Vengeance (Ancient Feraligatr)'s Story

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."

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'.

Speak human? he thought, what was Verse on about? There was serious business going on, and he was relatively sure he would be dead, or seriously injured in a few moments. "What? No. I don't speak human." He'd only been above ground for a couple weeks. Not that Verse knew that, but back on track.

"I'm going to jump down on top of that thing, and try to distract it. You try and get the humans out." He was grim as he spoke, but they'd brought this monster here, and he had little love for humans, but, they didn't deserve this. Finished speaking he hopped onto the railing bordering the edge of the second floor without giving Verse time to argue, and eyed his target for a moment, the beast was advancing on a group of cornered humans cowering against a wall it's jaws already caked in gore, he decided he better hurry. "Here goes nothing."

He roared his challenge as he descended on the massive creature, his clawed limbs facing downward ready to spear into the back of the monstrosity, jaws spread slightly a hellish light building in his throat and smoke billowing from his nostrils, he descended like an avenging angel. The beast having turned to face him when he roared slapped him aside with his tail, giving the action nary a thought, like it was swatting a bug.

"That could have gone better." Bic said with a groan, as he pulled himself away from the dented desk rolling his shoulders, feeling his blood start to burn in anticipation of battle, his tail flame blazing bluish white in response as he let himself go to the battle haze, he maid brief eye contact with a human male cowering beneath a desk across from him.

The beast ignored the humans for the moment. Watching Bic in interest, a lazy amusement in it's eyes, it stalked slowly forward, relaxed in it's superiority. They were a picture of opposites, Bic was hunched forward, his body tense like a coiled snake ready to strike, his hands spread to his sides claws forward, and shining with the sheen of steel. Tail flicking back and forth behind him heating the air, and burning up any excess moisture in the building, making the air dry. It was as if an eternity passed as they waited for the other to make the first move, one of the humans whimpered and the monster struck forward like lightning.

Bic However, was ready for it. The instant he'd seen the beast tense he was already rolling to the side, his tail whipping out behind him as he came around on all four and pounced at the beast now exposed side. His claws scoring shallow red lines across the toughened scales and drawing tiny beads of blood, and his flames doing little else than burning away moss.

The beast turned then, whipping around, and letting loose a roar that rattled the windows, fore claws coming forward to slash at Bic in two heavy sweeps, he managed to stumble out of the path of the first, only for the second to rake across his snout drawing a trio of slashes that began to bleed profusely. He backpedaled quickly, letting the beast have it with everything he had, his mind little more than a red haze, and he let loose with an Inferno, the attack exploding on impact, and take the wind from Bic's sales, and from the smoke the beast stalked forth, all playfulness gone from its visage. He'd lost track of the humans and Verse during the battle, but he hoped they were getting out.

"Come on." He muttered, spitting blood on the floor, and preparing to meet the next charge.

Verse had taken full advantage of this momentary distraction, rushing around on all fours to herd up the humans and guide them to-- The fire exit. Really he felt kind of bad that Bic was going through all this effort when there was a back door, but it wasn't like the charmeleon knew any better. It wasn't until he snuck downstairs that he spied a scientist cowered under a desk. Careful sneaking was ruined by claws scratching across the floor as he made for the man, who at once reached out for Verse's neck. "Hey, geddoff me! What'd' I look like to you?"

The human didn't seem to notice. "Here!" he urged, "I need you to take this to Snowpoint. It's vital information." The man handed Verse a small flashdrive. "Do you understand?" he said, eyes wide and near-panicky.

"Whatever, go for the door you idiot," Verse snapped, pointing with a claw towards the exit past the distracted Feraligator. The man seemed to realize what Verse was trying to say and scrambled out, running for the door. Verse turned around to try and catch the attention of Bic, then tugged down on his hat. They were clear to leave at any moment. Just... Had to deal with the looming issue at hand.

