A bit of warning new readers - this story is rated T for a reason, and it's not "just to be safe." Also, I'm adding my own flair and bits of personality to the Pokespe characters, so expect them to be slightly OC from the fanfiction norm.
The creeping shadows that cloaked the Viridian City alleyways were silent and mysterious, a constant bane to wary daylight travelers. Yet as a certain brunette, clad in thick clothing to fend off the sharp sting of winter air, slid through the darkness at the dead of night, they were a surprising ally and an unlikely friend.
Greyscale buildings loomed overhead, the space between them so tight that it was claustrophobic. Trash bags hugged the concrete walls, most of them having sat there for months, decomposing. Blue clasped her nose with a white glove and trudged on, though the thin fabric did little to filter the stench. The streets were so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The police force always made sure everyone was in their homes after curfew, and for a good reason.
She pinpointed what she was looking for a few feet away, under the glare of a single lamp post. A man in what looked like his early thirties was leaning casually on an apartment wall, wreathed by a halo of cigarette smoke. He wore a tattered shirt and pants stained with some sort of dark substance, and had a gun strapped into his belt. He had already noticed Blue in the corner of his eye - she could tell - but it seemed like he didn't care, which was what she had hoped for. When it came to simple things like survival, the people who underestimated you were always better than the ones who didn't.
Blue stepped out of the shadows and without any further introduction or greeting - formalities be damned - said firmly, "I'd like to see your boss."
The vagrant cocked an eyebrow and spoke, smoke billowing out from his mouth as he drawled, "Boss Arachnid ain't reply to just nobody, especially to girls like you who've gotten it into their head that they're precious enough to live through a night in gang territory. Now move along, missy, before I call the others," He moistened his lips then grinned, crooked yellow teeth amidst blackened gums. "You can also come t'my place to stay for the night - I promise to treat you much better'n Arachnid will. What's your name, missy?"
Blue had to restrain herself from recoiling from the man's breath. She offered him a fake smirk. "Afraid I'll have to decline that offer. But I can offer an incentive you'd find better than my body."
From her coat pocket she drew out a simple, oaken box and handed it to the man. He wrenched it from her and opened the lid, sucking in a sudden breath at the contents. The man held it up to his eye and squinted at it as if the closer view would dispel the illusion. "This…"
"Gold flakes." Blue interrupted, getting impatient at the vagrant's slow revelation. Nearly all people could be lured by the promise of gold, which made it an ideal desire to draw from, but she didn't expect him to take so long. "Two hundred twenty four karats, worth around three million dollars. I figured this would be enough to convince your boss to see me."
Not noticing the inaccuracy of Blue's calculations - she'd simply spouted random numbers from the top of her head, he ran a shaky hand through the empty box and slowly spread his fingers, as if seeing real flakes of gold falling through them. Suddenly realizing he was acting stupid, the man snapped the box shut and faced her with a glare. "I ain't have 'nough time to contact Arachnid today, but I can by the end of t'morrow. Y'can see him then." He pocketed the box and turned around, "Now you'd better get goin', missy. The streets ain't safe for girls like you."
Blue allowed herself a small smile. I could say the same for you. "Ah, but how am I supposed to know you'd hold your side of the bargain? That's quite a lot I'm putting on the thread for one stranger's word." She held out her left hand while the right slid under her coat to grab the hilt of a dagger, cleverly concealed under folds of fabric. "That's why I'd like that box back, please. I'll hand it to Arachnid when he comes, and perhaps a small flake to you for being such an obedient messenger."
The vagrant turned around, face steely and twisted in anger. "You've said the wrong thing to the wrong person." He growled, his voice sharp and quiet in contrast to the slurred drawl before. Blue saw him reach into his holster to pull out his gun, and couldn't hold back her grin as she heard two other distinct clicks from behind him.
Checkmate.
