*,*'*,* Subplot - Charred Black *,*'*,*
*:Author's Warning--Please Read:*
***The following story contains a large amount of weirdness. This mostly involves stomach-related weirdness. (Read: This includes a medium-light dose of, I will admit, fatfur. However, this contains absolutely NO yiff or other overly disgusting sexual material related to it, so don't run away screaming bloody murder. Feel free to flame me if I DO put in anything like that on accident, since I have vowed to refrain from that sort of thing in an effort to retain my dignity.) It also includes a lot of "dammit"'s. Please take this with a grain of salt. If you have anything you want to say--even insults--review or e-mail. Insulters, please, no flames--instead, just give constructive criticism, like, "I don't like how you..." or "This is just too weird--there's..." or "I think you should have..." etc. Thank you and I hope you enjoy regardless. If you don't want to read anymore, don't feel angry--this has no real purpose in my main stories, except maybe--MAYBE--if I choose to try and write one of them. Even then, you only will need the next chapter.***
*'*,*'* Chapter One - Depression *'*,*'*
The lightning cracked, the thunder boomed, the rain poured, and the wind howled. The Charicific Valley was facing a fierce maelstrom. Liza grunted in effort as she made her way to the gate to close it for the night. She held onto her yellow rainhat while clutching her matching slicker shut while she closed one eye to protect it from the downpour. "Nnnnngh! Man, this had better be a quick storm like they say it is!" she muttered. "The charizards' flames will be put out from flooding at this rate!"
She finally reached the gates and stopped. She took her hat and stuck it between her teeth while she fiddled with the buttons on her raincoat. "Shoulda done this sooner...stupid me..." she mumbled, fighting the flapping of the yellow, canvas-backed material.
"Uuunnn..."
"!" Liza stopped and looked up sharply as she heard what sounded like a boy with a bit of a frog in his throat groaning in weakness. She peered out into the night and made out a faint glowing light. "Huh...?" She hurried to finish her coat, then put her hat back on and stepped outside the gates. "Hello?" she called.
"Unnngh..." came the reply.
With the brim of the hat shielding her eyes, Liza could get a better look at the person coming towards her. The light was getting stronger, and it made a shiny, slick, dark outline in front of it. A large, rounded patch was now quite visible to her. She gasped as she realized that the light behind it was attatched to the figure. "A...!"
Without any further hesitation, she dashed down the slope to the form, which had just collapsed. She skidded to a halt, slipping and falling onto her left arm with a grunt before scrabbling up onto her knees. "Are you okay?" she asked, putting her hands on the body. As she thought, slick scales met her palms and fingers. When only another groan came, she found the left arm of the figure and hoisted it up to bear its reasonable weight on her shoulder. "C'mon, you're coming in with me," she said, making her way back up the slope.
"...Please..."
She caught her breath and looked at her right. A head on a long neck was bowing down, hanging loosely. "Did you...?" she whispered.
"...Don't...look...at me..."
When she finally got back to the gate, she closed it and went as fast as she could, which was faster now that she had level ground, to her hut. Once inside, she looked at her companion. "Knew it," she said, face concerned. "A shiny."
A black and white charizard was unconscious on her shoulder.
-*-
Liza awoke the next morning to find the shiny charizard still out cold on her bed for injured charizard. She frowned, but continued about her morning routine as normal. After, she stepped outside to find the rain had lightened up considerably to a gentle, enjoyable patter. Breaking out a flame-designed umbrella, she looked and found her charizard, Charla, in her cave behind the hut. "Morning, Charla," she called.
Charla bugled back quietly.
Liza half-smiled. "You know there's someone inside, right?" she asked. "I mean, his window's right in front of you, practically." She made her way over to her.
Charla nodded. She cocked her head curiously, pink bow bobbing.
"A shiny, I know," Liza nodded back, stopping next to her and turning to face the window. The dark form was sleeping inside. "...He talks."
Charla raised her eyeridges and looked at her in surprise. "Ruh?"
"I'm not joking!" Liza insisted, laughing up at her pokémon. "I'm serious! I found him last night. He said not to look at him..." She looked back. "...He's very interesting. I don't think he's got anything to worry about, though," she assured, "since he's healthy enough to have a bit of a paunch. That'll have fed him if nothing else. Well...unless he is experiencing respiratory trouble..." She trailed off.
Charla frowned at this.
-*-
The next day came, and Liza found that the black charizard wasn't in his room. She panicked and raced outside in her pajamas. The rain had stopped midway through the day yesterday and had left only a few puddles now. The world smelled fresh and clean. She saw the odd-colored dual-type walking slowly off, making small stomping sounds, towards the gate. "WAIT!!" she called.
The charizard stopped, one paw on the gate, and turned to look at her.
Liza was coming over, slowing down. "You still need some food! And why'd you come all the way here if you're...not..." She stopped as she looked up at his face.
He gave her a small, sad frown, half-dropped lids, and eyes that just...looked at her. His tail flame, she also noted, was pretty low--strongly burning, nary a flicker, but low.
Liza put a hand to her mouth. "Oh...Are...you okay?" she asked.
The charizard turned to the gate again.
"Don't leave! Why come here in the first place if you're going to go away?" she asked, frowning a little.
The charizard clutched some of the wrought iron.
"...This is a welcome home for all charizard. You'll be safe here," Liza assured him, putting a hand on his shoulder gently. "I mean...if you need to leave, you should, but..."
The charizard blinked, breathing quietly for a moment, before looking up and out at the beautiful landscape of the valley before him. The birds chirped somewhere. The clouds crawled across the sky. The rocks proudly displayed their colors. He sighed and turned around, going the other way from Liza, and began walking off to a cliff wall at the other end of the "plaza" in the valley.
Liza smiled and clasped her hands together. "Oh, good! Thank you!" she said happily. "You'll love it here! Just come to me if you have any trouble!"
He made no sign that he had heard. He only slowly walked off.
Liza watched on for a bit, smiling, before her mouth fell into a worried line again. "I wonder what happened to him..." she mumbled.
-*-
Charizard stepped out of his cave, yawning and stretching as he felt the Johto morning sun shining down and warming his scales and hide. He disliked the rain, but had to admit it made a nice scent fresh from a fall, which made the morning that much better. He loved his home in the Charicific Valley, and enjoied as much of it as he could. He looked left and right at the entrance to his moderately-sized cave that could comfortably fit two charizards of his size--but was perfect for him. 'What to do first?' he wondered.
In front of him was the top of a crooked wall that limited the area that any people below could walk around without climbing or otherwise getting up there to him. He was across the way from another cave, one of the large caves that made up the majority of the ones in the valley. A good, wide ledge wrapped right around the little jutting rock peninsula his cave was under the tip of, and held no caves. Left had another, but with a gap between the ledges and some caves along there. He could see in the distance to the first direction a place where the ground was fertile enough to bear a small forest. There were plenty of berry trees there, as well as other, general trees that his trainer sees daily on his journey. To his left was the direction of the gates and Liza's hut. All around were other charizard waking up and exiting their homes to enjoy the outdoors after the rain. Charizard licked his lips and decided to fly out and grab some breakfast.
Sometime after he had left, the monochrome-bodied, red-winged charizard flew up to a wall to the top. He landed clumsily, as if he was inept at flight, or if he was pushing himself very hard. Other charizard turned to look at the newbie. They instantly narrowed their eyeridges and paid him no positive heed.
"What's one of those fancy-shmancy shinys doing up here?" muttered one, using the language of their kind.
"A runt, too. Bet it's a domestic one, like that trainer's one," grumbled another by the first.
"Look, a little lardtail's come up to find some breakfast," jeered someone else.
Others acted unkindly, most just didn't bother at all. As they spoke, the shiny charizard's face, still sunken, changed slightly. A small grimace formed on his lips. He clenched his fists, walking a little slower, and bowed his head lower than the droop it normally was. He pushed past a few charizard who had decided to crowd around him to get somewhere. Anywhere.
