Bic(Charmeleon)'s Story

Verse's words registered on some level. They caused him to hesitate in his charge, kept him from giving himself to the rage. From throwing away reason for the mindless fury that plagued this form of his race. A roar still echoed out from his mouth, but he calmed considerably knowing his pack was okay.

"You're- you are right, let's go." He turned with difficulty. Tail whipping out behind him like a club, sending a wave of heat over their would be enemies. They weren't worth it. The Eevee wreaked of youth, and was not much of a threat, and the Orb, the one that looked so much like a Pokeball, he thought would go down after a single wash of flames. There was no reason to fight, even if his heart beat in tune with violence.

He was walking away. Back turned to the humans and their slaves, it was there call, they could fight or not.

Verse retreated, backing away from the pokemon with his eyes locked onto them. The two trainers seemed satisfied with the retreat, and reached for their pokeballs to return their monsters. "Friggin' pokemon," one of them said, "Useless without a trainer." The two also turned away and started marching off to complete their work. Verse finally turned around to say, "You made the right choice." He felt they could have won, but he didn't want to start any trouble. That was Verse. Always stay out of the firing line.

"Pathetic, humans, are they all like that?" He was still furious. Blood boiling, he was spoiling for a fight, but he would hold that instinct in check. "I am sorry." He said as they were walking away. He was ashamed of snapping like that. He'd thought he had a better hold on his rage. He was walking forward unseeing rambling, still high on the adrenalin from moments ago.

"Damnit." The surface was hard to deal with in new and strange ways. He wished it could be simple like it had been before. "You said something about a "city'?" Life goes on he decided, finally calming down.

"No," Verse said, "Not all of them. And you're fine. I didn't think the human would kick me- uh... Cities, yeah." Now was time for the hard truth. "Well, cities are things humans make to stay. Lot's of humans in a large area maybe the size of your home. Hundreds, maybe even thousands. I guess they just like it that way. You can find thema ll over the world, even in the most remote places."

"If you want to avoid them, well..." He had to have a think on that one. Maybe he had an idea. Maybe. "We should just put this behind us and try to rustle up some food before it gets too late."

Bic froze at the improbable news. Thou-thousands of humans?! In a space that small? Damn, How the hell would they go about avoiding that? "I, what? And we're just gonna waltz through the middle of them all?" He asked incredulously. He didn't doubt he could burn something like that down. However, he was starting to realize that was frowned on somewhat by the majority of beings.

He started walking again, snout up scenting the air for the scent of anything to eat, they'd figure it out. He knew it.

Verse shrugged. "Well, nah, we won't. We can go see Snowpoint without going to the city. We'll just avoid it, and humans. I mean... I might need to take a detour sometime, but it should be alright." There was a sudden rustling in the bush up ahead, cause Verse to tense, then relax. "Hey, c'mon out if it's you," he called lazily. And then, emerging from the brush was a Sandshrew. "Hey boss," they called out, "We've been keeping an eye out for the-"

"My friend," Verse cut in.

"Er, yeah, your friend."

Verse nodded. "Bic, this is one of the Sand Five, my little brothers. I keep an eye out for them and they keep their eyes out for me."

He eyed the Sandshrew shrewdly for a second. Taking it's measure at glance, it seemed at ease in his company. Most likely coming to the same conclusion he had. "It's good to meet you." He rumbled out finally, offering his claws to the smaller Pokemon. "Any friend of Verse is a friend of mine."

"This friend of yours. That's the detour we may have to take?" It didn't bother him, he made sure he could tell that by his body language. He was in this more for the trip, than the destination. So, anything more they decided to do was a-okay in his book.

"Naw don't worry 'bout it," Verse said with a wink before addressing his brother once more. "Relay to the others I'm gon' be in Snowpoint. Jus' keep in contact, like always." The sandshrew nodded, then turned around and hopped away at once, scurrying off like they had never been there in the first place. Verse turned his head to Bic. "They're uh, a loyal bunch. But y' can't blame 'em. I've saved their hides on more than one occasion. They're just keeping me updated on the friend situation." A suspicious mind would think Verse didn't want Bic knowing too much about what was going on there.

"If you say so." He replied easily to Verse's dismissal of the topic. It was none of his business, if Verse decided he needed to know he'd tell him. He didn't know where they were going from there, but, he'd seen a ton of new things in just the week or so he'd been out of the catacombs, and so far it had been mostly pleasant.

"So, what's the plan?" He asked flicking his tail around, purposely raising the temperature around him a dozen or so degrees, watching the heat shimmer was a way to pass the time. It was something he'd always found relaxing.

