Breathing:
"The earthquake that measured 10.3 on the Richter Scale took its toll on me, even leaving me at the mercy of those imbeciles within the black ops organisation known as BlackWatch.
It was such a blessing that The Dark Clone was with me at the time, hanging those soldiers out to dry...and rot.
Goldenrod City was a pale excuse of what it once used to be, a mecca for the islanders of Johto and tourists beyond and all it could do now was show off its scars, corpses and pillars of smoke and burning embers to the so called heavens above. Those religious enough would say it was a gift from below, though that's just meaningless bullshit to me.
I needed somebody alive enough to help me recover from my own ordeal. I could never cut short my life with The Dark Clone after all." The Prototype mumbled aloud almost silently.
He and his girlfriend, the female Pachirisu known as The Dark Clone made their way down what was once a busy Goldenrod City street, now only deserted, littered with debris from fallen and collapsed buildings and cracked in various places with uneven ground.
The place seemed eerie and desolate and the smog like dust in the atmosphere dense, making the sky above look darker than it really was. It was potentially fatal to those without the will to survive.
The Dark Clone continued to aid The Prototype as blood continued to spill from his wounds, sensing a slightly more populated, though still intensely injured area of the once proud city nearby.
Like a temporary medical like camp for both humans and Pokemon, many of the wounded lay in hastily assembled beds and even on mattresses strewn on the roadside. Surrounding the camp, a bunch of battered frame works that once held aloft buildings and accommodated civilians now stood solemn and broken in the aftermath of the explosive earthquake.
The most distinguishable sounds in the area other than still falling debris? The sounds of patients, people and Pokemon alike, in pain with emanating groans, screams and crying as well as occasional chipped in screams of heartbeat monitors telling of the flatlined patients they were hooked to, the whole event finally proving too much for them and leaving their relatives or loved ones crying into their now forever lifeless bodies.
The Prototype and The Dark Clone approached the camp in the hope of salvaging aid for the male Pachirisu's still bleeding wounds and found a female nurse waiting at the entrance point along with a Chansey Pokemon wearing a nurse like hat, much like one would find in a Pokemon Centre.
The female Pachirisu approached the nurse and quickly spoke up:
"Excuse me, my mate here needs help. He was impaled by debris and shot by the military." She explained breathlessly as The Prototype coughed violently again, as if on cue to prove her point.
The nurse and the Chansey quickly examined him for no more than a moment, the nurse's eyes widening from shock as a result.
"Oh my god it's him. The one who killed my sister, many civilians without flinching..." The nurse remarked as she reeled back, remembering the sight of her sister laying stricken on the ground, a stone cold chunk of rooftop surface pierced through her eye.
She breathed heavily as if in a panic while she spoke up once again:
"No way...I will not put the lives of our patients in anymore danger or peril after what they've been through. You will have to leave." She uttered, suddenly sounding rather cold in tone as she rejected The Dark Clone's earlier pleas.
The female Pachirisu vigorously shook her head in frustration.
"Last time I checked, you are supposed to save lives and not fucking end them. If you refuse to treat my mate here, I will personally see to it that your life ends very abruptly." The Dark Clone snarled threateningly and brandished a kunai from her robes to emphasise her point.
The nurse panicked and fell back, taking only a split second to reimburse her original decision.
"OK, OK...please...do not hurt me. OK...I will allow him to be treated here." She nodded at last as she scooped herself onto her feet, her voice shaky and deep down terrified of the prospect in The Prototype being in the confines of the medical camp.
Regardless, the nurse and the Chansey reluctantly led them inside to one of the two large green tents on site, within them including; the dead, the dying and the barely recovering. Luckily for The Prototype, one bed appeared free as he limped beside The Dark Clone towards it.
"There is a bed over there. Use it...and I will make sure a doctor attends to you shortly." The nurse instructed as she and the Chansey wandered over towards the other tent. The two Pachirisu obeyed and headed over to the male's now assigned bed.
Inside, painful groans and desperate tearful goodbyes dominated everything one could hear. Some patients lay without lost limbs, blood smeared onto their clothing and more of the red liquid aligning the floor of tha main walkway as well as the beds they lay on top of. Everything appeared so desperate or heartbroken, in a panic or barely relieved, such was the harrowing aftermath stemmed from such an earthquake.