He made it, after a few minutes' walk, to a cave at the end of an isthmus of stone ahead. He hopped the gap and came around to the tip of the penninsula it was on, looking around. Everyone had decided to just go on and get some food. Breathing slightly heavily, the shiny sat at the right side of the entrance, curling his tail out in front of him from between his legs. Some charizard going past jeered at him.
The shiny looked on, sadness in his eyes as he wore his rarely-changing mask of brooding. A few passing pokémon later, he bowed his head down to his chest, closing his eyes. "Nowhere," he whispered in Human.
His bigger-than-average stomach let out a rumbling growl. He gave it an angry right hook without moving his head to look. His fist sank in halfway.
"Dammit..."
-*-
Charizard returned an hour later, having eaten his fill. While he flew in, he raised his eyeridges in surprise and made a curious, "Groo?" as he saw the black-and-white speck below that was the shiny. He narrowed them a little after when he saw what it was. "Great, one of those stuck-up..." he muttered. He growled and shook his head as he dived down to land.
The shiny didn't make a single sign he noticed Charizard landing. Charizard looked down, arms crossed as he looked around his fit front's curvature at him. "This is my cave," he said curtly. "Unless you're lookin' for a fight, you'd better leave, dullard." 'Dullard' was a term used by pokémon for shiny charizard or other shinys whose appearance was mostly greyscale.
Grrruumble. "Leave me alone," came back the barely-any-effort reply in Charizard.
Charizard snorted, flicking his head to a side. A wisp of flame, the size lighters made, came from his nostrils. "If you wanna be alone, MAKE yourself alone," he growled. "This is my turf."
To his surprise, the shiny made no further argument. From leaning back against the rockface, he rocked himself forwards, leaned on his right leg, lifted his left, and swung his tail out from in front of him, curving to minimize hitting things, before stomping down again and rising in less than a second. He was only slightly shorter than Charizard, but he probably weighed about as much, if not more. He nodded and turned to the right, going down the ledge. A good ten feet away, he sat down again, doing the reverse of what he'd done to stand, albiet slower. His stomach growled once more.
Charizard blinked at him. Something in his battle-loving heart pinged. "Wow," he muttered before turning out again, still looking at the shiny. "First charizard I've met who hasn't challenged me to a battle after doing that." He looked away to take off. 'But that vibe I'm getting from him's getting on my nerves...but I dunno if he's just doing that on purpose or what...'
Charizard left just as the pebbles around the shiny rattled and danced as the rumbling increased in intensity from the dragonlike creature's paunch. The shiny punched it again, harder.
-*-
"GRROOAAAUGH!!"
WHAMMO!! "GNNGH!"
A small crowd of charizard bugled and stomped their feet. A small crowd of charizard roared and snarled. Charizard himself smirked as he landed from a successful Seismic Tossing of another, much, much larger charizard to the ground of a slightly grassy spot near a cliff face.
"I can go AAAALLLLLL day, Verkcld," Charizard taunted, getting into fighting position as soon as he landed.
Verkcld grunted and shook as he pushed himself up, looking daggers at Charizard...make that plural......WHUMP.
A loud whistle was heard. A charizard about one and a half times as big as Charizard held a paw up while curving its lips into an O still. "Verkcld is down! Charizard wins!" it barked. The audience reacted accordingly, half for Charizard and half for Verkcld.
Charizard smirked before he stomped his foot and bugled to the sky, wings fluttering a bit and tail lashing.
Charla, in the audience on his side, smiled, bow waving in the wind. As Charizard came over, she said, "That's the sixth fight in a row that you've won! You're really on a roll!"
Charizard blushed a little, grinning sheepishly. "W-Well, I guess I just have my game back, that's all," he said. He was always shy around Charla.
"It's going to be lunch soon. What're you thinking?" Charla asked as everyone dispersed, them walking together.
Charizard smirked and held his paws up, eyes closed. "A nap, what else?" he asked.
Charla giggled, which sounded odd for a draconic being to do with as growly a voice as her kind had. "Charizard, you're lazy, you know that?" she asked, smiling friendily.
Charizard waggled a claw, opening an eye. "I'm only lazy if I sit around all day," he said. "I fly, train, and battle; THEN I sit around all day."
She laughed. "You're something else, you know that, Charizard?" she smiled.
Charizard smirk-grinned. "Thanks for noticing," he replied.
Charla gave him a playful-but-disappointed eyeridge raise before swatting him between the horns. "You're not supposed to say yes," she admonished.
"You're a slow learner, since that's the hundreth time you've said that," he defended, paw on his head.
Charla sighed and shrugged. "Boys," she grumbled. She smiled and let her arms down. "Well, I'm going to hop over to Liza before she has time to think up a tirade for her sherpa," the charizardess said. She held a paw up and diverged. "Until we meet again, Charizard!"
"Bye!" Charizard waved back before she took off. He turned to face front and took off, as well, to fly the short distance to his cave. 'I wonder if she...naaah,' he thought, blushing. 'I still need to prove myself to her, I think.'
His thoughts about Charla were interrupted when he saw the shiny was still in the spot he'd left him. He knew because there had been a noticable notch in the wall to his left, a half foot from his buttock. "Grm? He asleep here in the shade?" Charizard muttered, tilting his head. He shook it and looked at the front of his cave. "He wants to be left alone, I'll leave him alone," he grumbled. He landed in front of his home and swept his tail across a swath of rock before lying down on his side, propping his head in a paw while he faced out from his cave. He yawned and skritched his stomach before mumbling, "Ooooh, this sun feels good..." He settled down to nap.
A minute after he'd entered a light doze, though, he was awoken by a vibrating in the ground and a strange sound that, a half second after hearing it, his waking mind recognized as a stomach growling. He growled, himself, and cocked his head up. It was coming from his right. A couple seconds later, the growling stopped. He shook his head and grumbled back down.
A half minute later, however, he was stirred again by the same thing. He paid no heed, though, fighting to ignore it. It was a bit longer this time, but faded again. Another minute passed before, again, the rumbling came. The increased strength was enough to jitter the gravel around his body, and it lasted even longer. Charizard anger-veined slightly, grumbling and shifting his position to one where his head was upside-down on the ground and his chest supported his paws, snout straight out from his cave. It faded, but returned soon afterwards, stronger again. He growled, anger-veined again, and moved around to curl up, facing the other side of the cave, with his head in his arms.
He waited a few seconds. It stopped for good.
He sighed and relaxed a little--which he cursed silently as he felt a rumble. The shaking creschendoed, and he could hear the sound getting louder, as well. He clenched his fists as he fought to endure it, but it was getting very loud for a stomach's complaints and very powerful. And it wasn't ending, continuing to go on as the winged orange lizard growled louder and louder. Five seconds...ten...fifteen...When it hit twenty, Charizard's anger-vein was as big as his head and his eyes shot open, bloodshot in rage, and his teeth bared in a snarl. The pebbles were jumping around, now, and one popped off his head.
Whipping up and around, he grabbed the wall with a paw and leaned out to look at the shiny, still sitting there. Now, though, his head was bowed entirely in the space between chest and gut. He seemed to be muttering something. Spitting fire with every word and burning fire in his eyes, Charizard roared, "ARE YOU DOIN' THIS ON PURPOSE OR SOMETHIN'?!"
The shiny looked up and over at him with a glare and a frown. "The hell would I?" he asked, barely audible above the earthquake his body was making. His belly was unnervingly rippling like water, and it wasn't from his paws on it--one clutching it tight and another in a fist on it. The growl spiked up in volume and intensity breifly, causing the shiny to turn back and wince. "Stop, stop...dammit..." He punched it feebly a couple of times. He gripped it with his other paw so hard, he drew a little blood.