With inhuman agility, she darted forward as shots pierced the where she'd once been. Blue drew out the dagger and slashed it down the first man's arm, cutting through a sleeve and biting into his skin. Taking advantage of the moment, she quickly whisked the box away from his hands as he was distracted.
The vagrant howled in pain as Blue ran out of the alleyway, rounding sharply at the nearest corner. She had deliberately left a surface wound - enough to provoke but not to hinder - that made them agitated enough to pursue her. She limited herself to a fast jog and risked a look behind her shoulder. All three were a long ways behind her but gaining fast, though the first man lagged behind as he clutched his arm, wasting his breath on shouting obscenities.
Blue jumped a street, dodged some bags of fetid trash, and skidded to a stop at an empty intersection. Some of the lights in the city had begun to turn on in response to the noise - the police would be arriving soon, no doubt. She had to get this over with, and fast.
Gunshots bit into the night silence as three bullets tore into the torso of a brown-haired girl. She jerked awkwardly and fell to her knees before slumping, limp, to the ground.
The three people behind her lowered their guns, and the first vagrant hobbled up, out of breath and limping, but with a victorious smirk nonetheless. He stooped low and crouched next to the body.
"Pesky little bitch," He grabbed an arm, attempting to pull it out from where it was pinned under the body. "Now le'me grab the gold 'fore we get the h-"
"That's no human." One of his companions started slowly backing away. Her eyes were fixed on the area where the body once lay. It was now empty, the crime gone, as if there never were any. "We've…"
"...been tricked." The vagrant breathed, his voice high in hysteria. "No no no n-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence before he was sharply jabbed in the head, and his unconscious body hit the pavement next to the ones of his comrades. Blue frowned at the scene, noting the position of the moon in the sky. The whole course of events took longer than she anticipated, and the cops were surely on the trail.
Any time now…
"Impressive illusion," Something that sounded nails on glass clacked in the alleyway as Blue stiffened and whipped around. The voice was more akin to a fly's buzzing than any human noise, grating against her ears. "It would be more realistic to fight back more, but I see you've still gotten the job done nicely. Pity it has to end like this."
Blue gripped the dagger harder. She was so close. "Show yourself."
"You're clearly not human. Why must the wolf don the sheep's clothing when they can slaughter much more efficiently in their true form? Show yourself first, then maybe I wouldn't feel so guilty about tearing a scion down in their weakened state."
Blue bit the inside of her cheek, thoughts churning. How much has it seen?
The stranger already knew who she was, so her element of surprise was gone, and she still couldn't find it in the darkness. Despite that, Blue had to admit it was right. She was only putting herself at a disadvantage when remaining in a human state. Her dagger clattered loudly onto the sidewalk as she closed her eyes and concentrated.
A soft, shimmery light enveloped her body as her hair grew to envelope her whole body, the strands merging together to form a brown pelt. Her nose and jaw elongated to a snout, and her ears stretched into pointed ears. Her hands and feet molded to form small paws while her body took on a quadruped build. As she dropped to four feet, multiple appendages grew behind her, unfurling to form long, fluffy tails. The light faded, and in the place of a brunette stood a vulpine creature, two tails lashing dangerously behind her as she raised her head to what lay beyond the shadows, determination in her face.
"Interesting." It spoke again, this time in another tongue, one so old it couldn't be named, one that was long lost to humans but used by the other creatures, creatures like her, to this very day. "It's been quite awhile since I've seen a kitsune."
"I've done what you wanted," she replied in the same tongue. "I expect you to keep your end of the agreement, Arachnid"
There was a prolonged pause before the buzzing noise came again, louder and more nauseating in its proximity. "Very well."
Blue's breath hitched in her throat as a large spider slid into the glare of the street lights. It was nearly eight feet tall, and looked like it could scale entire apartment complexes without difficulty. The carapace shown oily black as Arachnid approached her, eight feet hitting the ground in quick succession with a sound like nails on glass. Huge mandibles and mouthparts writhed wetly, ready to tear whatever gets close to them from limb to limb.
