Chapter Thirty-Eight:

Samus

Morning (9:55 A.M.), Route 7

Having left Cerceta Port, Jackie and Hero made their way across the rugged and rocky landscape of Route 7. The native Pokémon hadn't given them too much trouble, and those that did were quickly dispatched by Jackie's Pokémon.

Soon enough, they came upon a set of stairs carved into the mountain.

Jackie looked up and smiled, "Looks like we're here,"

"Yep," Hero nodded, "Pardo Village is just up there," he grabbed Jackie's hand and ran up the stairs, pulling Jackie along with him, "Let's go!"

"Okay!" Jackie struggled to stay up, "I can walk by myself!"

"I know," Hero let go of his hand as they stepped off of the stairs.

"Whew!" Jackie sighed, "So this is Pardo Village, eh?" he looked around; there wasn't much to the village, just a few small houses here and there, but what really caught his eye was the Gym, "There it is!" he ran over, ready to barge in through the doors.

He ended up crashing into them.

"Ow!" he rubbed his sore head as he got back up, "Huh?" there was a note on the door, "Gone spelunking?" his shoulders drooped, "Oh come on!"

"Hmm?" Hero walked up to him, "Looks like Kliff's out,"

"Dammit," Jackie cursed. He looked around, "What else can we do?"

"Weeeeeell," Hero began, "We could look around the mountain,"

"Fine," he sighed as he got up, "Maybe we could go see Monster afterwards,"

"Arceus forbid," Hero's face paled as he led the way to a cave at the mountains front, "Here's where we can go through the mountain,"

Jackie blinked, "Shouldn't we just climb it?"

Hero shot him a look, "Do you think you can climb a mountain?"

He frowned as they walked through the cave entrance, "Good point,"

Morning (10:22 A.M.), Pardo Mountain

The Pokémon inhabiting the cave proved to be mainly Steel- or Rock-types. Those encountered consisted of Bronzor, Beldum, Roggenrola, Boldore, Nosepass, and Ferroseed.

It did not take long before they found a mass trail of footprints, "Think the Gym Leader is with these guys?" Jackie asked Hero as they followed the trail.

"No," Hero shook his head as he knelt down to examine the footprints, "Kliff usually travels alone, and these footprints indicate that whoever passed by here came with a group of at least dozen people," his eyes narrowed, "Something isn't right."

Jackie blinked, "What do you mean?"

Hero stood up and dusted himself off, "You don't usually see groups that big going around the mountain. It looks like a miniature army marched through here,"

"MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!"

"Huh?" they looked up to see two people, one a robed man and the other a women in her under garments, run by.

Jackie blinked in surprise, his nose bleeding at the sight of the half-naked woman, "The heck was that about?"

"GET BACK HERE!" a voice boomed.

"What the?" Jackie blinked again as Hero hid behind his back, "What's wrong?"

"I-It's…" Hero stammered as a massive beast lumbered out of the shadows in front of them.

The dinosaurian beast stood on two thick yet short legs, its body covered in a green, armor-like hide. There were two black, triangular holes on both sides of its chest, knees, and the center of its back. Its jaws had two pairs of sharp fangs and its hands and feet had three claws each. A ring of spikes surrounded the tip of its tail. From the back of its head, neck and shoulders a multitude of spikes of various sizes emerged.

Short story short, it was a Tyranitar, a particularly large one at that.

It glared down at them.

"Mommy!" Jackie whimpered under the beast's gaze. It took every ounce of strength he had not to lose control of his bowels then and there.

"Huh? Is that?" a second figure stepped out of the darkness, wearing the signature robe of Team Universal; a spiral galaxy-shaped marking with a golden 'U' holding a purple eye emblazoned at its center on the chest area.

While Jackie cowered in fear, Hero reluctantly stepped out from behind him. He gulped as he prepared for what was to come, "Hello… Monster,"

"Hero?!" Monster rushed forward, tackling Hero into the wall with a hug Jackie could tell broke a few ribs, "It's so good to see ya!"

"Y-Yeah! Y-You too!" Hero gasped in pain as Monster backed away, "What brings you here?"

While Jackie stared in astonishment, Monster explained, "I heard from Kliff that there was some trouble afoot at the TV broadcast station, so I rushed over as soon as possible,"

"Hmm?" Jackie nodded, "That must be why he was out in the mountain," he blinked, "But why are you dressed up like Team Universal?"

Monster shrugged, "I thought I might try and blend in, so I stole the robe from some broad,"

"That so?" Jackie swallowed nervously.

"Yeah, but those two are probably off to tell their leaders, so I guess I don't need this anymore," Monster took off the robe, revealing…

Jackie's jaw dropped to the floor, "THE F*CK?! Monster is a girl?!"

And a very pretty girl at that. Her long, silky brown hair was neatly groomed and combed, flowing freely from her head to her back, while several bangs covered her forehead. Her eyes were a lovely hazel, her features quite smooth in contrast to her sharp nose. She wore a long, yellow and white-striped sundress that went down to her knees. Judging by her appearance, she could be no more than thirteen, a year younger than Jackie.

Holding a hand to her mouth, she let out a cute giggle, "Of course I'm a girl, silly," she looked up, her eyes narrowed with a murderous glint, "Did you think I was a guy?"

Jackie straightened up and gulped, "N-No sir, er, I mean, uh, madam!"

She smiled sweetly and patted him on the head, the force slamming him headfirst into the ground, "That's good to hear!"

Hero sighed as he nursed his broken ribs, "Yeah, you guys wanna go help those poor people at the TV broadcast station and beat up Team Universal?"

Monster bared her dainty yet super-powered fists, "F*ck yeah! Let's murder those bastards!" she turned to her Tyranitar, a slasher smile on her face, "You ready, Sasha?"

Sasha nodded with a smile that could actually be called cute, "(Of course, I'd love to, dear!)"

Author's Note:

Okay, who here expected that Monster was a (little) girl?

Oh well. Now that school's back in session, I will probably update only on the weekends. Take care!

-RGGod, out!