Charizard blinked normal and widened his eyes at this. He now noticed that the creature's color was a bit pale, even the white stomach. He then narrowed his eyeridges. "You frikkin' starving yourself or something?!" he asked, stomping over a couple steps, closing six of the ten feet to him. He crossed his arms and leaned down to be more level with the shiny, head now two feet from his. The noise was amazing. 'I didn't even know a stomach could growl that loud, at least anyone's besides a snorlax's!'
"Leave me alone!" the shiny shouted back, not looking at Charizard. The growling faded down a little, then up a bit again. It was fluxuating. By now, it'd been rumbling for a minute straight.
Charizard growled, "What the hell's WRONG with you? Anorexic or something?!" he asked. "You're going to hurt yourself with that thing if you don't shut it up, if yannow what I mean!!"
The shiny only grimaced and continued gripping and pounding. Finally, after a record minute-thirty and a final squeal, the loudest complaints a stomach had ever given to Charizard's knowledge ended. The shiny flopped his head down onto his gut, panting a bit. "...It's getting worse...dammit, I hate this fucking thing..."
Charizard lifted a nostril. "Get something, then," he snarled. "We've got tons of berries, but there's also great game in the valley. Just eat."
"Leave me alone."
Charizard sighed and shook his head before walking back. He looked over his shoulder again before clenching a fist.
-*-
A smaller, much shorter bout later, the shiny had finally succeeded in bruising his gut. He bit it, feeling the soft flesh in his mouth. "Die," he muttered in Human. "Die, die, die, die...all of you..." He looked at his paws a bit above him as he did. Tears peeked from the corners of his eyes.
"Weirdo!"
The shiny looked up and saw something about the size of a beach ball being thrown at him. He instinctively caught it, fighting to keep his face nonchalant. He looked at it in his paws, resting on his stomach. It was a huge hunk of meat, comically in the old roll-on-a-double-ended-bone form. The browned surface was steamy, feeling nice to his Fire-type body, and smelled delicious. He twitched an eyeridge before looking up as he heard a landing.
"Eat it, already," Charizard told him tiredly in annoyance, peeking his head from around the wall. "Lemme get some rest." He disappeared.
The shiny glared with an unchanging face at the spot he was, then at the meat. His stomach gurgled a little, calling his attention. Slowly, he grimaced, rage forming on his face before he finally gave a bona fide Mega Punch to his gut. "DAMMIT!! Fine!" he shouted before ripping a piece of meat off. He teared up a little as he ate, cursing whenever he could. He tore another hunk off and began eating ravenously. He even, in anger, crunched the bone and sucked out the marrow before spitting out the shards and swallowing the two ends, rounded side down first. "Dammit, dammit, dammit," he grumbled. He watched his stomach, which was lumpy with the new food...and finally quiet. He buried his nose in his chest again, resting his paws on his stomach.
Twenty minutes later, tears ran down his cheeks as he felt his paws lifting just barely noticably. "Die, please..." he whispered in Human.
-*-
That evening, after dinner (which Charizard saw didn't include the shiny, who sat still in his spot from before), the sunset sky was intruded by cumulonimbus coming their way. "Aw, come on! It JUST rained!!" many of the charizard complained. They hurried to their caves before another stormy night rolled in, though, all the same. Charizard went to see Charla safe and sound in her cave before departing for his. It was raining by then, and not gently. "Why is it raining? Why?" he complained to nobody as he winged through the windy, wet sky.
He saw another new sight at his cave, though, and he snarled. "Oh, no, you don't, weirdo!!" he barked. He landed quickly, sliding and grunting from the shock, before stomping over to the shiny charizard plodding along, dragging his tail as he slowly entered Charizard's cave. Charizard got to the near end of the entrance and put a paw on it, other on his hip as he looked at the halfway-in pokémon. "And where do you think you're--" he began to ask, but he stopped.
The shiny had turned his head and given him an expression over his shoulder. He looked like he had when he did the same to Liza that morning, but Charizard could see the pain in his eyes so much better than any human ever could. They were close to dead. After a moment, the shiny turned again and continued in. Charizard saw, by the light of his small tailflame, him curl up in a corner, sighing as his cheek brushed his stomach--which looked a bit bigger?
Charizard blinked, then groaned and shook his head. "Fine, you little...dammit, can't think of the word," he grumbled, stepping in. "Only for tonight, though. Find your own hole to crawl into and cause an avalance tomorrow, though. Go to the springs, since there're more of your kind there." He went and lay down on his little rock bed in the other corner. He looked a few seconds at him before shaking his head and closing his eyes. As soon as he did, more memories of the day ran through his mind. All of them around the shiny.
He remembered how the others shunned him or jeered when flying by. He remembered how he acted like an antisocial freak. He remembered how he, himself, treated him. 'This kid's got problems,' he knew. 'And not just with himself...' He forced himself to let slumber take him away before his thoughts kept him up.
-*-
To Charizard's relief, the shiny was gone the next morning. It was no longer raining, thankfully; it had ended around midnight, being a sudden summer storm. He stepped out into the morning sun again and didn't see him anywhere. 'Good, he went out to find food for himself or something.'
As it happened, the shiny was walking along, carrying an armful of berries he slowly munched upon. "If these make me gain weight, too, then I'll just kill myself," he grumbled to himself. His belly, indeed at least a quarter inch thicker now, jiggled along as he deliberately plodded forwards. He suddenly stumbled and nearly dropped his food as he slammed to the ground. An advantage of being overweight was that he was shielded from much of the impact damage on his front, though he would have rather let it hurt him full-force. "Dammit." He pushed himself up, tail helping since his arms were full, and tried to ignore a couple of laughing charizard around him.
The shiny stopped at another cliff wall. Looking up, he couldn't help but wonder, 'If this is a valley, why are there so many landbridges?' He shook his head and looked at his armful. Five berries left, and he was getting tired of eating them. "Dammit," he said again, then shoved them down his long throat whole, one after the other. He then crouched and, with a lot of effort in his grunt, took off. After a weary vertical climb, he reached the top. He grabbed the edge and pulled himself up before sprawling onto his back limply, panting. "...Dammit..."
Catching his breath, he turned to look at the last section of the valley. It was a huge hot springs, with pools of steaming water rimming a cul de sac of stone sides and sand islands and ground. There was one pool in the center, though, that appeared to go quite deep--you couldn't see bottom from the misty surface--and was very large, providing the water that covered almost the entire springs (save for the islets and the pools created by lengths of islets). Shelves held some sitting shinys, and there were quite a few holes. One shiny in particular caught his attention--the largest. He had to be as big as a house, easily the largest there, as he sat his spreading ass on top a ledge on the far end in the middle. He was also quite large in front, too, which the little shiny spat at. "Sittin' all like a pampered, fat king," he muttered. "Bet he's a hypocrite, too." He sighed and walked down the slope to the springs.
When he entered, the shinys all looked at him and raised their eyeridges. A few didn't narrow them, though.
"Great, a fat shrimp."
"Look at this sad sack! What's HE want here?"
"I thought we had enough trouble with new faces a week ago..."
"Hey! Who the heck are you, shorty??"
"...Is it wrong I think he looks adorable?"
"No."
"VERY."
The smallest shiny paid no visible attention, though, and instead made his way to a pool in the corner. He waded in, lifting his tail only to keep the flame above water. He slumped down at the end, sitting in the hot springs that would scald a human, sinking his head low enough that his nostrils were all that stuck up. His head resembled a horned, orange-colored alligator waiting for prey. It felt GOOOOD, but he didn't care about that right then. He sighed in aggrivation as his stomach lifted up a little, arching his back slightly. "Maybe I should give up and eat to death," he growled in Human, making bubbles. He took advantage of the tiny white patch peeking up and rested his tail on it.
A larger shiny charizard waded over to him, crossing his arms. "Well, well, a new shiny, eh?" he asked, cocking his head.