He prepared to make his final stand against the beast. However, something caught his eye, and cut straight through his battle haze. A human running behind the monster, and out an exit in the wall(he wasn't familiar with the concept of doors yet.), with a large lit red sign above it.

"I'll be damned." He gritted out, and saw Verse trying to get his attention, he would have run then and there, if it wasn't for the several hundred pound fanged and clawed obstacle in front of him. He looked to see where the stairs were. Of course, clear across the building. He thought, a small chuckle at himself escaping his lips. He motioned at Verse that he could see him, and shrugged at his own situation, and the multiple wounds built up during the battle.

"I hope you got a plan buddy." He said, Because this thing is no longer amused.

Verse did not have a plan at all. But he did know how to get somethings attention really quick. Hell, from his position behind maybe he could actually do some damage. "Nup," was all he said as he jumped forward with claws outstretched. His target, the tail, looking to grasp it and dig in. His claws were more like shovels, really, but they could be used to grip into hard places. The tips wouldn't find it too hard to pierce flesh and tear it open. Unfortunately that would just as easily trap him to the beast, and a moment later when the pain reached its cranium, he would be going for a ride on that tail.

"Holy hell!" Bic yelled as the beast let loose a roar of anguish, and rage, as it whipped around away from him, trying to get at it's own tail where he had seen Verse dive for. Not one to look a gift Rapidash in the mouth he took off running for the door.

"Jump! I'll catch you!" He yelled to verse as he was whipped around, the Beast rampaging trying to get the Sandslash to let go of it's tail. Then they could both scurry out the exit, and Bic could see to getting his wounds closed up, as they were starting to make little puddles of blood around him. He quickly moved closer to the door and waited on his companion.

"Damn this is going to hurt." Aereth thought to himself as he hit the atmosphere at 750mph. The wind and particles of the planet slowed his descent down to 240mph. As the fields around him died the sound of them made a loud boom that could be heard for miles. The ground grew closer and closer, he could see a small town near a volcano and tried to aim his landing away from people. Aereth finally slammed into the planet surface a tenth of a mile a mile from Lavaridge. The crater from his impact was twenty feet in diameter and sent a dust cloud pluming upwards nearly 130ft.

Jump? Was Bic friggin' crazy? Not that Verse could really hold on for long. The bloodflow from the tail-injuries made Verse's grip slick. So much so that when the tail next whipped about he was flung up over the air, a snap of the beasts jaws just brushing beneath his belly as he sailed for the ground where Bic was, small arms flailing to try and catch himself before the two collided too heavily.

"I gotcha." He grit out.

Verse colliding with his back nearly made his knees buckle. He caught the Sandslash with a grunt of pain as the wound on his back began bleeding anew, but he span with the force, arresting as much of the momentum as possible without throwing them both to the ground.

"Here we go." He said, as he settled Verse on his feet and took off towards the exit, the sound of thundering footsteps on their heels.

A Pidgeot landed near Aereth who lay with arms and legs spread out. The Pidgeot inched towards him and pecked Aereth on the knee.

"DAMN!" He shouted as he sat up immediately while delivering a reaction punch at the pidgeot. The bird flew off, feathers sputtering behind it as it limped from the punch.

"That hurt!" He said as he held his knee.

He stood up and looked around before checking his wrist for the ship's levels.

"Two weeks!?" He shouted.

"What am I supposed to do for two weeks?" He groaned.

Aereth regained his composure, dusted himself off, and left in the direction he heard the noise of civilization. He had traveled across fifteen galaxies, lost power in his ship, drifted for weeks into the planet's gravity, and slammed into the ground only to be pecked awake by a Pidgeot. Aereth could only think of how hungry and thirsty he was, the pain would pass as it always had.

Verse was feeling a little worse for wear. The tail ride and now being grabbed and all but flung in the right direction was not making him feel too steady on his feet. But still as he landed he scrambled for the door, more than enough natural instinct to keep him from standing around like an idiot. "I don't have a plan!" he shouted, "How do we lost this thing?" It would take all their wit to outsmart the beast this time, especially if they were heading out into the open.

