The Exterminator was on his way to a job.
It seemed to be a small-time job, the latest in his breadwinning streak. A horde of Graveler encroaching on human territory, a village in the shade of the western Lapis range. Reports of mayhem, blocked roads, possible assault. All of this being very much par for the course. Half-intelligent beings had a nasty habit of reclaiming their territory once they discovered they could drive the humans back.
These job listings were funny things. Often enough, if you took out the names of the overpopulated creatures, you'd get the impression the given area was being overtaken by revolutionary brigades. The fact that the Union branch who connected clients with freelance Regulators such as himself often abbreviated job descriptions to "animal terrorism" did not help. Snarky analogies aside, this job stank of routine. He'd spent his fair share of time in this business and had something of a name to back it up.
The valley opened up ahead of him. Through the dusty front window of his power van, he saw the city spread out in the basin below. The central cluster of old town buildings clung to the river Avard, while the newer buildings spread out over the vast bulky terrain. The city of Balder.
Along these grassy outskirts, the Exterminator located Balder's modern and decently-sized Ranger Outpost. Every Exterminator needs a partner and the Rangers are the ones who can transport your "partners" where you need them. For a fee, of course. He went straight to the back of the building - the Depot - where he knew the tamers would be waiting for him. They showed him to a reinforced metal stall. The Exterminator unhooked the guard shutters and the door clanged open. His "partner" shut its eyes, blinded by morning light. Its heavy body wobbled to the corner on short, stubby legs.
"Golem," the Exterminator cooed gently, opening his arms and stepping back to give the creature space. It recognized the voice of its master, rasping in elation, then tottered out of its cage.
Light revealed its rugged skin made of rock. Around 1.3 meters off the ground, from its flat, sharp feet, a head no larger than two fists protruded from the creature's massive boulder of a body. Its red eyes glistened with excitement, having been called on by its master.
The Exterminator smiled slightly, clicked his tongue. He left for the truck and Golem trundled on behind. He opened the back doors of the van and the creature obediently climbed inside. Five minutes later, the exhaust pipe on his power van fumed black smoke. The van jolted twice, then sped off, leaving Balder behind for good.
A sign read "Garden, 19km" halfway from the valley to his destination. Golem sat back in tow, looking anxiously out the window. The Exterminator dragged on his cigarette and blew a puff of smoke through the window.
The winding macadam road was surrounded by dense forest. It was a Ranger's job to make sure forests like these were maintained and wildlife population kept in check, but things sometimes slipped through the cracks. Hard to complain, that's where his business came from.
He hit the brakes, nearly sending Golem sprawling. Opening the door, he stepped outside his little van. The river Avard stretched far and away to the left of the road. A sheer cliff jutted to the right. In between...
He crushed his cigarette under heel.
A large mass of fallen rock and scree blocked the way, adjoining the cliff. Taller than himself at its lowest. It was an impasse.
"Ahoy," a man in a yellow fluorescent vest and industrial work boots cheered. He was perched atop a boulder, next to a grit caked loader. "You on your way to the Lapis, friend?"
"Not exactly. But I do need to get through," said the Exterminator.
"Afraid you're outta luck there. There's been some quakes, rustled up these damned cliffs," he surveyed the wall of gravel with one strong arm. "Well, you can see for yourself."
The claim about quaked was dubious. "Aren't you here to clear it?"
"Hah!" The worker slapped his thigh. "Me n' Brett here," he pointed to a man in the other work vehicle, a truck, "we were sent this morning. But there's gotta be at least a hundred tons of rubble here. No way we can clear it up with one damned loader. We called the company, they said they'd figure it out. Now we're just sitting here, waiting."
"I see. Any other way of getting to a village hereabouts? Called Garden."
"Can't say I know these places well. But if people live there, you should be able to find a way in."
They returned to the van and backed off, seeking a roundabout path. Was this a natural occurrence or was it already part of the job? It was impossible to tell at this point.
A little while later he turned at a fork, a dirt road through the forest. He came to a gravely segment, bouncing in his seat. Another rocky wall formed in the distance.
"Couldn't be," he mouthed over his second cigarette. Did the vermin completely block off access roads? A creeping sense in his gut began to whisper. Things could be ugly.