The small one made no reply. Not even when the larger one prodded him with a sharp talon.
"So? Who're you, shrimp?" asked the larger one.
"Leave me alone, please," the small one said quietly.
The large one raised his eyeridges, but shrugged. "Right, right, whatever, shorty," he grumbled, turning around to wade off.
For the next couple of hours, the small shiny eavesdropped in on the others' conversations. He didn't find much of anything that lightened his mood. He often heard comments about his size--both small and large. A few tried to talk to him--even a friendly-sounding one--but he always asked them to leave him alone.
Then, a few of them stopped talking and looked up as a fwooshing sound was heard. "Uh-oh, here he comes," said one relatively nearby the smallest shiny.
"Get your tails up!"
All around, shinys lifted up their tails, some standing.
"Medic crew, get ready for the snoozers!"
A few shinys groaned. "Don't they know you shouldn't sleep in a hot spring?" one asked.
A monstrous shadow loomed over the spring as a few pebbles crumbled from the shelf near the smallest shiny's spot. He looked up and saw a great form blot out the sun, curled into a ball. He widened his eyes, but then sighed and closed them. "Might as well," he said softly.
KAABWOOOOOOOSHHAA!!!
The biggest cannonball in the world sent up a waterspout of boiling water from the central pool. The entire springs was flooded with water from the displacement. The smallest shiny was covered in four extra feet of water thanks to the largest. As soon as it hit his tail, all went black.
-
"Rrrnnngh..."
Slowly, the world came back to his eyes. He saw the sky above. He was on something smooth and soft. A bed? He placed a paw to his side and pressed gently. He froze and sweatdropped as he realized what it was. "Oh, God, no..." he muttered.
"Dumbass's awake," said a voice.
"He's so tiny, I didn't think he'd come to so quick," said another.
"You call five minutes 'quick' when the average time is one?" asked yet another.
The smallest shiny leaned up and looked around. He saw a small hill of white around him, which was surrounded by other charizard and hot water. He knew what he was on and turned around to look up. Staring down at him, arms crossed and face frowning, was the biggest pokémon he'd ever seen in his entire life. Screw the big-as-a-house, this guy was that and at least five feet more. Since a house is at least sixteen feet, adding six for a roof and then this five meant this guy had to be at LEAST twenty-seven feet tall. And that was just sitting. Causing him to wince slightly and look at himself, the smallest--and feeling smaller than ever--felt a tingle of envy in his chest. He quickly looked up again when he realized he may have offended someone who could eat him whole--and, who knew, might very well have. How else could he have gotten so big??
The mega-zard shook his great head. "Careless actions, little one," he boomed. "Letting such a weak tail go out even after being warned all around? And letting that tail become so low in the first place?"
The smallest looked down. He saw his own gut, like a baby versus an adult when he saw the white around it, too. He turned and began walking off, deciding something. "I don't care," he said quietly.
The others raised their eyeridges. The largest one did, too, which was impressive, to say the least. "You...?" he asked. He narrowed his eyes and reached down a massive pair of claws, the actual claws sunken in just slightly from the flesh around it. "Stop, little one, please," he rumbled.
As the paw came to him, the smallest one grimaced and said, "Leave me alone!" before dashing across the bouncy surface and using said bounce to take off. He soared off and away.
The largest shiny frowned in disappointment at him, reaching still. "He is quite troubled," he said quietly (which was really about a small shout). "Strange, yes, but for a reason."
"Elder Gigaiya?" asked one of the shinys, looking up at him.
"Be calm, he is gone," Gigaiya said, looking back down. He smiled kindly. "It is best not to worry too much about that. Perhaps his flame shall rise and he will return."
"IF he returns," scoffed another, crossing his arms as he leaned his back against the elder's butt, sinking in a bit. His tail was underwater, but the flame was still alight. A small stream of steam curled from the spot as the water evaporated. "He's one of those wussies, I know it."
Gigaiya grunted disapprovingly at this, closing his eyes and lifting his muzzle. With just a slight lean, he caused half of the spring to erupt into laughter, and one part of it flailing and mumming and bubbling. "And I know you often forget that I mete out punishment freely when bathing," the oversized, overweight charizard grumbled, crossing his arms again.
-*-
"C'moonnn..."
"Grrrrruu!!"
Charizard sweated furiously, veins popping from his forehead and arm as he battled another charizard in an arm wrestle on top a log in the woods section of the valley. It was a stalemate, and he wasn't about to lose--especially to a charizard whose paw was so big, he could grasp his own in one claw. They'd been at it for nineteen seconds--twenty.
"Don't hurt yourself, Charizard!" Charla warned worriedly from the sidelines.
""BREAK HIS ARM!!"" rooted the larger one's cohorts, pumping their own.
"I'm...TRYING..." the big one grunted, annoyed.
It was a hard battle he was fighting, but Charizard would not give in. He was gritting his sharp teeth into a solid mass of enamel, smoke was coming with each breath, and his tailflame was roaring. "So...am...I..." Charizard wheezed.
A moment later, the bigger one grunted, "Screw it!" and pressed his lowest digit down HARD on the lower one of Charizard's.
The pain on the thinly-protected body part was quite unpleasant, and as Charizard winced in agony, his arm rushed down to the wood. A spark went through his skull as he narrowed his eyes. 'OH, NO, YA DON'T!' With fierce determination, he stopped the arm and fought with all of his might. The other was quite surprised, but kept pressing. Charizard thought he was going to be without a third claw if this kept up, but he pushed with every ounce of strength he owned, determination fueling him along. 'I'm not going to give up now!! Never!!'
And, to everyone's amazement, he slowly, inch by inch, began winning.
The big one widened his eyes before growling and pushing as hard as he could without cheating, tail lashing wildly.
Fire seethed out of the tiny holes between tooth and gum from Charizard's gritted teeth as his tailflame burned even brighter, now even bigger than his opponent's. His arm was turning red, as was his face. One could see, beneath the scales and hide, his arm, his right trapezius (I think), and his right pectoral muscles working harder than ever before, at least one small vein being pushed up from the iron-hard-tensed fibers. It felt like he was pushing against a bar of solid metal--very thick metal, since he could now bend a normal one pretty far, now, without as much resistance. But he kept pushing.
And so did his opponent.
POP.
Incredible pain shot through Charizard's third claw, the signals assaulting his brain like a thousand arrows. His arm shot right for a foot around the semicircle.
But no more.
With a roar and flames practically erupting from around his entire body, Charizard carried his opponent's arm from sin . 3/2, to cos 1, to tan . 3, to csc . 2, to sec -(2 . 3)/3...to cot 0(/-1).*
"GROOOOOOOOOOO!!!" howled the other charizard in agony and horror as the back of his paw hit the stump. It didn't slam down, but it still went down hard. Charizard extended his neck and bugled in victory so loudly, the ground and the stump shook, as did the bodies of everyone around. A fierce Flamethrower shot twenty feet into the air. As soon as Charizard had released his paw, the bigger charizard stumbled back, grabbing his shoulder with a deathgrip. "OWOWOWOWOW-WOW!!" he complained.
Charla jumped and Slammed him in an angled spin, right in the head, making him emit a sound akin to a growl and a yip at the same time while he rocked sideways a bit. "Not as much 'ow' as Charizard's in!" she scolded, glaring. "Dirty rotten cheater!!" She then turned to Charizard, whose bravado and soul fire had died down to normal again while he whined slightly, holding his right paw gingerly. "Are you alright?" she asked, trotting over, concerned.
"Mark up seven in a row now, but otherwise, no," Charizard admitted, eyes clenched in pain as he leaned his head back and gritted his teeth again. "FUCK, but do I hurt like a mother!!"
