“Personally…” He looks the bite marks over. They’re clean. Too clean. “Gonna be some grass Pokemon, or ghosts. Pretty much anything else you can think of is gonna be way too messy.” While he’s making his hypothesis, the shadow slinks up to the corpses. It peers into their pasts, the anguish that led them to this moment…[break][break]
It beholds a sea of stars above them. Boundless. You don’t see stars like that in the city. There’s too many humans. Humanity and its great cancerous growth on the world have destroyed one’s capacity to see this beauty in places like Slateport. The Tauros grazes. Its leg catches on something. It trips.[break][break]
And then, everything is red. It’s protesting. Screaming. Fear is gripping it like the vines that wrap around its body. The creature rages to try and escape the inevitable. A monster has them in its throes. A monster like one of Tsubaki’s own poison flowers. It’s bigger. In place of eyes are barnacles. It screams in rage and in horror and in apprehension of its own immortality. It sings that it will never die.[break][break]
They are not torn apart. Slender vines slip inside them. Liquify them. Death is slow. They are digested alive and they can do nothing but sit there, waiting for the end. Waiting while this great green beast laps at them uselessly with its tongue.[break][break]
“Looks like Voyager’s found a scent.” The detective says as the legendary dog barks, running off through the field…[break][break]
…right to a flower.

[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

He is grabbed by a parody. There is no other word in the language of man or mon to describe this creature that emerges from the gentle grass. Calling it a Venasaur is to discredit both this creature and that species. It lacks limbs. It has evolved beyond the need for limbs. Caught down in the midnight sea, a stray Pokemon of a long-dead trainer, it was embraced like she was. Gengar can see the whole story, if she cares to. The anguish, the kiss of the angels, the whisper of the deep. It’s big, twenty feet across. Pokemon aren’t supposed to get this big.[break][break]
“Voyager!” Navy cries, desperate to not lose another of Gabe’s old team. Voyager has been raised from infancy by Gabe. He is far too gentle for a battle such as this. The vines embrace him. They coil around the great legendary fire hound. He struggles like the Tauros struggled. Their embrace is gentle. Loving. Coiling. Death comes gently at first.[break][break]
Only red light saves him. Navy recalls Voyager back into his ball. That something like this could live in the fields…[break][break]
“Holy hell.” Navy swears. “I’m glad this town has us.”[break][break]
There is only one Pokemon he has that’s equal to this challenge – one sole monster capable of tearing this creature apart without himself dying in the process. The black dragon opens his eyes. Before Navy even opens the ball, it senses his need.[break][break]
Its raging roar as it flies from the ball is something that could put fear into the fearless, his claws death to the deathless.

[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“They’re not.” Two words, decisive as a sword. A detective’s intuition in a warrior’s hand. Vortigern charges. This creature insists that she will never die. The black dragon laughs at such notions. This is a monster that could rend, tear, kill even the gods themselves. He does not recognize their authority, he does not believe in any claims that something is above him. If they feel differently on the matter, they do so at the end of his claws, on the points of his teeth.[break][break]
His maw rips into the flesh, tears out patches. Rends it. The creature howls and begins to whip at him with the vines. She sprays power into the air. Poison powder, sleep powder, powder to paralyze – anything to stop the black dragon.[break][break]
“It’s probably something pushed up here after the fight – or she swam up. Either way…” It’s day. There is no angel’s song, no soft lights in the sea off the shore. They’re safe. It’s a symptom. There is nothing here that could be called a cause. He must protect this girl, protect her at all costs.[break][break]
“Baki, pull yourself together.” Even before a monster like this, he isn’t afraid. She is his shield from fear. While this girl is here and he has to defend her, there is no room for fear in Michael Navidson’s world. The only thing he fears is his own weakness, and in this moment he will not be found wanting.[break][break]
“If we’re going to kill this thing, we’ve got to do it together.” He says as the black dragon claws, in the throes of a great outrage.

[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

When she bleeds, it is not blood that pours from her wounds. It’s seawater. A torrent of the stuff, rolling over them. She’s blasting her powder everywhere. Flailing, screaming in a cut vocal cord. This poor creature has been denied the chance to join her trainer in the afterlife. What a cruel, cruel turn of fate. It’s just setting things right. That’s what Navy thinks. He hovers behind Tsubaki, helping steady her. Keeping her close so that nothing in that primordial sea or on land can get her.[break][break]
They’re at war.[break][break]
They’re at war with nature itself. Land and sea. Rayquaza itself couldn’t stop this battle. Navy watches, waits, feels his heart pumping in his chest. Vortigern is tearing. He’s buried himself in this creature’s flesh. He is no Tauros to be taken into a slaughterhouse and killed. While Gengar tears her from the outside, the black dragon is eating her alive. All of that corrupted flesh is slurped into him, like his stomach is the river styx. He’s simply ferrying her closer and closer to the underworld with very bite.[break][break]
It’s visceral, and undeniably brutal. He flicks flesh out from his hole he’s dug into her. All the choicest bits go into his maw, the rest are discarded. There is no need to even mega evolve. As horrifying as this abomination is, its trick has been played. She can hardly move. She can only bask in sunlight and steal creatures that wander too close.[break][break]
“Peters isn’t gonna be happy about this…”[break][break]
Navy whispers to himself as the problem sorts itself out. It always does, when a super powerful ghost and a black dragon enter the equation.

[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

[attr="class","pokeclass"]

“Venasaur’s a pretty common pick for a starter.” Navy offers back to her when their Pokemon are done devouring this creature in mind, body, and soul. Vortigern has had his fill. Whether this meal brought him any real joy or not, Navy can’t say. He’s just happy for a peaceful interaction with the black dragon. Pulling him back into the ball, replacing it at his hip, he’s thankful the creature didn’t turn on Tsubaki or himself. He’s done it before, he’ll do it again.[break][break]
But not today.[break][break]
“You ever see that old movie, Red and Blue? Kids in it got to pick between a Squirtle, Charmander, and Bulbasaur. Ever since it blew up ‘bout thirty years ago, kids everywhere pick those three.” He placates her with trivia. “There’s a conspiracy about it, if you wanna know some trivia. There were some big Pokemon vendors at the time who had a big stock of those three Mons. Conspiracy goes they put ‘em in the movie to help sell their stock.”[break][break]
It’s the sole comfort that he can offer. An idea hits him.[break][break]
Just something to pull her back from the edge.[break][break]
“Come on. Let’s go let Peters know we took care of the problem. We’ll need to call in the Rangers to take care of the body. After that,” a grin, “the local theater…bet I can talk ‘em into putting on Red and Blue for us. Thirty bucks says they still have the reel. Sheriff wants to watch somethin’, he gets what he wants.”

[break][break]

+ Hyakkaryōran Tsubaki

[attr="class","pokeclass"]