Lanterns sat on bedside tables, hardly illuminating anything beyond the beds their desks sat beside, along with scattered magazines, newspapers and various belongings of the patients piled up messily in one corner of the tent itself.
The stench of blood was evident, as was the scent of sweat and the freshly dying.
The Prototype slowly climbed up onto the bed, leaving a small spread of blood on the covers from the bullet wounds in his chest. As he sat back, his eyes surveyed the inside of the tent, catching a man vomiting blood violently and then a Leafeon urinating onto the floor in another corner of the tent.
The male Pachirisu shook his head in partial disgust and then turned to The Dark Clone who had by now sat on a chair beside the bed.
"I...I think I will take a nap, my dear. D-don't worry about me...I will be fine." He muttered as clearly as he could.
"OK, sweetcheeks. I will be here when you wake up." The female Pachirisu acknowledged in response as her eyes remained fixed to The Prototype. He casually nodded and closed his eyes as he lay back, drowning out every sound as best he could.
Soon after, his ever active mind oushed dark images into his dreams, including those of the leader within Poketsuki Ultima known as Satsujin Uchiha, The Prototype's considered rival named Nayias Saiyan of whom had equal power to the Pachirisu's own, and even creepy glimpses of The Dark Clone herself, albeit covered in blood and with a bottle of poison clutched in one paw and a kunai in the other, all set against a static background within dark shadows.
The Prototype's nap lasted little more than two hours. When he woke up again, the blinding lightning outside shot across the dust polluted sky, thunder penetrating the sound barrier and dirty rain pouring in droves, clattering against the exteriors of the tents and thudding the unstable ground around the camp.
The sobs emanating from a young woman beside the bed next to Deus's own drew his attention. He looked over, noticing the lifeless body of her boyfriend laying neatly on the bed itself.
She glanced up at The Prototype, noticing him looking her way and looked as if she had something on her mind.
Before she could extract thoughts into words however, a doctor approached the male Pachirisu and spoke up himself.
"Ah, awake now I see. I heard you are notorious around here in Goldenrod City, or what is left of it. Anyway that is none of my business. My business is only to know your name and details so we can file you as our patient here." He began, his voice already annoying the male Pachirisu.
"I think you will find that information is classified beyond top secret." The Prototype responded bluntly in a matter of fact kind of manner and tone.
"Is that so? Why is it that I do not believe you?" The doctor inquired sarcastically, his eyes staring somewhat at the hooded Pachirisu.
"Maybe because you're a moron. In this world and life we live, we do not always get what we so desire." The male Pachirisu mocked as he glared at the doctor in return who had since quickly grown impatient of The Prototype's comments. He wandered off to locate a fellow member of staff, leaving The Prototype amused by his own admittedly truthful comments towards the doctor as he looked over at The Dark Clone with a smug expression pasted upon his usually more sinister face.
At that moment however, the young woman who looked troubled earlier finally decided upon speaking up.
"Excuse me? Hey...you in the hooded coat."
When she spoke her words, The Prototype looked over towards her to see her gazing back at him with a gravely serious expression.
"Yes, miss? Anything worth my time...or assistance?" The male Pachirisu asked in response and his head tilted slightly in curiosity.
"I...I cannot survive without my husband. I need him...and I have heard of who you are and what you do. So, what I am trying to ask is...I need you to euphanise me." The woman revealed, making both of the Pachirisu pair's eyes widen in surprise.
The Prototype brushed his paw against his chin as he pondered in deep thought for a few moments...
Meanwhile, the nurse who 'welcomed' the two Pachirisu into the camp was busy fixing up a potentially lethal dose of poison into a small bottle which was typically used to hold medicine.
"For my sister..." She uttered quietly in her deeply held anger and emotional anarchy as she referred to The Prototype's deed vaguely, while the Chansey who appeared to follow her around hopped about in hopeful joy.
The nurse headed back into the tent occupied by the Pachirisu pair among the many other injured humans and Pokemon just as another civilian was zipped up into a black body bag beside his distraught mother.
She looked over towards the bed taken by The Prototype and her eyes widened in shock as she noticed the Pachirisu himself was not there. Then she looked up in horror to clap her eyes to a large smear of dripping blood coating the 'wall' of the tent around the bed next to The Prototype's own, still occupied by the lifeless corpse of the woman's boyfriend who, along with the bed was also drenched in much more blood than he was before.