"Hold still, lemme see," Charla said, taking his paw into her paws. She examined the third, "pinky" digit. It appeared to be crooked at one of the joints. The portion of claw after the kink appeared solid, though its owner did make a gravelly squeak when she ran her middle claw over it. "I don't think he broke it, Charizard," she said gently, putting her left paw on his shoulder and looking up at him. (Though they were similarly sized, his head was sky-high right now and she was bowing her head to look at the paw closely.) "It looks dislocated--the bones are out of joint. DON'T MOVE IT."
He opened an eye and gave a strained chuckle. "Heh...I may have five times more brawn than brain, but I'm not that meatheaded," he groaned.
"How the HELL did you DO that, shorty?!" hollered the loser, coming over with a paw on his shoulder still. A couple of flunkies were with him, both middle-height to him and Charizard. One was busy massaging his boss's arm, another was using his chin to massage his trapezius. "Your arm's way too skinny to have enough muscle to take me down!!"
"I'm as stubborn as a wall," Charizard answered, smirking. "The only way I'll give up is if I can't move an inch."
"Sure didn't look like that last week," the flunkie behind the big guy muttered.
"Th-That was different!!" fought back Charizard, clenching his right fist habitually. He immediately regretted it as his face blanched from pain, paling.
"Dammit, hold on, idjit," Charla grumbled, grabbing his paw. She uncurled the last digit, grabbed the affected part, and twisted and shoved it back into place.
*POP!*
"GRAAAUUUUGGHA!!" Charizard roared.
"Well, that's what you get for biting off more than you can chew," Charla told him, paws on hips and frown on her face.
Charizard whined a little as he, painfully, flexed his claw. "But you know I can't decline a challenge," he reasoned.
"You're a trainer's pokémon, but that doesn't mean you have to act like him..."
"Feh. You got lucky," the big one said, turning and walking off while looking over his aching shoulder.
Charla stuck her tounge at him after he turned back forwards. "Well, as you said, seven down," she sighed, looking at him.
He was gone.
"?!" THMP. An echo of two bodies colliding came to her ears. Worried he'd jumped after his opponent in rage and revenge for the claw, she looked at the bigger one. He was still walking on, no Charizard in sight. She then looked all around wildly. "Charizard?" she called.
"YOU FUCKING RETARD!!"
Charla whipped her head left, spread her wings, and dashed through the air down the slope to the rocky cliff face a bit away. "Uh-oh," she muttered. "What's wrong?" she called forwards as she saw Charizard.
The pokémon was lying on his back on the ground. He was grunting and pinning a shiny charizard of about his height and greater weight to himself. The shiny bore a cheated expression. "Let GO of me, DAMMIT!!" he roared, thrashing to get away. Charizard had his thick tail wrapped in his own to keep it from hitting him, juxtaposing his healthy tailflame with the other's sickly one.
"NOT UNTIL YOU TELL MY WHY THE HELL YOU WERE DOING THAT!!" Charizard roared through his teeth.
"What's going on??" demanded Charla, landing. Her bow bounced up and down a little as she did. She stopped and raised her eyeridges as she saw who Charizard was hugging with his best impression of Vicegrip. "Hey, aren't you...?"
Suddenly, the shiny stopped moving with a sigh. "..." He looked away, face fallen to the dirt beside him and nose (uncomfortably) right by Charizard's right armpit. He made no motion to move away, though. It was as if all of the will inside of him was down to a fraction of a unit amount.
Charizard glowered at him. "Well? Why?" he asked.
"...Leave me alone."
"Not until--"
"Just do it, Charizard," Charla said suddenly.
Charizard started, blinking at her, but loosened his grip. His stomach was freed from suffocation by the shiny's as he rolled away and got up. "But, Charla!" Charizard protested, getting up. He pointed at him. "He was falling down, arms behind his back, head-first, holding his wings to his back, and without a single effort to save himself!!" He stood and looked away. "He was...letting go..."
Charla gulped, shaken slightly. "Oh, my..." she whispered. She shook her head and looked at the shiny. He was trudging off, looking as if he would have put his paws in his pockets had he any. "Hey, please, come back here!" she called, reaching.
"It's pointless," Charizard said, though he didn't sound like he believed it. "He's...dammit, what's the word?"
"Emo?"
Charizard snapped his claws. "Emo, that's it," he confirmed. "Yeah, like those humans who act all sad to get attention. The scary thing, though, is for those around them--" He looked at the shiny. "--because they don't always know if they're faking it or not."
The shiny jumped and flew up to the top of the wall again, but he disappeared at the top and was unseen for some time.
Then, after the greyscaled** one was gone, Charizard hissed and clutched his right upper body, too. "Ooooh, and now I feel like my right side's encased in ice--and I don't mean it's cold," he grunted.
"Char-i-zard..."
-*-
Liza hummed to herself as she polished her carriage. "Gotta look good if I'm goin' up to Sinnoh for the Wharfton Cup and Empathy Festival!" she told herself. A pair of FWOOMs behind her alerted the young woman to two charizard landing. "Oh! Charizard, Charla!" she smiled. "What's up?"
The charizard looked at each other before Charla stepped forward and made sounds that said she wanted to say something.
Liza leaned against the carriage, crossing her arms across her boobs while holding her rag. "Go on," she said, interested expression on.
Charla cleared her throat before continuing to explain in her tongue while doing her best to do charades. She first opened her fist up, middle, first, last, to indicate the number 3, then she made the "sleeping" pose with two paws clapped together to be a pillow, then thumbed backwards.
"Three...nights...ago?"
Charla nodded, then pointed at the gates before acting very tired and panting.
Liza snapped her fingers, an idea of what's going on appearing across her face. "It's about the normal-sized shiny, ain't it?" she asked.
They both nodded. Charizard then pointed down and around, hoping that said it.
"Here? Right here? Um...now?" Charizard made the "go on" gesture though shaking his head, then pointed at the sun. "Today!" Proud nod.
Charizard then made his best impression of the apathetic male's expression. 'Pikachu's SO much better at this than I am...'
"The new shiny?"
Charizard then pointed to a nearby clifftop before wearing the same expression and walking forwards. He then clasped his wings to his back, jumped, turned, and landed on his back pretty hard, landing shoulders first. Charla winced.
Liza widened her eyes. "He...He jumped off a cliff...?" she tried.
Charizard got up with a somber nod, but then pointed to himself. He hooded his eyes at the cliff, looking interested, then widened his eyes and mouthed, quite visibly, "Oh, shi--" before he made a quick dash forward, wings out to let him glide, at top speed. He glided around a loop to return in front of her. Meanwhile, Charla was setting up the same "he jumped" sequence. Charizard got near them before quickly rolling to his back and catching the falling Charla, sending him slamming down and skidding on his back.
"You caught him, Charizard?" Liza asked.
Both nodded at her, serious faces on.
Liza sighed in relief, putting a hand to her chest. "Oh, thank goodness," she breathed, slumping down a bit. "I was certain he'd...I knew he was troubled, from his words, but...suicide?..."
Both charizard came up again and came over. They looked questioningly at her.
"What to do..." Liza crossed her arms again, standing straight as she bowed her head in thought. "...Keep an eye on him, for one," she said, looking up. "Make sure he doesn't try and hurt himself. Charizard, you keep after him. I'm sure Charla will be fine without you," she chuckled, smirking. Charizard and Charla blushed, both looking affronted. She shook her head. "Also, I swear I heard him speak Human when I was helping him. Convince him to come and see me somehow. Go, now."
The charizard nodded before Charizard took off. Charla stayed, looking after him.
"I hope he'll be okay," Liza said quietly, turning around to the carriage. "Until then, Charla, help me with this, would you?" She kicked a bucket with a rag and some solution to her. Charla groaned and slumped in defeat before walking over.
-*-
The shiny plodded along the cliffs. He had another, larger armful of berries which was quickly disappearing down his gullet, three at a time as he devoured his late lunch. He hopped over gaps or glided, walking along to find somewhere to sit. He eventually made it to the cliff bridge Charizard's home was at. He blinked as he noticed this before sighing.