"Find somewhere comfortable," Verse said, "And rest for the night." It was getting pretty late, but at least they were out of the desert. "We're still a fair bit from Snowpoint, but at least you're gon' get to see some sights along the way. Water that stretches as far as the eye can see. Water that falls from the sky as slowly as ash and as cold as the wind. Towers built out of stone and metal." He shook his head. "You're gonna see some things." He would hunt down somewhere comfortable and lay on his belly.

He hadn't even realized the sun was going down until Verse pointed it out. A day/night cycle, was proving to be something of a novelty to the previously sub-terranean Pokemon. He followed Verse off the path, and into a small clearing. Verse seemed content with sleeping on his belly, eyeing the long wicked looking spikes running along his allies back, he decided if he had those he probably wouldn't mind just sleeping on his stomach either.

He, on the other hand, was too paranoid to leave himself so exposed. So working quickly he used his claws to dig himself a small alcove into the dirt, just large enough for his body. There must have been water nearby however, as the soil was damp, a feeling, Bic decided he didn't like much as a moment later he had baked the soft clay hard with a gout of flames from his mouth. He lay himself down onto the smoking earth. He'd done the same thing in the desert, as he quickly became irritated by the shifting sand.

He lay watching the sun set minutes later, the sky turning orange reminding him of flames, his own tail-flame throwing the area into stark shadows. As the great flame settled under the horizon, an infinite number of other lights lit up the sky, specks in the blackness. The sight took his breath away, and he gasped audibly, since coming out if the Catacombs this was the first time he'd seen the stars.

"They're so-" he struggled to find a word. "nice." he finished lamely, cringing at his own words, but unable to take his eyes off of the sky. "What are they?"

Verse tilted his head sideways to the Charmeleon, then rolled onto his spiny back (which wasn't entirely comfortable). "Them? Those are stars. And some of 'em are different worlds. There's one over there," he said, raising a claw and pointing, "Full o' humans. And one that way-" his claw traced through the sky, "-That's got all sorts o' folks. And over there there's a place like here but everything's... Different, y'know?" He fell silent, then looked over at Bic. "I mean, but there's no place like home. I'd trade em all if it meant I could stay here forever." He rolled away from Bic, putting his back to the other pokemon as if anticipating the obvious follow up questions and not wanting to have to explain how he knew all this.

"You've been to the stars!?" He blurted out instantly. Rolling to face Verse, but coming face to spines instead. He quirked his head at this, but didn't find it too strange. "Can I, I mean, can I go to other worlds?" He was excited and it was obvious in his voice. He wanted to see it all. Not just all the worlds, but all the species, he wanted the good, and he even wanted the bad. Being limited to one place for his whole life up till recently made him struck with wanderlust, the experience was what he wanted.

The first question met only silence, but the second... Verse looked over his shoulder at Bic in contemplation, then towards the skies. For a moment he said nothing, then nodded. "Yeah. Yeah you can. Hell, I might even be able to take you there. Y'know they make metal boxes that do it? Launch you up off the ground ata million miles per hour into the sky so you can get there? If we could find onna those we'd be set.

his eyes widened at the possibility, and his head whipped up towards the sky. He imagined all he could see, all he could do, people to help, worthy enemies to fight, the food, everything and he grinned. "Yeah, I think- I think I'd really like that." Finally after staring into the stars long enough for him to start feeling worn down, he spoke. "I might never fly, but I bet none of my brothers have ever been to the stars." At that proclamation, he rolled over intent on going to sleep. But not with out one final sentence.

"I'm really glad I didn't eat you Verse."

"'M glad you didn' either," Verse agreed before he closed his eyes to sleep.

The next day would be another chance to get up bright and early to hunt or forage. The clouds overhead would be overcast, which was a nice change after days of harsh sun. The threat of rain loomed over the area as it slowly turned more and more green until it was almost woodland. "We're headin' up to Fortree City," Verse said, "Whole buncha humans went strange 'round there and decided they're Aipoms. Started buildin' homes in the trees."

Trees were a new concept for Bic. Things that were alive, but that couldn't talk or move. It sounded torturous. Especially being that vulnerable to flames. He had these thoughts as the path became more and more clustered with the leafy things, and the scent of humans lessened to the point of almost disappearing. The sky was filled with dark clouds. Verse had mentioned something called "rain' but he wasn't entirely up on the concept. How the hell did the water get up in the sky?

"I smell something." He did too. It smelled of old deep waters, of rot, and fresh blood. Powerful, the scent of an apex predator, the scent set his scales on edge, and he tensed noticeably. That's when he caught sight of the drag line in the path ahead, and the four huge tracks on either side of it. Feet and a tail. Judging by the tracks, maybe fifteen feet long, and heavy. His mouth went dry.

"We may be in trouble."