The nurse appeared fearful all of a sudden as did her Chansey assistant. Just then, a particularly loud clap of thunder startled them over the sound of the raindrops thudding against every surface.
She turned her head slowly, daring to look behind her as her eyes caught sight of a long streak of blood on the ground leading to the tent's entrance. There, her worst suspicions were confirmed as she noticed a small hooded figure standing there and glaring back at her with pale blue eyes, one of his arms taking the form of a long silver blade.
The figure then turned to the side and dashed away with incredible speed and agility. The nurse did nothing, frozen in fear as the Chansey audibly expressed its concern, trying to snap the nurse back into the real world once more.
Eventually she did, looking over to the Chansey and nodding its way in gratitude before preparing to warn the remaining patients among the living about what she had seen.
"OK listen up everybody, we have AAAGGHHH!" She began before receiving a sudden, sharp and severe pain in her foot. She looked down in terror to notice a kunai had been forced through the top of her shoe and all the way through her foot within, effectively pinning it to the ground. Blood poured out of the wound onto the floor as the nurse almost fainted from the pain.
The Chansey panicked and screamed, eventually heading over to the nurse in an attempt to use its Softboiled technique on her.
Before it could do so however, it squealed in its own pain as the nurse saw a longer kunai emerge from its stomach, causing the Chansey's blood to splash against her face.
The kunai was then ripped from the normally docile and caring Pokemon who slowly fell to the ground, weakly gurgling blood.
The nurse never saw the perpetrator of either attack, gulping in fear as she heard a blade cutting along the outside of the tent, causing it to rip pathetically in that area.
The tent began to slump and keel over to the side as a result, causing the patients, their relatives and/or their loved ones to scream in a frenzied panic.
Every passing flash of lightning filled them with a sense of dread and made them jolt in shock, as well as reel them in further on edge.
The nurse looked back again and noticed the hooded figure dash across the tent entrance again, while in the corner of her eye noticed the doctor who had earlier questioned The Prototype for his name and details now clutching a circular power saw in his hands.
"Wh...what are you doing with that?" She inquired with a worried face of anarchy. The doctor merely sighed before speaking up.
"If this bastard wants a fucking lobotomy, I'll give him one without a second thought." He responded with a determined attitude or a flash of insanity, almost ready to throw a military like hand gesture to the cause before he headed towards the tent entrance.
Everybody within held their breath in silence and their own fear, some holding onto one another completely motionless as they watched on. The nurse felt as if she needed to intervene or add her own opinion to the doctor's brave or foolish actions, but then bit her lip and deep down knew no words would dissuade him.
They all then heard the sudden sound of the power saw whirring into life. The hooded figure, The Prototype stumbled back into view and everybody inside witnessed the spinning blade of the power saw come down on the back of the Pachirisu's paw on his normal arm, cutting it clean off.
The Prototype himself hardly made a sound of pain as his blood sprayed out, covering the ground near to him as his dismembered paw garishly flopped to the ground nearby. He then looked up at the doctor again and leaped out of view.
The whir of the power saw was no more as it hit the ground and bounced before the tent's entrance. The saw blade dislodged and flew into the tent edge first, heading towards the back with high velocity and sliced straight through the head of a young woman at her mouth.
She could not even make a sound of agony before her head above the cut slid off, spurting blood all over the tent's inner 'wall' and soaking many of the other patients and their loved ones in yet more.
The remaining patients and the nurse felt like screaming, but before they could do so, the doctor appeared in the tent's entrance on his knees having been shoved there by The Prototype. He felt the Pachirisu's blood trickle down his neck as The Prototype used his partially mutilated arm to hold him in place.
"Please I beg of you...I'll do anything." The doctor desperately pleaded as his mind felt as if alarm bells rang in distress at the very prospect of his life's abrupt end.
"No you won't. Those promises never mean anything." The Prototype retorted in response, crash landing any hopes for mercy on the doctor's part.
With that, the male Pachirisu prepared his blade arm, suddenly slashing through the whimpering doctor's right shoulder and cut right through to his left hip in one swift, lethal move.
The doctor could only gasp as he coughed up blood, the wide eyed look of shock upsetting the majority of the patients. A red line appeared through the doctor's clothing, precisely where the Pachirisu had mercilessly cut with the unpleasant sound of tearing flesh and bone, before the top half slid away from the lower half amid another outburst of blood.