"Eat up, fatso! Ha-ha!" a charizard pointed as it went past.
The shiny looked back at it, expression in its neutral pose, before looking at his food. With a humph, he polished off all eight whole. He groaned in pain as the lump slowly made its way down his long throat. He made a face that said he was thinking, 'Not the smartest thing to do,' as he massaged his neck. He shook his head and sat down near the edge.
It didn't take long before he heard a massive WHAM! behind him and felt a prickly shockwave pass through him. He saw the shadow of a huge charizard over him. "Leave me alone," he said in Charizard before the charizard could say anything.
The charizard, easily twelve feet tall minus tail, scoffed. "Yeah, right, not until you get out of the way, fatass," he said.
"Please."
"HAH!" The charizard shook his head, crossing his arms. "Please? What a wussie! You don't get by with 'please' here! It's mon-eat-mon, you overfed housepet!"
This caused a twitch of the shiny's tail.
The other charizard noticed this and smirked. "Ooooh, hit a nerve, have I?" he asked. "Yeah! You're just an animal slave to humans to laze around the house all day, never doing anything worthwhile!" He pointed as he continued his stream of insults. "Are you listening? You deaf, now, too, dullard? Or are you just waiting for another earthquake from your little-snorlax's-gut of a belly? Yeah, I know you liked that! I heard it all the way from my cave on the other side of the cliff!"
"Please leave me alone," repeated the shiny when he heard him take a breath.
"There's no such thing as being left alone! There's always gonna be someone pissing you off, so get used to it, you dumbass! Why the hell are you here, anyway? You thought you could make it out here? Sure, go ahead, see how good you are after being taken along on a half-end-of-week camping trip and getting lost in the woods! Betcha never taken a dump in the mountains, eh? Scared? Want your precious privacy?" ((This begs the question: Where the heck would large pokémon like charizard go to the bathroom, in the yard? A litter box? The park? Imagine having to pick up after THAT behemoth...And -I- hate cleaning after Owen (black lab)...))
"Yes, so please leave me be," the shiny answered quietly.
"Leave you alone, again! Knock it off, you're as annoying as a pichu who ate a few coffee beans! Go back to your own kind, you loser! You don't belong here! You can't survive just by coming in here and acting all emo, trying to get sympathy to make up for being overweight and inept. I mean, c'mon, nobody buys that crap..."
Meanwhile, Charizard was flying back towards home. 'Still haven't seen him...or his body,' he thought worriedly. 'Easy on patience he's not, but a living being he is.' He began to think about all of the things he had thought about the night before. '...He's being picked on, he can't find a place to fit in--I think, since I think he went to the springs recently because of how warm and wet he was when I caught him--and he's small...' He shuddered in realization. "He's kinda like how I was," he said softly. New sympathy brewed within him. 'I hope I don't regret caring for him, now...' He scanned around. Then, the sound of a deep, jeering charizard's voice came to his ears. "Groo?" he went. After hearing more, he sweatdropped. 'Groo-ooh...It's Ralboar," he named, "the 'mon who is in the humans' dictionary under 'hot air'...Who's he insulting now?' When he saw who, coming up to him, he gasped. "There you are!" he called in an inside voice, talking more to himself. "I'd better save him..." He began to circle down.
Ralboar was finishing up his stream of fat jokes. "...And let's not forget that you probably broke the second floor of your house, pet boy!" he rounded off (n.p.i.).
"Leave me alone, please," was all that the shiny had to say still.
Ralboar growled and stamped his foot. "What, AGAIN?! What is it that humans say...broken record? Yeah, you're a broken record! Is that all you can do? Say to leave you alone? So you can do what, jack off or something vulgar? What CAN you do? You're just a stupid domestic piece of crap, someone who probably evolved purely by eating rare candy from your rich-ass human family! Can you do ANYTHING worthwhile? APART from tell me to go away? I bet you can't, loser. I guess the only thing you can do is eat like there's no tomorrow, since you'd probably had to in order to get that thing you're CARESSING there. You probably have trouble just getting to sleep--you need your human 'mommy' to sing a lullaby to you! It's a wonder you got up here, that you even know how to fly, especially with all that you've got there. And then all you do is sit and stare and go off into your own little world! WORTHLESS, that's what you are! Have you ever even TRIED to battle? I bet you've never even breathed an inch of flame in your life! No wonder your tailflame's so low, you don't use it, even! Or maybe it's because you're embarrassed, yeah! Because you're so overweight, you'll be wheezing after one breath! HAH! You can't blow worth crap, and you know it, and I'm surprised you can even breathe normally without pas--"
Suddenly, as Charizard was about to open his mouth to roar out to Ralboar to stop, the shiny got up, turned, and grabbed the lowered open jaws of the larger charizard in half a second. With a mighty swing, he threw the other charizard over his head to slam his footpaws hard on the top side of the cliff edge he'd been facing before and was again now. He lifted the other's head, jaw being held open with an iron grip, above his, arms unyielding against the larger's efforts. His face was now one of anger, though you could only tell from somewhat narrowed eyeridges and a frown. The shiny quickly took in a HUMONGOUS breath, so big his chest seemed to swell enough to match his belly, before he made a tight hole in his lips and blew a stream of fire directly up into the throat of Ralboar, to the surprise and confusion of both normally-colored charizard.
"What the hell is he--?!" Charizard muttered. He breifly wondered if he should stop him. '...Wait. Our bodies are made to be repellant to heat with a passion. Ralboar should be able to stand it. Besides, dullard's finally standing up for himself...but why is he...WHAT is he...?'
The answer to the last question came soon. Ralboar was doing his best to stop him, to fight free, making aggrivated and confused sounds, but the shiny kept blowing. And blowing. And blowing. 'There is no way he is doing this all on one breath!' Charizard thought. He wasn't. He was puffing his cheeks up hugely, filling his mouth with air, and deflating it at some times while still blowing before re-inflating them. Behind the fwoosh of flame, one could hear him taking in a sharp breath of air through his nostrils whenever his cheeks shrank.
He was circular breathing like a pro.
Then, about five seconds after the flaming began, Ralboar grunted as he felt something--a stretching pain at his stomach, both inside and out. He glanced down and widened his eyes in absolute horror. Before his very eyes, cartoonishly, his belly was swelling. His sounds of anger and confusion turned to worry and distress. He fought harder, but to no avail.
Charizard gaped and stalled into a hover near the entrance to his cave. "You're FUCKING me!" he shouted. "That even POSSIBLE?!"
"What the--?! Hey, what's going on up there??" Liza called, and Charizard looked left. She was running along with Charla, who flew before and above her.
"Is WHAT even possible, Charizard?" Charla asked.
"You won't believe me unless you look for yourself, but remember those stories about Team Rocket I've told you?" Charizard asked as she came up.
"Yeah?" she asked. She turned and looked for a second. "What about?" She turned back to face Charizard.
As Charla did a double-take, eyes bugging out, Charizard pointed to Ralboar, then the shiny, and said, "There's your Meowth balloon, and there's the flame."
Liza skidded to a halt and squawked in utter disbelief, "WHAT IN THE WORLD?!" as she noticed a round increase in cream-colored flesh on Ralboar.
By now, Ralboar was finding the warm, light air crawling along his tail, or at least the base, as the hide on his front stretched and swelled. It wasn't fun. He was thrashing about in pain and panic, eyes starting to tear up. But to no avail was he--it was as if he were being held by a robot to a wide-flamed blowtorch. The shiny remained of unchanging expression, continuing his flaming.