He exited the van and pulled the back doors open. Golem stepped out meekly, red eyes taking in the environment. This wall was different. It was barely taller than the Exterminator himself, for one.
He gestured Golem to stay close and neared the outcrop. If the previous one could have been passed off as a natural slide, this one was sure to have been constructed. The immediate surrounding land was flat, interspersed with stones and boulders. He thought he could see some holes in the soil where the bigger ones had been dug out, then dragged to form a wall. As much as it was short, it was sure to be much longer than the previous wall. It lapsed from a rocky ridge he could spot through the trees and disappeared into the forest on the other end.
"Looks shoddy enough," he spat out the cigarette butt and carefully crushed it. He pointed to the rock wall, clicking his tongue. "Smash."
Golem stared inertly with its red eyes, but slowly levelled its little round head at the target - a section made up of smaller boulders. It seemed to comprehend. It began plodding, gradually picking up a bound. Slow by all means, but its heavy body shook the earth with each step.
Its master gave a satisfied nod and examined the floor more closely. There were footprints around. Scattered, heavy footprints. They were larger than the Golem's, but otherwise similar. This fit the Graveler's description. A few were here. Maybe three.
CRACK!
Golem's solid bulk made hard contact with the wall. Pebbles click-clacked to the floor. A dent in the stone suggested a near-break. The creature backed up, then bounded at it again, already warmed up. As it neared the wall, its tiny legs hopped, body spinning midair. It collided with the rock.
CHUNK!
A sound of splitting stone, then a cloud of dust. Golem disappeared within. A rasp of dismay from afar. The Exterminator heard more stomping and cracking. Soon thereafter the sounds of another creature. Golem was under attack.
The man hurried over, lighting another cigarette in his mouth. As the dust settled he saw Golem in a fighting stance, its body covered with dust. Facing it was an overgrown Graveler (still barely half a head over the Exterminator himself), clumsily marking its ground. It resembled a large mass of gravel hulking on two legs. Its skin was stone, but brittle in comparison to Golem's. It looked mighty aggravated.
"Looks like we ruined that fort of yours, buddy," said the man. The Graveler gawped, no shred of intelligence apparent in its eyes.
"Golem!" He called out. "Smash." The situation was hardly different than before.
Golem and its opponent, the Graveler, shared a link they were both aware of. They belonged to the same species. Golem may have been smaller, but that was natural. It was older and more experienced. Given the proper training and conditions, Graveler shed their excess bulk and one of their two pairs of arms. In exchange, they develop a near-impenetrable crust of skin, rock-solid muscles grafting their appendages and a brain larger by half. They mature into Golem. The chances of this occurring to any Graveler in the wild hover around 0.03%.
But the Exterminator knows how to make this happen.
The two rock beasts spiraled toward each other, rasping and preening. Suddenly, the Graveler twisted its lumber, placing its foot between Golem's. It issued a heavy smack-down from its shoulder and made contact with Golem's plate skin. Golem, anticipating this, shrugged the blow, leaving its opponent off-balance. It twisted its tough oval body and gave the Graveler a good nudge in the back. The Graveler whirled on its axis, plunging its four arms to the ground to stay footed.
When it came to intra-species relations, younger variants often obeyed their superiors after a show of force. That was why the man had brought Golem. If all went well, the Graveler would recognize their inferiority after a few fair beatings and subjugate themselves to his Golem. The Exterminator would then lay down the law, and convey it to them through Golem.
But this Graveler wasn't stopping. It was pissed.
Rasping a paltry roar, it charged at Golem on all six limbs. The Golem was ready to take it up on the challenge. It launched forth with a heavy dexterity the Graveler could not match. The Exterminator thought he could see its eyes go wide as it tried to stop, but it was too late. Golem leapt. The air split as its spinning body smashed into the enemy. The Graveler was thrown bodily into the air, chunks of its stone shell flitting overhead.
It landed smack dab in the middle of the road, one of its arms launching off into a tree. It rocked on its back, trying to get up, but flopped on its belly instead. It began to wail. A voiceless, crunchy echo. Not submitting. Calling for help.
Oh well, not like he expected things to go smoothly.