The nurse gasped and sobbed into her hands at the loss of her colleague and then peeked through her fingers to see The Prototype heading her way with a menacing expression imprinted on his face.
"Oh and just to ensure that you do not escape your fate..." A female voice pried in the nurse's direction and then drove another kunai into the nurse's other foot, making her scream in pain again.
The source of the female voice stepped out, revealing herself to be The Dark Clone. She chuckled ominously as she glared at the nurse, noticing The Prototype approaching their position out of the corner of her eye.
The male Pachirisu leaped up at last, latching onto the nurse and without hesitation, mercilessly slit her throat. The gash opened up into a gaping wound, spraying blood in all directions as she finally fell to her fate to the terror of the remaining patients.
With no pause, The Prototype rushed over to one of the patients and instantly thrusted his blade arm into her chest, crimson tentacles emerging from his body and drawing her body into his own amongst another fine mist of blood, coating the other patients and soaking the back of the tent in even more of the red liquid.
With the patient consumed into nothing more than DNA now, the male Pachirisu's missing left paw sprouted from his arm as if he had never lost it in the first place, a sign of his incredible regeneration abilities.
The other patients began to scatter and run, some even leaving their relatives or loved ones behind for fear of their own lives regardless of any injuries they or their associates acquired in the wake of the earthquake.
The Leafeon that The Prototype noticed earlier approached him. He began to sniff at the hooded Pachirisu with quite some interest and wandered all the way around him in doing so. After its curious investigation, the Leafeon backed away for now at least and made the male Pachirisu shake his head for wasting his time.
The Prototype then resumed his attention with the rest of the patients and their relatives or loved ones, wandering back and forth, glaring at each one with the tip of his blade facing them directly as if it was hungry for more blood.
The hooded Pachirisu appeared welcoming to such desires, the blade hooking through the underside of a man's chin and out of his mouth.
As blood erupted and the man gagged hoarse breaths to the screams of his already hard hit family, The Prototype then vigorously pulled, forcing the flesh and bone of his lower jaw back and emerged, splitting his jaw in half.
The man fell to his knees momentarily in pure anarchy, suddenly crowded around by his family in tears as other patients hastily decided to abandon the camp in the thought of terror subjecting them to the end of their lives poisoned their minds, running away as fast as they could inti the pelting rain and thunderous atmosphere above.
The Prototype sliced into a number of them, one spraying blood from a chest slash and another with slit achilles tendons. His dark mind had fallen upon him again since his sudden recovery, merciless and brutal. He looked down at the now deceased nurse one last time as his blade arm mutated back into his normal arm with a macabre grin.
More patients and their families took their chances with The Prototype distracted, escaping as quickly as they possibly could with nothing else occupying their minds.
The male Pachirisu appeared to care little and made no attempt to chase them down as he looked back at the female Pachirisu lovingly for a job well done.
At that moment, the Leafeon reinvested his interest in the male Pachirisu as the tent emptied to the point of bare desertion. The Dark Clone watched on with a smirk as the four legged Grass type Pokemon sniffed at The Prototype, his nose brushing against the Pachirisu and his coat.
The Leafeon then backed up a little and suddenly cocked his leg up, where he began urinating rather profusely. It splashed all over the Pachirisu's beloved coat and his chest fur for the minute or so it lasted. Afterwards, the Grass Pokemon began glaring at The Prototype, prowling back and forth.
All the female Pachirisu offered was a chuckle at what she saw and made no attempt to step in and deal with the situation herself. The Prototype himself however had stumbled back a little in surprise, before his angry eyes then locked onto the Leafeon like the crosshairs of a raging gunship.
"Now there is no proper water source, bath or shower for miles as far as I can tell...and you go and do this, insult me. You shall die for your discretions." The male Pachirisu uttered in a calm, stern voice and then approached the Leafeon with an equivalent pace to a fast walk.
The Leafeon then began to whimper and froze in fear as he noticed The Prototype's arms mutate into claws. The hooded Pachirisu then forcefully grasped the four legged Pokemon around the throat and lifted him into the air.
The Leafeon began to struggle, choking and gagging as the Pachirisu's eyes glared into his own and The Prototype's face forming the most macabre of smirks.
