air, skidding into a full run as she landed...
Only to get several fishmen who she hadn't manage to knock down to tackle her, causing her to stumble. "Maiden's Piss, you things are really starting to annoy me!" Vladdi shouted as she corrected, barely managing to avoid getting knocked over even as she grabbed the Fishmen, launching them one by one into their fellows in extremely rapid procession. "Hope you guys like Vladdi's fastball special!" She said, grinning...
Before more of them launched themselves at her. Quickly she tried to get them off, but while Vladdi was quick, there were too many of them, and to her sinking realization, she was surrounded. "Okay, Vladdi. You can handle this. You can handle this," she said, grimacing as she swung one that had tried to grab her ears free, slamming it against the ground even as she kicked another one that had launched itself at her, using the momentum to duck the pounce of another one by swinging her body to the side, taking the oppurtunity to scoop some rocks up from the ground, launching them at the fishmen, each one landing with enough force to knock the Pelagians on their ass, one of them getting dusted from the force of the rock impacting their mask hard enough to crack through it.
Okay. These little guys aren't tough. Just gotta keep my cool and-
One of the Fishmen used the opening she had left to tackle her, ramming into her midsection hard enough to knock her off balance. At the same time, another impacted her legs, which, combined with the one hitting her stomach, was enough to cause Vladdi to seriously stumble...right into an uppercut that sent her spinning.
Shit, it was a big fish man. She needed to buy some space: reaching into her pack, Vladdi grabbed two capsules, drawing them out and, pressing a button on the dark pill shaped devices, tossed them onto the ground to create a powerful shockwave, one large enough to knock both her and the Grimm away.
Between the two, though, Vladi had better balance, turning and spinning into a skidding halt, breathing heavily. Okay. Aura was starting to run low. Still, she had put a bit more distance between her and the Dagon, which found itself a street down from her, roaring as it continued to charge after her.
...Only problem was, she didn't have an exit: the shockwave capsules had spooked the pelagics and gotten them off her back, but they were still surrounding her, keeping her hemmed in, each of them glaring and hissing at her even as they maintained their distance: either she tried to punch through again and got stuck in and bogged down until the Dagon reached her, or she waited until the Dagon reached her and she got fried.
Okay. I don't think I can handle this. Still, if the Grimm thought she'd just lie down and die, they had another thing coming. Reaching into her pocket, Vladdi grabbed more shockwave capsules. I have four more capsules. If I hit the Dagon's face with all of them at once, I might be able to stun it long enough to dash between its legs. Probably burn up the last of my aura, but the Pelagics won't be able to stop me: once they hatch they shouldn't be any more resistant to the Dagon's heat than any other Grimm.
It was unlikely to work, had all sorts of flaws, but it was the best plan she could think of...
Until a flash of light appeared, pink and searing, forcing Vladdi to avert her eyes even as she felt something grab her and yank her by her back collar, dragging her by the scruff at high speeds, with Vladdi occasionally feeling her body brushing past the grimm. Flailing, she felt her vision slowly return to reveal she was in the jaws of...a...lizard? Who seemed to be charging through the Grimm, who were also reeling and blinded, stumbling as their eyesight returned even slower. The lizard punched through the crowd before leaping in the air, landing past the edge of the hoard of grimm and skidding to a halt before dropping Vladdi. "Griiii~" The Lizard warbled at her even as Vladdi sprung back up to her feet.
Okay, rescue by giant lizard. Dunno what that's about but I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Vladdi prepared to continue running, noting the Grimm were starting to have their eyesight adjust and were begining to stalk towards her...
Only for a small explosion to come from where she had been standing, Vladdi's head jerking in that direction along with the Fish Grimm to see...