Bic had really been hoping for Verse to have a plan. Honestly, he was feeling pretty lightheaded from getting smashed around, and from blood loss. As they exited the building and slammed the exit behind them, he did the only thing he could think of. He spewed flame over his shoulder into the grass all around where they'd just exited until the air smelled of burning things. He then whipped his head towards Verse. "hold your breath!" He yelled, coughing slightly from speaking so soon after expelling flame. Seeing him do so, Bic breathed deep and blew thick black smoke over Verse till his scales darkened and he smelled of nothing but smoke, then doing the same to himself. Now they smelled the same as the air around them.

"Hopefully that will by us time." He said, still running, blood flowing into his mouth when he spoke from the lacerations on the bridge of his snout. Behind them he could hear the sound of a crash as the Beast smashed it's way from the building.

Verse had not much of a choice but to inhale as he ran, until he breached the buildings entrance and was outside. He looked a bit funny with a slightly darker tinge to him, but that really wasn't important right now. However with the sound of a crash any humans nearby went into a panic and scattered in all direction. Maybe if they just ran it they could make it to the next town... It was pretty far but maybe...

"Wait," Verse panted as he ran, "Did you just cover our scent?"

"It was all I could think to do." He stated, breathing shallow and heavier than it had been earlier, A combination of Adrenalin and blood loss was beginning to make him shaky.

He eyed the area around them critically, seeing the humans running around, some holding the balls he was told to avoid. The trees were an option, but he wasn't sure how well Verse could climb, water wasn't an option, he was pretty sure Verse couldn't swim, not to mention the fact that he doubted, but wasn't sure if his flame would burn under water. If something didn't come up soon though, he'd have to risk it.

Verse suddenly skidded to a halt, jamming one claw into the ground and hurtling a chunk of dirt over his shoulder. In a bare few seconds he had already dug a small hollow in the earth and showed no sign of stopping. "Tell me how long I have!" he said, in reference to the Feraligator that would no doubt pick up their trail soon. "He can't smell us anymore, so I can dig us out of here!" But there was the slight problem of getting a big enough hole fast enough for the two of them to escape. Still, he was damn well going to try.

Bic spun around, eyeing the charging Beast. It couldn't smell them anymore, but it could damned well see them, and it was pissed, bleeding from minor wounds, and covered in soot, it was charging right for them. No longer interested in playing with its prey.

"45, no, 35 seconds." Bic muttered as loud as he could through his growing weakness, flames erupting then sputtering and dying as they came from his mouth, in an attempt to buy them a few extra seconds. I'm too weak, he thought, eyeing the weakening flame on his tail. He resolved if they survived all this, to find a way to become stronger. To make his flame burn brighter.

"I can bury myself in ten," Verse answered with a cocky smirk, "Just stay on my tail." His mind was a different story, locking down to focus on just two words to keep his pace and timing going. Leftrightleftrightleftright. His claws shovelled dirt faster and faster until there was already a small hollow deep enough for himself, and soon it would be even deeper, to the point that Bic could probably join him, albeit uncomfortably squished against his spines. The main problem would be getting deep enough to keep away from the Feraligator's claws... Or any water attacks it might still know.

At least he's confident Bic thought while watching the massive form of the Beast barreling towards them. He was really dizzy now, his head was spinning, and he could really use a nice. Long. Rest. Before he knew what was happening, he'd already stumbled backwards. Straight into the thankfully completed burrow. Verse might have said something, but he wasn't sure, he was cramped, tail cradled to his chest the weakened flame being carefully shielded. He could see out the hole. He couldn't see the sky however, the leering face of the Beast was there instead.

"Well, shit." He muttered to tired for a more violent reaction, as it began ripping violently at the hole widening it, and snapping its head down towards them, close enough he could practically taste its breath, and flecks of spittle hit him in the face.