She managed to dodge a glob of silk that would've permanently disfigured her, judging by how it sizzled violently and ate away at the ground. Once she was at a safe distance from the spider, Blue conjured three separate illusions of her that fled to opposite directions. Meanwhile, she used the moment's distraction to turn invisible, slinking along the edge of the shadows.
Arachnid was busy with her decoys. It growled in frustration and with a lightning-fast snap of its multiple jaws, bit through a decoy, effectively rendering it fake. Blue had to quickly converge the remaining two and duplicate, then set them off as three once again. Once Arachnid realized that her true body wasn't any of the three it was after, she would be done for.
"Don't think I'm clueless about you and your kind, girl." The giant spider snarled, its multiple eyes swiveling back and forth as it followed the paths of her duplicates. "The amount and intensity of a kitsune's illusions are limited to the number of tails they have. You obviously have two, and you'd like me to think that you're not one of these, right?" Its fangs clicked together in annoyance as they regrouped and separated. At this point Blue was simply stalling for as long as she can, so she could slip in between the spider's legs and under it's vulnerable underside. "I've been prowling these streets since before you were born, girl. You can't trick me as much as you can't kill me."
Blue laughed at that. "I don't need to kill you"
Before Arachnid could react, she lunged, bit down, and wrenched hard at one of its hindmost limbs. A spray of insect fluids splattered on her face as its claws ripped away with a sickening snap from the joints. The monstrous spider roared in pain as Blue turned tail and fled. She snagged a front claw in a misstep but kept running, her legs burning in the effort. The shadows clung to her like an incessant companion that never leaves, covering up her trail in her wake.
More enemies who'd love to kill me. She thought grimly, hoping that was the last of Arachnid she'd ever see in her lifetime.
The spider claws were still dripping juices when she stopped, worn out and panting. Blue hoped that she had left Arachnid in the dust early on in the chase, but had did a detour to her destination just in case. She spat the severed appendage out in disgust and checked herself or any wounds. Besides the wrenched claw and some acid burns, she had carried out her plan relatively unharmed (Physically, anyway. She was certain that the image of Arachnid would appear in her dreams for weeks to come). Her three tails switched back at her, hairs lit gold from stray rays of streetlight.
If she hadn't thought of hiding her third tail when she transformed, she was pretty sure she'd be a goner. Simple subterfuge went a long way, because people who underestimated you were always better than ones who didn't.
The kitsune reluctantly picked the claws back up and continued on. Now that she had put miles of distance between herself and Arachnid, the city was dead silent save for the chirping song of a lone cricket and her own rapid gasps for air. Blue proceeded with an almost leisurely trot, favoring her good paw. She was nearing the northern border of Viridian City, and the population thinned out from there. Housing complexes were sparse, with even less of them occupied. The government had once tried to make the northern area flourish by posting guards to watch or danger, but it had become tedious and far too costly to replace them on a daily basis.
Usually, people entered the area at their own risk due to the high chance of being mauled, eaten, or simply driven insane. But as Blue slid past the last of the dilapidated buildings, she'd never felt more at ease. The trees that loomed above seemed to beckon to her with swaying branches as she neared, and with one last bound, she stepped into the Viridian Forest's embrace.
The following morning Blue, as a human, opted to go to a nearby Cafe Sonata, downtown. While originally from Unova, the business had spread to small branches in every region, including Kanto. She ordered a breakfast at the registrar before seating herself outside the cafe, in a small circular table that overlooked the plaza.
Viridian City had been built centuries ago as a haven where humans could build and live protected from the scions that rampaged in the woods around it, and grew from there. At first they had no real form of security - just a village of people that hoped strength in numbers would deter their predators.
