Chapter 10: The Vampire Scorpion

After some more travel, Naga and Flint came upon a small tribe. Could this be the tribe Piston was part of? It didn't seem like it, as they couldn't tell his distinctive look out from the rest of the folk. They seemed to have a varied look to them, as if they all came from different parts of the world.

"This isn't right," Flint said, looking around at the people living in tents, wearing animal skin outfits,"There are no Merigo natives, no people lived here before the first settlers."

"We are not natives," An older man responded, walking over to them with a large staff supporting him,"We are a primitivist commune that wish to live with nature, to be as one with pokemon, and I am the high elder."

"Interesting. Say, those outfits you wear, would you be able to make one for a pokemon," Naga asked, releasing Margo.

"Oh," the man said, bowing,"We do not help people who use their high tech magic to enslave such majestic beings as pokemon!"

"I assure you," Margot spoke into the man's mind,"I follow Naga of my own free will. I just use pokeballs to get around quicker. I could leave any time if I wanted. I want to follow him to learn more about being a human. Getting to try out your clothing styles and partake in your culture would help me learn what it's like to be a human very much. PLEASE!" She clasped her hands together in a begging motion.
The Elder stroked his beard, thinking. "Well, I suppose I could help you, but we need some help ourselves."
Flint rolled his eyes and mumbled,"Always with this stuff," while Naga was excited at the prospect of a new adventure.

"You see, lately our tribe has been attacked at night by a gang of vampires! They've taken our own and turned them into these evil beasts! If you can stop these monsters, we will give you clothing, food, whatever you want!"

"Yeah, I'll help ya out!" Naga said, excited.


The two men waited in the town until nightfall. Coco was out of her pokeball at the ready, as was Honedge. People rushed into their tents as the sun set upon the village, and a monstrous hiss could be heard from over the hill. To Naga's shock, what the elder said was true! Vampires, or at least, some sort of undead monsters!
A group of about a dozen creatures came down from the hill. They looked like humans with an unnatural sickly green tone, with sores over their body, red glowing eyes, and teeth that were all as sharp as fangs. Some of them had nails that had turned into claws, while others had giant mounds of flesh with random assortments of fingers pointed out of them where their arms should be.

Taken aback, Naga stuttered,"Th-these aren't vampires!"

"No, at least not the kind you were thinking," Flint spoke,"these are some sort of undead cannibals, those teeth aren't for sucking, they're for tearing!"

Naga realized this was no time to panic, if he let his emotions get to him now, it was guaranteed that he and many others would die. If he stood his ground and fought, he might be able to help these people! "Allright! Coco, before they get too close, PAYDAY!" The coins that Coco shot out hit three vampires, some of them ripping holes in the undead menace's bodies, ultimately the attack knocked them to their feet and slowed them down, but they were still fighting.

Flint got ready to shoot with his Remoraid, but saw that one of these vampires was much much faster than the others, it seemed to move so fast it almost faded in and out of existence. As fast as he could, Flint released Honedge, allowing Remoraid to float beside him, and pointed his pokemon's blade forward. The vampire that was approaching him couldn't stop itself in time and impaled itself on Flint's blade, but not before landing a scratch on Flint's neck! Flint let out the final cut to end the vampire, and noted that they had black blood!

Flint put his hand over his wound, trying to slow the bleeding. Naga saw this and threw his bandages at Flint, who quickly got to bandaging his own neck wound, as more vampires approached!

They continued to approach Naga as well, and Coco got ready to engage in melee combat, readying her claws and baring her teeth! As she went to slash at one of the vampires, it bent down and locked it's jaw into her! It's sharp teeth digging into the back of her neck, like her mother picking her up when she was young, and just like then, she was powerless to do anything about it, as it started shaking its head back and forth, trying to rip her flesh! Naga ran forward into the battle himself, and kicked the vampire in the head, releasing Coco from it's hold. With her pokeball in hand, he returned to her, and started running! As he ran, he turned away from his enemy, and it took the opportunity to slash at his back. The claws went through his overalls and into his body, sending him tumbling to the ground! Naga tried his best to turn this fall into a controlled roll, and ended up safely at the bottom of the hill at the edge of the village, but the battle was halfway up.

"GO, MARGOT!" Naga said, throwing the pokeball up the hill. Margot was released as the ball bounced back to him. From a distance he yelled, "Margot, use….PERISH SONG!"

Naga could hear he voice echo, with gravitas, into his head. "NO!"

"MARGO, THESE AREN'T PEOPLE! THEY'RE UNDEAD VAMPIRES AND THEY WANT TO EAT THE PEOPLE IN THIS TOWN!"

"Naga, I can sense life in them still, somewhere deep down, they're able to be saved."

"I- Then use psywave and knock them out!"

"The dark power that has been granted to them renders them immune to my psychic abilities. I'm sorry, I can't help you. Please, survive this, I don't want to lose you," said, before returning to her pokeball.

By the time Flint was finished bandaging up his neck, he was less than 20 feet away from a good 5 vampires, poised to strike at him! 'Damn,' He thought to himself,'I didn't want to out myself like this so soon, but I have no choice if I want to live.'