A minute into the inflation, and Ralboar's front was pressing against the shiny's, pushing him away and off the edge bit by bit, and fifteen seconds later, he was off...and slightly floating. The lighter-than-air inside of him was so high in volume, it was beginning to support his weight. His unbelieveably surrealistically round front had expanded to include his chest a bit, by the same principle as his tail base on the underside. He was waving his legs around, thrashing his tail, but the base of the tail became harder to manipulate, and he was running out of room for his legs to move.
More charizard came to watch the spectacle, transfixed. Charizard, Charla, and Liza remained still, transfixed on the ground and in the air (though the cliff was soon the spot for the pokémon as their hovering had become a slow descent).
By now, Ralboar was crying, tears dripping down onto the shiny's face. He was floating freely, like a big, almost-perfectly-round blimp, and his arms were being pushed away from his assailant. His neck was straightening upwards more, making it easier for the hot air to enter in. After a ripping pain from an ominous creak, Ralboar whined higher than any charizard could ever believe their kind could go and clasped his paws in begging.
The shiny stopped...and took another big breath before continuing. The extra force made Ralboar go faster towards Goodyear status.
The creak snapped Charizard and Charla, as well as Liza, out of their stupor. "We've got to stop him!" Charla cried, taking a step.
"NO! He's too big to go near!" Charizard shouted, grabbing her arm.
"But he'll DIE if we don't stop this!" she protested, turning back to Charizard. "We're pokémon, not balloon animals!!"
"I know, but that's exactly it," Charizard said. "We'd better find cover when he goes--if shiny there doesn't stop..."
Entire front and some of his tail bulging like a squeezed water balloon ready to burst, Ralboar was about to reach true blimp size, almost as big as the elder of the shinys in the springs. He was pouring tears and bawling as best he could, but still the shiny blew. A full three minutes had elapsed.
His face had been focused on exhaling flame, eyes locked with Ralboar's, for the entire time, barely blinking. But now, the shiny looked at his work with his eyes. He looked back at Ralboar, gave a last burst of fire, then abruptly snapped both his and his own mouth shut. He pushed him off and pulled himself up using the extended head, winging the rest of the way up, as he flapped a couple times over. Then, swooping his body under him, tail below, he landed with a bounce or three on the back of Ralboar the blimp.
A few uncertain seconds passed. Ralboar whined a little, scared, eyes clenched. His body creaked.
But nothing happened.
"Leave me alone, please," the shiny said in Charizard calmly, audible in the silence.
Within seconds, every single charizard except Charla and Charizard was gone.
Charizard gaped, then snorted and held his mouth. He snorted again. And then he began laughing his head off.
Charla looked at him in disgust. "What the hell you laughing for?!" she demanded. "He almost DIED, and quite messily, too!"
"Yeah?" Charizard asked between laughs. "Rr-rr-rr-rr!! R-rr! I'm sorry, but you have to admit, he go-hot what he deserves!"
"What he...?!"
"Isn't Ralboar the biggest bag of hot air in the Charicific Valley??" asked Charizard, holding his sides.
At this, Charla widened her eyes, looked at Ralboar, and couldn't help bursting into mirth, herself.
Liza was, sadly, out of the loop. "HEY! QUIT LAUGHING AND GET THAT GUY BEFORE HE KILLS THE POOR THING!!" she roared up at the two.
Charizard recovered before Charla, and sighed, wiping a tear away. "Phew...that was way too tense," he said. He shook his head and jogged out to take off. He winged up to Ralboar's face and stopped. He smirked and crossed his arms. "What have we learned?" he asked.
Ralboar, looking like he was a little in shock, blinked numerous times. "Um..." He was speechless.
Charizard shook his head and flew up on top of him. The shiny was facing the hanging tail, looking at the setting sun. He was quiet and crossing his arms, leaning forwards a little and resting slightly on his own front. Ralboar's legs were partially sucked into the balloon front. Overflow front was swollen up on either side of him, giving Charizard enough space to land next to him. He, too, bounced a little. A wind came from the east, propelling the inflated Fire-type out a bit. Below, Liza yelled and turned to follow, yelling something about him floating away from the valley. Charizard looked around, barely believing what he was doing. "I'm on top of a charizard who's half pokémon, half poké float," he said. "You do this after trying to kill yourself and proving that a rumbling stomach can, indeed, cause real rumbling. Kid, you're crazy, you know that?" He smiled as he looked over at the shiny.
"Leave me alone," was the standard response. Not even a look. His face had returned to its neutral position.
Charizard sighed and shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't," he said softly. "You're too interesting. I'm not here to insult you, trust me."
"...You sure didn't want to be near me before."
"Well, I'm scared sitting next to you, now that I saw what you did," Charizard admitted, sweatdropping. 'I am SO not good at this.' His curiosity made him tilt his head. "How'd you do that, anyway?"
Within seconds, he was suddenly Flamethrowering to combat the shiny's as he, too, was caught in a lock. He didn't know how to circular breathe, though, and lost to the slightly smaller one's surprisingly powerful lungs.
"CHARIZARD!!" Charla cried. She had been flying in gentle pursuit. She winged forwards to get there.
Charizard grunted and wildly shook his paw, looking with his eyes back at her. 'He'll do it to you, too!' he wanted to say. The feeling of pain and stretching reached his stomach as he, too, began to bloat. 'Shit, I ain't gonna be a balloon, too!' He thought as fast as he could.
He noticed that he still had time before he got too big, though that was running out. He also noticed he was on a very bouncy surface. So, with all of his might, he jumped away, using his strength to tear away. He did--only to get a tail stuck up his throat and the heat manually cranked up. He was also grabbed again. "Gruaa!" he gagged/yelled before narrowing his eyeridges. He tried to say, "Bad idea," but it didn't work. So, he clamped down. VERY. HARD.
The shiny winced, but kept at it.
'I can do this! This isn't his specialty!' Charizard had to hurry, though--he was inflating faster, now that there was a constant stream of more fire, and thus more hot air. He felt his insides warm up in a way that humans can relate to with swallowing a hot-to-very-warm mouthful of tea, cider, or hot cocoa. He clamped harder, turning Bite to Crunch, and used the chance to fight back with fire, too, working to bring as much pain as possible and hoping the shiny's determination wasn't as strong as his.
The shiny winced tighter, then moaned in pain.
Charizard grabbed and twisted the tail with all his might, digging his claws in.
Finally, with a roar of agony, the shiny's grip slackened. A second later, he was pinned onto Ralboar. Charizard peeked over his twice-sized front to his adversary. "Just tell me--WHY inflation, of all things?!" he asked, grunting to keep the charizard down.
As expected, the shiny stopped struggling and sighed. "Just leave me alone, please," he said quietly. "Please. That's all I ask."
Charizard risked getting off of him. He found he could move still, but with a little more difficulty. Part of this difficulty was the tremendous boon to his flying--having a large bag of hot air on his body helped him to move through the air higher and easier. He had to flap a couple times to catch up after this and the bouncy terrain almost sent him flying off. The shiny got up and sat as he normally did. Charizard sat a bit in front of him, but didn't block his view of the sunset. "...I'm a lot like you, you know," he said after a bit.
The shiny scoffed. "Don't. That's cruel. You have NO idea what the hell I've been through," he said.
Charizard scoffed back. "No idea?!" he repeated, raising an eyeridge. "I've been through battles like you've never seen! I've almost DIED thanks to being frozen in a block of ice! I've survived an abusive trainer AND an inept one! Well, formerly inept. And I've had to come here and get embarassingly defeated by the former smallest charizard and the gentlest charizard here, barely be able to get in, then get picked on, beaten to a pulp, and scorned by everyone--even poachers who came to steal everyone here! Yeah, even this tailhole," he added, patting their floor.
("..." went said floor.)
The shiny looked at Charizard midway through the last list. "...You still have no clue," he said. "You'd never understand." He looked forwards again. "Unless you had friends before here, like me."