"Behold! An unarmed civilian!" Said the man casually standing where she had once been, pink and white fireworks going off behind him, his voice amplified by a microphone. On the shorter side, the portly man was dressed in a white longcoat over what appeared to be a plain looking suit. Giving a wave, he continued to speak, the fireworks going off behind him as he continued talking. "Yeah, that's right, look over here: look at me, completely unarmed, totally harmless. Behold, me showing I have nothing up my sleeve," He said, shifting his microphone to his other hand to allow him to lower the sleeve of his shirt, causing the Pelagics to look at him in...confusion, still not willing to breach the circle before the Dagon reached them, but unable to look away from the loud, distracting man acting like literally grimm bait.
The heck is he-
The lizard headbumped her, grabbing Vladdi's attention, the bat faunus's eyes shifting as the Lizard made a gesture with her head. Oh. Ohhh, it was a distraction. Taking advantage, Vladdi moved, dashing to the nearest wall and leaping, rapidly scaling it until she reached the roof, quickly moving to cover where the Dagon couldn't see her, turning to see the man let out a soft sigh.
"Okay, the goal here was for you to run away, not play lookie loo," He said, and with a jolt Vladdi realized he could see her. "Fine though: congratulations, kiddo, you get to see a spectacle you've never beheld before," The man said, holding out a hand before snapping, his entire demeanor shifting.
"Hello Boys and Girls! Welcome to the Professor Driftwood Show!" He cheerily roared, a huge, toothy grin on his face as he pulled a blue and white orb from his belt. "Today we'll be showcasing what may be the first pokemon battle this world has ever seen and demonstrating the principles of that hallowed sport, Pokemon Battling, with an exhibition match between my shows reigning battle champion and the resident locals, the Big Meanie Gang! In one corner, standing at several tonnes, we have big meanie and his hoard of meaninlings! They're big! They're Tough! They burn and can spit minions! But can they beat the reigning champ and their explosive entrance?!" He said, raising his arms and tossing the ball lazily into the air before catching it and throwing it hard into the crowd of Pelagics, with the ball exploding into a roaring, blazing shockwave, incinerating a chunk of the outright and knocking the rest back even as a figure emerged from the flame.
"Some call her the Blue Knight! Some call her the Blade of Catastrophe! Some call her the Real Slim Shady!" Dust settled revealing a person clad in dark blue-ish purple and black armor sporting a fairly large chestplate, with what appeared to be a glowing violet blade in each hand, a strange, almost pony-tail like flame emerging from the back of the strange, segmented looking helmet that contained a strange, light purple dot on each of the three largest segments, just above the eyes which blazed with a yellow flame.
"Let's all give it up for MORGANA!" The man roared, flinching a bit as a Pelagic jumped at him, and Vladdi prepared to intervene...
Only for the Pelagic to have a blue sword emerge from it's chest, falling to dust. Behind it, the weird knight huntswoman glared with an absolutely pissed look in her eyes as she let out a noise that sounded like a...synthesizer, almost? A strange, warping warbling noise, emerged as the knight pirroetted to stare down the horde of Grimm, who growled and hissed, hesitant to engage with an unknown assailant before the Dagon got here. C'mon guy, don't waste time, you've got to ice them before the Dagon reaches you, your friend in the blue armor can't protect you from the fishmen and it at the same time! "See, that's just not cricket," The man said, tsk'ing. "You don't attack the announcer! There are rules, and if you can't abide by the rules, you'll get thrown out the studio. Morgana, please clear out the riff raff. Swords dance, followed by a flare blitz, please. Sam, keep them off me, please, so I can conduct strategy," He said, deceptively calm.
The blue armored huntress put her swords together, sharpening them as the rest of the fishman charged, each blade producing blue sparks as their edges were grinded together, and while Vladdi wasn't an expert at Aura stuff, she could feel a shift taking place in the woman's aura as she continued sharpening her blades. And when the first Fishman reached her...A WAVE of flame erupted as the woman charged, covered in a blue blazing inferno, any Grimm unlucky to be impacted being incinerated and burst apart from the force of the armored figure slamming into them: those that survived found a blade reducing them to ash instead. Oh that is so cool, Vladdi thought, grinning: moves like that, a flame semblance like that, she had to be a genuine huntsman! Wonder if I can get her to show me some moves...