Verse tilted his head, confused for a moment, then his eyes dropped to the ground when he realized the giant sized tracks. He chuckled. "Naw, it's jus' some folks pullin' a prank on each other. Tryin' to get each other t' believe 'bout the ancient Feraligator." He didn't have quite a sensitive nose, what with being more used to desert and fields, so he couldn't catch a sniff of what Bic was on about. "Ain't no pokemon thet get that big. It's jus' an urban legend."

Which he believed for all of five seconds until a deep, low and huge growl came from somewhere a dozen steps behind him through the trees, causing him to slowly turn around and grasp his hat between his claws.

Adrenalin surged through Bic's body at the sound of the growl behind them, his eyes immediately dilated, his vision blurring to a tunnel, his mind completely bypassed fight and went straight to flight. As the thundering sound of steady footsteps and the thump of tail longer than his whole body came up behind him. He dropped to all fours, the taste of tar and ash coming to his mouth as he spun to face the predator that instilled so much fear in him. He caught only a brief glimpse of it before thick black smoke obscured the space between it, Bic, and Verse.

It's claws were yellowed from age, bits of old gore clinging to the undersides of the nail, fetid breath, stinking of rot, and of blood old and new, was exhaled with an audible hiss from between yellowed teeth. The beast blood shot eyes were zoned in on Verse and Bic watching them and every twitch of their bodies with an ancient intelligence that was beyond words, that had receded back into a terrible instinctual cunning. It's scales the color of swamp moss, and every inch of it's sixteen feet body was covered from the tip of it's long snout, to the end of it's tail in old battle scars. The spines running along it back and head, the color of still waters, seemed to have moss growing along there edges.

"Run!" The word slipped through his lips tasting of ash and smoke, and he turned grabbing Verse's arm to turn him away from the creature, and started running as fast as he could on all fours away from the monster.

As the ancient beast rose up from the ground Verse felt his body go cold and his life flash before his eyes. It was big. Huge. The kind of creature that made even the strongest of pokemon terrified. From the looks of it, the beast had been out here and away from others far too long and something in its mind had just snapped. "How-" he started to say, only for his arm to be touched and he snapped back to reality, turning at once into a pounce for the dirt where his claws dug in, then launched away into a leap. Fight or flight? Yeah right.

Prey, He could smell prey even through the little ones smoke he could smell them. Ash, and flame. Sand, and soil, But still blood, still meat underneath. He hissed in anticipation of the charge, the muscles of his powerful back legs tensing readying, his tail steadying against the ground, powerful jaws hanging wide ready to crunch anything that entered them and in a single bound he was through the smoke, it not even slowing him for a moment, his prey a few scant yards ahead of him, his charge eating up the ground between them in moments and every step taken causing the earth to rumble.

Bic's heart was beating a mile a minute, but he was oddly calm. This was so much like his life before, his mind settled into familiar patterns of running, of being prey, and he hated every moment that they were helpless and fleeing. Every tremble of the earth brought that monster closer to them, they had had a small head start, but the beast was fast, terribly fast, and it was gaining on them, he wasn't sure how long they could run before they would be forced to fight.

"Go right!" Verse suddenly screamed, veering off to the side and leaving the much more obvious Charmeleon to take the heat. "Under the bough!" A fallen branch was what he meant, hoping that just even a little bit might slow the creature down enough to let them escape. Well, he wasn't that hopeful. In fact, he had remembered a place nearby they could hide, maybe a few places to lose them even. "Come on!" he all but screamed, urging Bic towards him. Bic may have felt calm, but Verse felt sheer terror. Something he didn't have normally. Had this been just him and his boys, this would be a run around, no trouble at all between five different digging Sandshrews. But with his newest friend he couldn't quite escape like that. It was run or die. And he wasn't about to let someone die under his watch.

His ice shrouded jaws snapped out missing the sandy prey by scant inches as it darted to the right, his eyes trained onto the flame before his eyes, his powerful legs propelling him forward in another powerful leap. Just as the Sandslash called to the second, his massive jaws scrape across the shoulder of the Charmeleon, drawing a red line the taste of blood entering his mouth, a killing strike becoming a glancing blow as the Pokemon rolled to the right, a roar heralding flames licking across the scales of his chest, causing them to blacken in places, and burning away the layer of moss growing there, but doing him no real harm. His body slammed heavily to the side as he cornered, claws digging trenches in the ground to arrest his momentum, tail acting as a counter balance swinging wildly behind him, with another powerful leap he was tearing through the undergrowth after his bloody prey.

"Shit!" Bic screamed, the feeling of his left shoulder being torn open, and the wound freezing shut from the icy jaws of the enemy not a pleasant one, the force of the strike turning his sharp turn, into a stumbling roll, that, for a moment put his snout towards the enemy, he roared and let loose with a blast of flames, not even causing the monster to hesitate in it's stride, he was back on his feet the next instant and running after Verse.