"I did and still do," Charizard said, putting a paw to his front. He took a second to curiously press down on the big bubble he had now before getting back to business. "I'm not wild--I'm a trainer's pokémon. I was abandoned by my first one, then I was caught by my current one. He left me here because I wanted to get stronger here. I had friends apart from him, too--his other pokémon and his human companions. If he needs me, I'll be there."
"You still won't understand," the shiny said. "You have friends you can go back to. I can never go back." He readjusted his grip on his hug.
"Why not?" asked Charizard.
"They'll never be able to accept me for who I am anymore. I'm so different now."
Charizard shook his head. "No, they'll just have to deal with who you are and appreciate who you've become," he fought, serious look on his face. "I was happy-go-lucky as a charmander, but I changed upon evolving into a charmeleon. I didn't listen to my trainer, less even after I evolved to kick this aerodactyl's tail, and I became the lazy, battle-crazy jerk I am today. And, even though I didn't think so at first, he still cared for me. It was because he stayed by my side when I was frozen in that block of ice that I grew to respect him and understand that he still likes me. And besides, I'm still pretty carefree. That proves you can't change yourself entirely. There's still something that SOMEone will like about you left after you evolved!" He spread his arms to gesticulate at this last one.
"You just won't understand, dammit!" the shiny raised his voice, looking at Charizard. "You'll never understand! We're too different! You WANTED to evolve, and you did without a hitch! You never had the life I did! You never had the kind of friends I did! And you WANTED to come here!!" He turned around again. "...Leave me--"
"NO!" Charizard interrupted, leaning forwards and narrowing his eyeridges as he put a paw on the shiny's shoulder. "Not anymore! You've had your chance to think by yourself. Now it's time that we help you! Something's wrong, and I want to help you." His expression, in a rare event, softened. "Please. I don't do this often, but you're something else. You need help. Something happened and you're keeping it in, which is very bad, you know that. You're hurting. And if THIS doesn't say you need to vent, then I don't know what would," he added, indicating the new states he and Ralboar were in as the "this". "Please..." He smiled. "I want to be your friend."
"..." The shiny looked at him for a few seconds. He then finally looked forwards. "...Who the hell do you think you are, Dr. Phil?"
"No, I think I'm Charizard, the victim of an emo inflationist," Charizard replied, tapping his front with his clawPAD, not tip, for fear he might hurt himself. His body made a hollow tumping sound.
Ralboar had drifted off to the part of the valley, bouncing off walls on the way, where Liza's hut was. The wind finally ended. Ralboar managed to flap in a braking direction, though his face was still in a bit of shock. He had made no complaints, however, yet.
The shiny rested his head on his stomach. "Charizard? That's it?" he asked. "That's pretty creative."
"I don't remember the name my mother gave me as a hatchling before I was separated," Charizard said softly. "So shut up."
The shiny widened his eyes. "You..." He looked over. "You never knew your mother...?" he asked almost too softly to hear.
Charizard looked away, his turn to be silent.
The shiny looked down at himself, then forwards again. "...Charlie."
"Charlie?"
"Pacific. Charlie Pacific." He held his right paw out and said, in flawless Human, "Bonjour, M. Charizard," without looking.
Charizard blinked, then reached around his front and shook paws. "Erm...Hi?" he said back, sweatdropping.
"Hope you're ready for a long story," Charlie said in Charizard, withdrawing his paw. He smirked, which made him look so much better. "And I've got enough air to power a small town."
"""I'll say,""" said the other three charizard in proximity before Charla laughed.
"Honestly, why INFLATION?!" asked Charizard, standing up and stretching. He grunted in surprise as he stood up so fast, he accidentially jumped. Charlie grabbed his foot and pulled him back down again.
"It's just what suddenly popped into my head, that's all," Charlie replied. "Besides, I've always wanted to try it, watching cartoons and all. Surprised it works, but not really. I mean, admit it--if pokémon could be tri-types, we'd be Fire-/Flying-/Dragon-types. And you have to know how easily dragons can get...well." He looked distantly at his stomach, gripping it tightly and digging his claws into the white flesh.
"It's for the really tough times," explained/defended Charizard, chuckling with a fist on his hip. "Like, really-cold-winter tough times. Dragon-types are weak against Ice, remember?"
"I know, I know," he said, grunting and standing up. "You guys could just burp and let it all out anytime, you know. You'll never stop if you don't, since you're Fire-types and will keep it warm." He turned and strode over slowly. "Just be sure to grab something if you don't want to REALLY make like a balloon and zoom."
Charizard laughed. "More reason to get home first," he said. "I'll grab the walls." He stepped over to Ralboar's head and crouched, concerned look on his face.
"I'm not the least bit sorry for this, you know," Charlie said, crossing his arms. "It was very sweet revenge. Just be lucky you're still alive. It was I-can-sit-on-you or bust--literally."
"And I don't have too much sympathy," added Charizard. "'Cept that you've got to be in pain."
"Actually, not really," came the reply. Ralboar seemed a bit calmer--more than ever, actually. "It stopped being painful a little bit after it ended. Now I feel really relaxed. I bet it's the warmth, but I want to think it's the free floating. I think I know how a cloud feels, now!" He actually smiled.
Charlie, Charizard, and, landing beside them, Charla, all sweatdropped. """Uuuuuhhh...""" they all went. Then Charlie smirked and shook his head. "Clouds are wet, and I don't think you'd want to be wet."
"Aww! Hey! Thanks for killing my buzz!" complained Ralboar, growling behind him.
"Just deflate before you blow away. I'm weird, I know, but this was weird even for me, truthfully," Charlie said. He looked at Charizard and smiled. "So, your place or mine or your girlfriend's or her owner's?" He said this loudly in Human, knowing full-well who was below, while indicating: Pointing at Charizard, thumbing himself, pointing a bit left at Charla, and thumbing sideways and down to the right to Liza, all nice and connected.
"OWNER'S! OWNER'S!" came Liza's choice.
"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!!" Charizard roared, face glowing red.
"He's just my bodyguard!!" Charla defended, face equally red.
"And my place," Charizard added. "C'mon." He spread his wings and kicked off, letting a surprised yelp as he rocketed off.
"Careful," called Charlie. "Physics like to screw around with people." He shook his head and jumped down, spreading his wings and flapping, as well. Charla was close behind.
"Take care!" merrily bid a smiling Ralboar with a raised paw, making Charizard ask Charlie if he was sure he didn't do something to his head, as well (to which Charlie shrugged).
"HEY!! C'mon, I thought you were taking him to see me!!" Liza waved her arms and protested as they went off.
- - -
Thank you very much, anyone who read this chapter entirely and suffered the strangeness. (And if you just skipped the author's note at the top, don't flame me for how weird (only if I put sexual stuff in) it was, since I warned you!) Also, some footnotes:
* Anyone remember their unit circle? I'm refering to the coordinates, so I probably should've said sin^-1 or arcsin and such. But, anyway, for non-Math buffs (or for anyone who isn't Sho Minamimoto), the translation is that he went from, in degrees, 60 to 90 to 120 to 135 to 150 and finally to 180. (This is since he was using his right arm, and so horizontally on the back of it would be 0 degrees. On the front (palm side) it is 180, since he went that many degrees from 0. Of course, the length of his arm was the unit for this unit circle.) Sorry if the bit of Math confused folks! *nervous smile/sweatdrop*
** I know he's black-scaled, but I said greyscaled, not grey-scaled. Ah, the difference hyphens can actually make sometimes!! :D
Now, for any furs who read this and are very happy, sorry to burst your bubble (ha-ha-ha), but this is the most of this stuff you'll be seeing. For any non-furs, I apologize if this chapter disturbed you and understand if you don't want to read any more (though the weirdness will be just a molecule above the normal amount for my stories from here on). I just hope that everyone found some enjoyment in this chapter (despite the emoness of Charlie). I can't wait to recall what's supposed to happen next! *nervous smile/sweatdrop again*