A rocky hump to the Exterminator's left began to rise. He had taken it for a part of the rock wall and that was a mistake. It was another Graveler. There was no time to recall his Golem to defend him. Had to act fast.
The creature was not as tall as him, but outweighed him in mass by a factor of 8. It could crush him just by lying down and crawled forward, aiming to do just that.
Spitting out his cigarette, the man unhooked the Injector at his belt, loaded and sprung. He could see the surprise in the creature's eyes as he sprinted toward it. It spread out four of its arms, hoping to catch him in a crushing embrace.
Good thing its kind was slow.
The Exterminator hopped on a rock and leapt onto the rock wall. The creature stumbled aside to follow, but could barely reach the rim of the wall with its arms. The Exterminator leaped off the wall and over the creature's head. It wasn't far enough. His ass hit the beast's protruding back and he tumbled down to the ground. The Graveler turned clumsily, but the Exterminator still gripped the Injector fast. Before the creature could fully face him, he pointed it at its rocky side and pulled the pulled the trigger. The mechanic coil of the Injector hissed and the needle glowed red hot. Moments later he felt a shockwave in his arm as the titanium hafted dart punched through the Graveler's rock skin.
The Graveler howled and arched its back. The arrow half-stuck from its body as it delivered the payload - an elemental neutralizer. It worked as advertised, spreading the Grass element through its body, countering its Rock type.
The Graveler froze, body drenched with shock, then fell over like a stone plate, ground shaking. It ceased to move. The creature was small for its kind, so the dose may have been lethal. The sighed at the waste, but there was no time to lament.
A repetitive drumming came from the fight ahead. The Golem held the first Graveler's severed arm, smacking it over and over. Grounding it to smaller bits. Translucent gel seeped from the deep-set wounds of its body. Their rock skin made up almost half of their bodies, but on the inside they were still creatures of flesh, like all.
Golem noticed him and tossed the arm away. It ran up to its master, looking pleased with itself. Its hard boulder of a body was covered with small, gravelly chunks. The man tossed it a treat and patted its back.
Something cracked in the bushes. The Exterminator startled, looked up. There was another in the forest. And more behind it, looming in the brush. Golem turned on its heels and shrieked. The Graveler saw their inferiority, and lumbered off, disappearing into the darkness. He judged them too far to pursue.
"Shit." This was bad news.
He surveyed the area. Two Graveler down, but he knew the job was far from over. The footprints suggested there were at least a dozen Graveler here some time during the formation of the wall. Moreover, the wall that clogged the main road required some serious numbers to be completed so quickly.
Then there was the fact these two didn't submit. Meaning they thought they could win against a superior of their kind, cocky in their numbers. The man sighed. This was bigger than he had been expecting.
A subtle anxiety took hold in his gut. He had to go on and investigate the town. What waited for him at the end of that road? An empty village full of bloody corpses, their skulls hacked and smashed? Children scattered dead in the streets, bodies covered with chunks of rock? It would have had to happen fast, but it wasn't unprecedented. Perhaps the village would still be holding on, the horde of Graveler wary to step on human territory. Too many possibilities. Had to investigate.
He looked back at the van through the crack in the rock wall. It would be impossible to get the whole vehicle through. Time to grab supplies, take as many Injector darts as possible and continue on foot.
"Shit. Let's get back," he said to his Golem and started toward the truck, lighting another cigarette, scanning the ground for the previous one he hadn't been able to step on yet.
"This is definitely going to be a ten-cigarette day. Maybe fifteen.
We'll see."
Welcome one and all, to Garden. You've just completed the short prologue of a larger tale - Part 1 of 9. The story is already done and edited. It will be coming out on this and other platforms weekly, every Saturday.
As you might have noticed, this is a gritty reimagining of a much-beloved franchise. It takes place in an entirely new world, borrowing only the creatures from the other series, though even they seem to have fallen on hard times.
The chapters to come will include a tasteful collision of epic story arcs, world-weary characters and shameless violence.
I hope you stay tuned, there is much to come.
The names of creatures and their general features are owned by Game Freak. Cover design by me.
This is no ordinary town, but then the Exterminator is far from ordinary himself. Will he be able to stem the onslaught of the rock beasts or will he succumb to the gravel tide?