However, this wasn't enough to prevent the Grimm encircling the professor to reach him, one of them running into a fun tackle...
Only to stumble, its head falling to the ground separate from it's body. At first, Vladdi thought it was the woman, who was ripping through the Grimm like tissue paper, but when she looked closely, she saw a tiny figure dancing among the Grimm, too small to make out any details at this distance other than the fact that whoever they were, they were kicking Grimm ass. Flame, shrinking? This Driftwood guy knows a lot of people with cool semblances.
__________________________________
The last of the weird fishmonsters tried to crawl away, most of its body charred, only for an armored foot to come down on its skull, crushing it. It is complete, Master, Morgana whispered in her strange not-a-voice, before turning and giving a small bow. The rabble has been dispatched. Good old AoE moves. Morgana wasn't my best for that, not by a long shot, but she had enough tools to do an adequate job in that field.
"Round One goes to MORGANA!" I said, grinning, flinging my arm in her direction as I watched the big boney bastard finally reach us, slowing down to a stop as he glared, clearly trying to size us up. "And just in time for big meanie!" I reached into my battle pouch, grabbing a pair of shades and sticking them on dramatically while I posed.
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What a dork, Vladdi said, scrunching her nose in disgust.
"Nobody asked you!"
Holy crap, does he have a mind reading semblance?!
"No, I'm not telepathic, I just have the instinctual ability to tell when someones dissing me. Now! Round two! Morgana, hit em with the jazz!"
_____________________________________________________
"Morgana, hit em with the Jazz!" I said, giving the fire blade pokemon the signal. Enveloping her blades in a pinkish light, she dashed forward, releasing two swings that caused the pinkish light to arc forward, cutting through the air, still shaped like the cutters that had created them, impacting the creatures snout, breaking past the plate and causing the boney shark-dragon to roar in pain, opening its mouth to spray a deluge of oil...
"Fun Professor Driftwood Science fact, kids! Did you know there's no known bacteria that can survive at 500 degree Celsius?" I said, giving the signal, with a powerful heatwave erupting from Morgana's body, frying the Fish Eggs mid-air. "Of course, most dangerous pathogens die at much lower temperatures: you can sterilize most critters at 100 degrees! Morgana, give him a haircut," I commanded, and Morgana blinked out of existence, only to pop in above his head, delivering a powerful swordblow to the creatures head, stabbing it deep into the monsters skullplate, causing it to stumble backwards, roaring as it tried to burn Morgana off, the temperature and flames of the creature skyrocketing to a degree that would flash fry any human.
"Oooh, very clever move! Were Morgana a germ, that might actually work!" I said, giving a mocking clap even as Morgana dislodged her sword, causing spurts of black gunk to bleed from the wound even as she kicked off the giant's skull just in time to avoid its palm bearing down on the forehead, twisting mid-air to drive a blade into the arm, cutting a deep gouge as the Pokemon tumbled past back onto the ground, achieving a perfect two point jump, piroetting, to once again face her foe.
"Wow, look at those moves! Smokin!" I said, pumping my fist in the air as I cheered Morgana on. "And speaking of smoke, as a fire type, it doesn't matter how hot you get: you aren't gonna melt THIS pokemon!" Morgana effortlessly dodged one of the creatures swipes, stepping back and bringing her sword down when the claw was in range, cutting off two of the three fingers the flaming boney shark dragon had on that appendage, making it let out a roar of rage as it charged, body slamming into Morgana. "And he chooses to get close!" I roared. "Let's see if he's willing to stand by that decision in the morning!" I stretching my hand out and wagging my finger, making a tsking noise. "Morgana, hit him with some DRAGON CLAW!"