Being smaller had allowed Verse some advantages. For a start, less things got in his way and he managed to get away by a small distance. But the trees were thinning and up ahead was a clearing that had to be a hundred yards long. At the opposite end was the entrance to a large building, angled around the sides with random bulbs on the top probably to monitor the weather. "Go go!" screamed Verse as he cleared the trees, only hopping a few more steps before he dropped to the ground and dug his claws into the dirt. It looked as if he wanted to make a final stand, until he started kicking up a vicious storm. Claws like shovels, dirt soon piled up, and soon he spun to catch it on his spines and toss it upwards into the air, until a small dirtstorm formed with whipping strength. Not enough to harm, but more than enough to blind. Verse was used to such things, and Bic would fortunately be safe thanks to his goggles.

Bic shot passed Verse as he stopped. He yelled for him to keep going, the dirt hitting against his goggles, not even a speck entering his eyes. He spun, unwilling to leave Verse behind, and seeing the eldritch terror hesitate for a moment as it's eyes were assaulted by Verse's dirtstorm, it roared in rage, raking at it's eyes in pain. He cheered on the inside, and remembered a phrase he'd heard: Fight smarter, not harder. Seeing Verse turn to continue fleeing, was enough for Bic to turn and do the same. A thundering roar behind him, and the pounding of heavy footsteps probably meaning the beast was following blind. There was a strange structure ahead though, and that seemed to be where they were headed.

Inside the lab a scientist strolled over to the receptionist. "Could you contact Snowpoint?" she asked calmly, "We have the weather data for the launch date prepared, and the other files they were also after." The receptionist gave a polite smile and tapped away at their computer, leaving the scientist to go back about her business.

Then the door suddenly burst open as Verse slid in, followed by a scraping sound of claws along the floor as he skidded to a halt. He didn't ever let himself come to a stop though, running straight for the stairs. The scientist and receptionist both stared, baffled as to why a cowboy hat wearing sandslash just ran into their structure. "Hold on," the scientist said, "You can't- come back here!"

Bic slid in behind Verse on all fours. His clawed feet finding little traction on the smooth tile floor until they turned to steel and dug in, causing gasp, and yelling from the humans around him. He shot after Verse, dodging around the humans trying to stop him, and shooting up the elevated surface to escape the beast. He bumped a table causing something to smash onto the floor behind him, and a male human to yell in surprise, but he didn't stop.

There was a confused stunned silence. Obviously these pokemon had to be owned, they were wearing human-made products. But why were they in such a rush? And what could they be running from? The receptionist suddenly let out a scream and ducked, before the front door exploded inwards and the truck-sized Feraligatr came hurtling inside, immediately crushing the desk the woman was behind. His claws hooked around the edge of it and with one mighty heave sent the normally fixed to the floor table flying through the air, smashing the roof and coming crashing back down. The scientist screamed in fear and turned to run, but that only seemed to make him all the more angry, now charging for the stairs.

But there was one small mercy. Humans didn't design staircases for giant monster pokemon.

Verse scrambled up faster than he ever though he'd climbed before, gouging at the each step with his claws. His small limbs were starting to ache now. He wasn't used to this kind of exercize. He liked to take it easy dangit! Why'd he have to get all the bad luck?

Their reprieve was brief as they charged up the stairs, he heard the beast slam into the building, destroying things, and the screams of the humans. He climbed faster, pushing himself to run faster, and with a final leap and a yell. He alighted on the top floor.

Verse laid there for a moment, panting heavily as the violent sounds of mauled human could be heard below. He swallowed heavily, then looked to Bic. "Huh..." he exhaled, "I don't think it can climb stairs." Slowly he pushed himself up to all fours, still breathing. "I think maybe we're safe. Fer now I mean."

Bic looked over the edge, and regretted it instantly. Not even humans deserved that. "I think you're right." He swallowed heavily the sound of the humans being attacked ringing in his ears. "I think we need to do something."

Safe. Sort of. There sound of growling came from downstairs and an occasional heavy step shook the structure as the Feraligator sought whatever prey it could smell. But the two were upstairs where he couldn't reach them. "Looks like we need t' find a way out," Verse muttered whilst idly looking about. The room was full of desks and computers, probably a room where all the information was gathered and stored. "Nice place."

He wandered on up ahead, hopping into one of the chairs and examining a screen. "Hey Bic, d'you speak human?" he asked, eyes scanning left and right, "Cause I think I might have some good news..." Oh yes, good news. His mouth twitched upwards into a small smile as he read further and further. It was two words that he cared about most. 'Launch date'.