The Pachirisu's claws began to become wet with the Leafeon's blood that seeped from the Grass Pokemon's neck, showing signs they were digging in crudely as The Prototype continued to squeeze the life from the Leafeon.
The poor luckless Grass Pokemon however was saved by, of all creatures, The Dark Clone as she intercepted her partner's intentions politely.
"Deus, I think the poor guy has suffered enough now. Let him go." She instructed. The Prototype sighed and felt like shaking his head in disobedience.
"But you saw what he did...he pissed on me." He responded in mild protest, but knew the female Pachirisu would not relinquish her command and he tossed the Leafeon to the floor unceremoniously. The Leafeon yelped as he hit the floor but remained conscious as he lay on his side.
"Why keep him alive?" The Prototype asked curiously but with a predictably annoyed tone of voice.
"Because he may know a thing or two about Goldenrod City without us having to spend ages finding locations ourselves." The Dark Clone revealed and explained in her response as they both crouched beside the four legged Pokemon who was at that point breathing heavily.
"God he fucking stinks..." The male Pachirisu remarked in disgust as he caught the Leafeon's scent shooting up his nose.
"Are you sure that isn't you?" The female Pachirisu inquired sarcastically, perhaps referring to the mixed smell of urine and sweat that her partner may hold, before checking the Leafeon's condition as he whined considerably.
The male Pachirisu exchanged a dirty look with her at her comment before looking at the Leafeon himself.
"As long as we can call him Stinky." The Prototype remarked childishly, making the female Pachirisu roll her eyes at such a comment.
"You're so fucking childish sometimes...fine, we will call him Stinky if it pleases you." The Dark Clone remarked in further response, pausing to take in a deep breath and sigh.
The Prototype's face formed a childish smile of delight, at complete odds with his macabre appearance and the blood of many dripping from his claws.
The Dark Clone helped Stinky onto his feet as the male Pachirisu watched while leaning casually against a bed.
"Are you coming then?" The female Pachirisu asked rather sternly as she looked back at the male with a tilt of the head.
"Obviously..." The Prototype responded perhaps more forcefully than he had originally intended, forging a look of disapproval to cast from the female Pachirisu and towards himself.
The pair then made their way out of the medical camp along with Stinky. The two Pachirisu looked at one another sternly, as if waiting for the other to crack.
Predictably, The Prototype did quickly, his feelings perhaps wrought from guilt. His paw flinched and softly grasped the female's own, causing her own expression to soften a little.
"I am sorry, my dear. I did not mean to speak out in such an inappropriate manner." He apologised hastily as if he had some sort of behavioural etiquette to follow, having not wanted to offend his mate in any way possible.
The Dark Clone chuckled softly and cupped her paw around his own delicately, kissing him softly upon the cheek as she did so.
"It's OK, Deus, you big softie. I would have reacted in a similar way." She offered in response, making The Prototype nod in acknowledgment and chuckle at a conveniently simultaneous time.
They wandered on, paw in paw and away from the now deserted medical camp along with the Leafeon. The Dark Clone dug her free paw deep into one of the pockets attached to her robes , pulling out the very bottle of poison earlier meant for The Prototype.
"Strange how something meant to put you out of your misery now has the power of aiding you." She mused with a dark chuckle as she cast a look towards the male, complete with a macabre smile.
"Indeed..." The Prototype muttered in response as his own expression tightened into a grin to rival his lover's own.
Their faces closed in on one another's and briefly but affectionately nuzzled their noses against the other's, then their lips pressed against each other's for a few seconds to share a loving kiss.
"I hope you don't mind the taste of blood..." The Prototype remarked as their mouths parted, referring to the dried blood aligning his lips and chin respectively.
"You're such a typical male sometimes, thinking of any disgusting thought that springs to mind." The Dark Clone bluntly responded as she continued to gaze at her loving mate.
"You know I could always fart." The male remarked with a fair chuckle while on the subject of typical male thoughts.
"I'd rather you didn't..." The female remarked equally bluntly in reference to her own last response, looking ahead towards the choppy seas of the Goldenrod coast.
Relief was in abundance despite the rough conditions of the ocean water and the Pachirisu pair once again found themselves looking towards one another with smiles creeping onto their faces.
They finally found themselves running paw in paw towards the water along with Stinky himself...