Prying her blade free, another purplish aura surrounding it, Morgana slashed, each one carving out huge chunks of monster-flesh like it was butter, the gaping gouges bleeding black tar that disintegrated to mist shortly on contact with air. Huh. Guess it had a type weakness. "Now kick off!" I said, and Morgana did just that, using her legs to push herself off the creature, landing in the dirt again as it stumbled out of its charge, holding a hand to its chest where it continued to leak. It stared at us, eyes shifting between Morgana and Me, red semicircles filled with hate and rage but also uncertainty: it had realized it might not be able to win this fight.
"Last chance, man," I told it, dropping the Kayfabe, staring at it, lowering my glasses to stare the thing right in its eye and illustrate how little it intimidated me. Hopefully this thing spoke universal. "Walk away: you continue this fight, you aren't going to like where it ends up, because straight up you are not NEARLY the scariest critter I've fought in recent days, just the ugliest," I patiently explained. "You go now, that'll be the end of it, but you try to be tough, try to make a move, and I WILL beat your butt black and blue," I said, gesturing, before grinning. "Your choice. Fight or flight. Not gonna lie, really, REALLY hope you pick the option that lets Morgana beat your ass."
The creature stared, teeth grinding...before turning and moving to the seagate. I let out a sigh. Okay. That was over. The weird...whatever it was was no longer my problem...
I heard a zipping noise and saw a bolt slam into its back, exploding into a mountain of ice, causing the creature to roar in pain as it turned and flailed, opening its mouth to let out a torrent of oil, one that looked way too thick to evaporate. "Morgana, Endure and then Bitter Blade!" I cried, wincing as Morgana braced, holding the flats of the blade out crossed together to form a shield, which kept her from getting completely gunked up. The moment the torrent let up, Morgana was already sprinting, burning up the rest of it even as she jabbed at the creatures heel with her swords, jamming them into the short spaces between the bone plates, before swinging around and slashing at the creatures hamstrings (or, well, the equivalent location), draining vitality as she did so to restore the stamina that Enduring the supersoaking had taken out of her.
The creature roared in pain, kicking at Morgana, and this time, the hit connected, launching her backwards even as the creature turned to glare at me, roaring, continuing its charge, intent on stomping me flat...
Only for another bolt slam into it, exploding into another chunk of ice, causing it to stumble and trip. Ducking, I barely avoided getting decapitated as it rolled right above me before crashing into the tavern behind me. Spinning, I quickly sprinted. "Lucy, I could use a ride!" I said, spotting my cyclizar, who quickly settled into a riding stance. Gulping, I glanced behind me.
Shit, it was getting up. Speeding up, I flung myself forward, grabbing onto Lucy's back. "Prepare to move," I said, heart beating a mile a minute as I watched the giant stand, shaking itself, before letting out a near earsplitting roar...
"Eat my ass, you bastard!" Tellah roared, flying in what appeared to be an actual fucking jetpack. The big, bulky device, painted blue and white and labeled with whatever script this dimension used seemed to be attached to him by a metal harness and seat, and I could see him control it via a joystick attached to one of the long armrests attached to the device. In the other hand he held his crossbow, one I was pretty sure that was responsible for the bolts I had been seeing, and on his head he had some kind of pilots helmet, an old timey one.
"Holy shit, dad?!"
...Oh, wonderful, the kid that I rescued and was still here watching for some insane reason was Tellah's. "Kid, get out of here!" I roared, before turning to Tellah, who barely managed to maneuver his jetpack chair out of the way of the creatures claw swipe. "Tellah you ass, it was retreating!"
"It's a Dagon! Can't let em live or they'll just come back with more Grimm!" He said, firing a volley of bolts into the Grimm's chest, each of them arcing with electricity, causing the Dagon to spasm, buying time. He quickly grabbed more bolts from his quiver, a rotating mechanical cylinder attached to the side of his chair, jamming them into his crossbow to load it.