Then Team Rocket came along. They were the first organized force that dealt with dispatching scions, or simply "monsters", as they called intelligent non-human entities like her. In fact, their power and significance was what put Viridian City on the map. The organization then branched off and helped fight scions in other cities, but the headquarters always remained in the Viridian. It was where Team Rocket's leader founded the organization, and it was where every successor after that governed.
A strangely familiar-looking waitress with a face that gave Blue deja-vu came with oran pancakes and a pecha berry smoothie, which she accepted. She had debated asking for coffee after the long night, but she decided against it. While she could drink it as a human, it would prevent her from transforming for several hours, since canines couldn't stomach caffeine.
She poked holes in her pancake with her fork, lost in thought. For a while, scions were losing the fight against the humans. As Team Rocket became larger, they cleared away a majority of the Viridian Forest. The ones in what was left of it became terribly defensive of the land, and their heightened aggression prevented Viridian City from expanding northward. However, as the competition between scions for the remaining land became unbearable, some sought another way out.
We learned, and mingled. Blue scanned the plaza from her seat. The buildings, structures of concrete and conglomerate, had become a second home for her after she learned how to live and communicate in the ways of the humans. In an act of surprising adaptability, her kind made human forms of themselves so they can walk among their enemies. If you couldn't beat them, join them, she supposed.
Human life had it's perks, especially when it came to living in the winter. Blue never quite understood the mechanisms under heating systems, but she could appreciate the warmth it brought. Like others nowadays, she took residence in various hotels and motels situated in Viridian City when the winter storms came. The process was fairly easy: steal someone's credit card, disguise self as said person, waltz into the front desk and buy a few days. No one suspected a thing - she discarded and acquired new cards every week, until spring.
She shifted her weight, causing a small, wooden box with a small metal latch to fall out. Blue cursed inwardly and leaned to snatch it up, careful not to undo the latch and spill the rewards of last night's escapade.
About that. She was relatively unscathed from the encounter with Arachnid and its men, but in truth Blue had gotten away with the skin of her teeth. She had planned the whole thing weeks before execution, but despite that, she had still depended largely on luck. It served her well the past years, but fortune and fate were ambiguous at best. Better not rely on them more than what was necessary.
Her hands still trembled from fighting with the Arachnid, its insectoid figure framed between the moon and the shadows. Blue had long assumed that it wasn't human and readied herself for the worst, but nothing quite prepared her when she was face to face with a notorious gang leader, famed for its power and violence but an enigma even then. She had known absolutely zilch when it came to the spider creature's strategies and tactics.
The brunette gingerly rubbed her sore finger, the exact same digit that she had wrenched her claw as a fox. At least the next one's not an immediate life or death situation.
She pocketed the box and stood up, leaving a wad of stolen cash on the table. Blue pulled out a small business card and studied the address, etched onto the paper in bold, black lettering. She had been handed it, along with some other items, a week ago by a close friend who thought they would help her achieve her goal.
"I know you see them as enemies, and frankly, you're right," she had told the kitsune, a delicate smile gracing on her face. "But they also have a lot that we can learn from."
She should be there now. Blue stopped at a small, relatively drab little company at the end of a street. She kicked away an empty can on the sidewalk and strode up to the door, glancing at the informational poster taped on the glass window.
Oak & Co.
612 Nidoking Street, Viridian City, Kanto
We specialize in the swift and discreet elimination and disposal of monsters. For more information, contact us at our website or via pokegear.
The poster went on to list various contact info and a brief description of something that Blue didn't bother to read. These were the kinds of people who killed her brethren - the ones who slaughtered mercilessly, and attacked every non-human entity they could get their blades and bullets on. But in a way, she was no different when it came to obstacles.
Her eyes focused on a smaller piece of paper next to it, with a short message scrawled in bold red marker.
Hiring!
Full-time Agent
Must be trained in combat and survival tactics, able to dispatch monsters with ease.
Additional details inside.
With a clenched fist and an apprehensive breath, the brunette pushed open the door and stepped inside.
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