"Do you have a plan?" I said, deciding to not question his logic for now, but if he was lying or wrong I'd kick his ass for this. Taking advantage of Tellah distracting the creature, I scanned for Morgana, spotting her in the rubble of what I was pretty sure was a boat, looking very dazed, but not particularly hurt. Reaching into my satchel, I drew an awakening, tossing it, the medicine arcing through the air until it got in range, where it floated for a moment, releasing a thick mist.
"Keep whaling on it!" The older man said, the rockets on his jetpack deactivating long enough to let him duck under the Dagon's swings before he hit it with a bolt aimed at its knees which on impact began encrusting them in a thick layer of rock. "It's heavy as hell! Don't let it tag you, and with enough force we should be able to take it down, armor or no!"
Morgana came to, jolting up and quickly scanning our surroundings. "Morgana! Bulk Up and then use Ally Switch with Tellah!" I commanded, and Morgana responded immediately, channeling power to her muscles as she flexed, before...
"Wait wha- WHOAH," Tellah cried, having been transposed back to near the ground while Morgana fell through the air where he had used to be. "Give me some warning next time you pull that kind of stunt!" He cried, rapidly rising back through the air.
"That was your warning!" I cried, already moving onto part two. "Morgana, Dragon Claw on the armor!" Morgana sharpened her blades, and as she desceneded, stabbed them through the Dagon's armor on its back, rending through it like butter, creating huge gouges as she fell, until finally she hit the ground with a bow, the creature stumbling before giving a pissed off roar, more black gunk oozing out its back...and creating more fishmen eggs, the eggs congealing around the creatures feet and hatching the rapidly growing dagon-spawn. Shit. "Tellah!" I yelled, "Try and hit it in the spine! Morgana, cover him while I deal with company down here!"
I turned my head, gazing at the rapidly approaching hoard of creatures. "Okay Lucy, let's play stomp the fishies," I said, my Cyclizar letting out a growl as she ran, sidestepping the foot that descended to stop us to leap onto the emerging batch of fishmen. "Rapid spin!" I yelled, bracing myself as Lucy gave a wide sweep as she landed, knocking most of the fishmen away. One of them leaped at us...
Only to bounce off the water as Sam slammed into them from above. "!ʜƨɒɿɈ ,ɘɔɒlq ɿυoγ wonﻼ" He cried, bouncing off of one fishman and into another, his arm blades reducing them to to mist even as he slid through the air on the breeze his attacks had made to his next target, cutting through them like a wheat through slice, never relenting and never letting his momentum stop as he weaponized the very currents in the air.
"Sam, not that I don't- SHIFT GEAR AND DRAGON RUSH!" I shouted, barely avoiding having a fishman clamp around my next by dint of Lucy massively increasing in speed...at the cost of it getting really hard to stay on even as she began ploughing through fishmen...and also kicking up a lot of water. "Not that I don't appreciate the assist, but maybe you shouldn't be fighting in the burning piers! Things are getting hectic and there's a lot of fire and water being thrown around and no offense you don't exactly do well with either!"
"!ɈɒɘɿɈɘɿ oɈ ϱnioϱ Ɉon m'I" He said, indignant, refusing to back down.
"I'm not telling you to retreat, I'm telling you to go tag one of the others in!" I said, nearly getting knocked off by a hard bump in the road consisting of Lucy launching off a Fishman, barely managing to keep my grip. Don't get sweaty fingers, don't get sweaty fingers. "Besides, no offense, we could probably use a blunt object right now!"
"...llɒɔ ɿυoγ ,ɘniᆿ" He relented, altering his angle in order to ride the breeze away from the battle. "I will fetch the rock," He said in extremely halting universal. "Do not die," He commanded, before riding a thermal over a building. I took a deep breath. Right, didn't intend on it, buddy. Looking up, I saw Tellah successfully manage to hit the creatures back, causing it to stumble and roar as it whipped its head in his direction, breathing in, clearly aiming to knock Tellah out of the skies with its gunk...
And having it's head knocked sizeways from the impact of the kid dropkicking it in the face. "Get dunked on!" She cried as the creature spewed a torrent of sludge in the completely wrong direction even as the momentum of the impact sent her spinning through the air, at least a little on fire. "Ow, ow, ow, hot, hot, hot!" She cried, patting herself down as she landed on the ground, wincing in obvious pain.
"Vladdi, what are you doing!" Tellah roared, quickly nailing the still spewing Dagon in the jaw as he arc'd under the Grimm's head, slamming it shut like a tight clamp as his bolt expanded into a jagged metal skewer, locking the creatures mouth shut tight. The dagon clawed at it, and I could see the black ooze bubble from between its clenched teeth. Wait, didn't its sludge-
The red eyes of the creature bulged in surprise...as did its throat, the boney armor buckling and warping as pressure began to build...until finally it popped, disgorging a flood of dagon ooze from the hole where its throat used to be.
"Sorry Dad! Just wanted to help!" The girl yelled, waving even as she dashed away. Nimble kid, huh?
"You can help by not getting in the way!" Tellah yelled, getting clipped by the Dagon's claw and sent spinning through the air, his rockets activating and deactivating rapidly as he attempted to regain control, finally manage to stabilize long enough to fire another bolt into the things arm even as Morgana cut through another chunk of back plating.
We needed to end this soon: I could feel the temperature rising, and if it got hot enough, this fire WOULD spread to the rest of the town. "Lucy!" I cried, "We're ending this!" I pulled my sleeve up, revealing a band on my wrist containing a cerulean crystal that I could feel emanating draconic energies. Closing my eyes, I let out a sigh, calming myself even as I reached out with my spirit, seizing on my desire to win to activate the crystal. "Z-Power Move," I said, moving my hands rhythmically as I began to channel the exotic energy to Lucy: it looked stupid, but the thing was... "Devestating Drake!" I yelled, Lucy being surrounded by an aura of Z-Power, raging throughout her body. Roaring, she rushed forward, and I barely managed to unseat myself in time to leap off right before she unleashed it, attacking with no physical or mystical move or technique. No, instead, she simply unleased the power of her aura, amplified by the Z-Power to create a massive energy vortex, a heatless inferno that demolished anything inside with pure unrelenting draconic force.
And when it faded, Lucy skidded through the surf, breathing heavily. And when the smoke settled, I gave a grim grin at what I saw. The Dagon's entire front had melted off, dripping drop after drop after drop, its jawless head staring at us as it stumbled once, twice, and then falling. The thing was, Z-Moves might have looked stupid and involve way too much actual magic for me to be comfortable with, but they were one hell of a way to finish a fight. Especially if you could hit a type weakness: all of Morgana's dragon attacks had cut through this guy like butter, and simply coming into contact with the little ones when Lucy was using Dragon Rush caused them to poof. Whatever these things were, they did NOT like dragon type moves.
...So I figured, why not hit em with the widest hitting, hardest hitting dragon move I knew? Walking up to Lucy to make she she was alright, I noticed the big meanie seemed to be dissolving too. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tellah land, the man removing his helmet as he undid his harness, and way up the street I could see Faust and Salty fast approaching. I'll probably have to find Thundaga later. Raising Lucy's ball, I recalled her, letting her rest, before turning to Morgana, who was approaching rapidly, staring at the dissolving Dagon (or whatever Tellah had called it) earlier. "Okay, so, any ideas on what that was?" I asked, and Morgana paused, clearly recognizing what I was asking.
I...do not know, she admitted. It had energy and I could feel a mind, but it was NOT a pokemon: it was...empty. Soulless. A husk.
"An evil spirit made flesh," Faust whispered, having reached us, the Hexpert pokemon examining the corpse, which had almost entirely disappeared. "There ARE legends about such things, My Liege: creatures born without hearts, possessing naught but malice, weaving bodies from shadow and the evils of man and pokemon," He continued, leaning down and scooping into a vial some of the gunk pouring from the decomposing body and corking it, the vial giving a slight glow. "A bit of mystical preservative in the vial: should keep it from decomposing long enough for me to give it a good once over, my lord," He said, stepping back, a scowl of disgust on his face. "At any rate, that explains why the weak ones could not breach the salt circle: with no soul, such weak spirits would find their grip on the material realm completely severed," He said, and I rubbed my chin.
Alright, most of that was probably bullshit, but Morgana had confirmed that whatever these creatures were, they were really weird, so I was provisionally considering the possibility that Faust was correct and this dimension had evil spirits. "Okay," I said, opening my mouth-
"Driftwood," Tellah said, reaching us, staring at me with his steely eyes. "I was willing to let your business be, but that was before you set off some kind of aura nuke in my home," He growled, and I winced, finally noticing that the Devestating Drake had done a lot of damage: the entire area it had been set off in had been reduced to a crater. "Who are you, why are you here, what are those things, and what the HELL did you do?"
"I already answered most of those questions," I muttered, annoyed. "I'm a researcher. I'm here because a device I was testing misfired, and these 'creatures'-"
"Stop," Tellah growled. "Do you realize how absurd your story sounds? A human researcher just so HAPPENS to blast themselves to Menagerie with a belt full of magic shrinking creatures that are capable of taking down Grimm, taking refuge in a faunus village the night before a major Grimm tries to level the place? None of your story makes any damn sense, and right now I'd really appreciate some honesty!"
...I sighed, rubbing my temples: yeah this was a right mess. I hadn't opted for subtlety here: I made the right call but it meant my cover was blown like a can of sardines attached to a lit stick of dynamite. "Okay so, before I explain, do me a solid and, assuming I'm a cretin who lives under a rock, could you explain some of the terms you just used?" I asked, blandly. Yeah might as well try to bite the bullet on this. I hadn't been subtle.
Tellah looked at me with confusion. "What terms?" He said, and I took a breath.
"Grimm, Menagerie, Faunus," I said, expression neutral, causing Tellah's jaw to drop: the terms were...familiar, but only vaguely, and from the way Tellah was acting the fact I didn't recognize them would be a massive hole in any covers I spun anyways. "Assume I'm an idiot whose never heard those terms before, because I am and I haven't."
"...How do you not know what Grimm are?!" He said, eye twitching. "Or...or faunus? They're...they're Grimm! And Faunus! I don't- Who ARE you?!" He asked, to which I took a deep breath. Calming thoughts, calming thoughts.
"Tellah," I said, folding my hands together and dipping them slightly. "I want you to think now: is there any answer I could give to that question that wouldn't seem absurd?" I asked softly. "Even if I answered with the absolute truth, you and I both probably recognize that it'd be impossible to take at face value simply because of how implausible verging on nonsensical it would have to sound to make sense of what you've both observed and been told."
Tellah let out a grunt of frustration. Yeah, I could tell it was gonna be a fun...
Evening? Day? What time was it anyways? I glanced up, looking at the moon...
"The fuck happened to your moon?" I said, furrowing my eyebrows as I gazed at the shattered wreckage, not realizing the words that came out my mouth until it was too late.
"Long talk think we should have, I do," I heard a voice say, turning to see Baba, covered in bandages and pushed along in a chair, giving me a raised eyebrow ...and several other members of the village, all holding weapons, staring at my dumbass who just up and admitted he didn't recognize this worlds moon.
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Authors Note: I'm not used to writing fight scenes, so I imagine the ones that comprise most of this chapter probably need work. Feel free to suggest ways to improve them! Also since people complained about Sam's dialogue, here's the unmirrored versions of what he says:
Sam Speak:
"Banzai!"
"Master, you need to act!"
"Know your place, trash!"
"I'm not going to retreat!"
"Fine, your call."