"REMORAID, SPECIAL TECHNIQUE: FLAMETHROWER!" He shouted as he waved Remoraid side to side in front of him, igniting all of the vampires in his wake, burning them to ash.

Naga didn't have time to question what Flint had done, as he sent out cubone. He was the only one who had the armor to defend himself against the claw and bite attacks. "Quick, Flint, get down here while Cubone holds them off!" And hold them off Cubone did, nobly batting at them and tanking bites and scratches with his newfound strength. Flint rode his honedge like a snowboard, down the grassy hill, when he was a safe distance away, Naga commanded,"Cubone, special technique, earthquake!"

The hill shook, sending all the vampires tumbling into each other and falling down the hill. By the time they reached the bottom they were all unconscious.

"Flint, you're a mercenary right? Please tell me you have some way of bounding a person up?"

"Yeah I got cuffs and zipties," Flint responded, as he began tying up the vampires.


"Flint, what the heck was that?" Naga asked.
"What was what?" Flint asked, trying to keep a naiive demeanor.\

"A fire attack from a water pokemon. How? Cause I know Piston didn't teach you the secret to pokemon abilities outside of a pokemon's natural powers."

"Allright, you caught me," Flint said, putting his hands up to emphasize the point,"I've been training Remoraid with Cubone while you were sleeping."

"That's NOT okay, man! You can't be going behind my back and doing stuff like that! I would have helped you if you asked, I actually trusted you enough that I was gonna share the secret with you, but now I'm having serious second thoughts.

"Listen, man-" Flint started, but was cut off as one of the vampires awoke and spoke.

"You can kill us, but there will be more! Our master will always make more! He can find another village, more servants to capture his prey!"

"Your master," Flint said, holding honedge to the vampire's neck,"Where is he?"
"I will never reveal master Gliscore's location! I'd rather die!"

"Then so be it fiend!" Flint said, before beheading the vampire.
"OH MY GOD, FLINT! WHY DID YOU JUST KILL HER!?"

"It was a vampire, Naga. We were gonna have to kill her eventually. Why not now instead of waiting for the morning sun?"

"Because-I- Flint!" Naga was having trouble calming himself to explain,"Margo told me she felt there was some way to save these guys. If I were to guess, it would have to do with their master."

"Are you saying that, her- and on the hill- I killed a bunch of people who I could have saved?" Flint said, panicked. Despite whatever negative traits he had, he still wasn't an outright murderer. "Oh my god."

"Yeah."

"I have to make up for this! Oh my god! I- if there's a way to save these people we have to find it."

"Well, we have the name Gliscore."

"Gliscore. I know that name. That's a pokemon for sure. Where I come from, Gliscore are flying ground type pokemon that live in caves.


Flint asked the elder of any nearby caves and was informed of one. When they arrived, the cave had a small hallway leading into a large central room, with a fire burning in the center. Hanging from the ceiling above the fire was the pokemon they were looking for, definitely different from what Flint knew, though.

The pokemon's body had the exoskeleton, claws and stinger-tipped tail of a scorpion,with the large ears and fangs of a bat. The webbing between it's arms and tail matched superfluous collar webbing that was red on one side and black on the other, giving the appearance of a cape. It chuckled heartily as it stared down at the two who entered it's lair, as they noticed the two figures before the fireplace; A man, and his pokemon companion!
Taru and Muda! But they were different! They were warped and empowered by this Gliscor's power as well! Taru had horns protruding from his head, pointed ears, and the signature sharp teeth and red eyes of all of Gliscor's minions. His forearms were massive and muscular, with black veins popping through, and clawed hands. Muda's blue body had been tinted black, with the same glowing eyes and claws. The area of his stomach that Flint once cut open was now a gaping toothy maw, with a long prehensile tongue sticking out of it!

"It's the Helix kid!" Flint shouted.

"Taru!" Naga said,"What are you doing here?!"

"I came here- AHAHAH!" His manic state was much the opposite of his usually cynical monotone way of speech,"I came here to capture Gliscor for study for team helix, BUT WHO NEEDS 'EM!? I WANTED THE POWER OF A POKEMON I GOT IT RIGHT HERE!" Taru slashed at the air. "The majesty, the natural grace and power of pokemon flows through my veins! You could NEVER possibly understand how good it feels! And as long as I keep serving Gliscor, I get to be like this FOREVER!"

"Taru," Naga started, sympathetically,"I know that for whatever reason you want to be powerful, but this pokemon isn't-"
"POWERED UP OR NOT, YOU'RE GOING DOWN, SCUMBAG!" Flint butted in, firing a flamethrower shot at Taru! Muda jumped in front and shot a blast of water from its stomach-mouth, canceling out the flamethrower and engulfing the room in a cloud of steam.

Taru's black claws cut through the steam into Flint's face, cutting a scar across his face and slicing his eye!

"Stealing pokemon and experimenting on them for your own benefit! YOU AND ALL OF TEAM HELIX SHOULD BE IN PRISON!" Flint shouted zealously.

Muda jumped out at Naga through the steam, and Naga had to think fast. Muda was a Poliwhirl, a water type pokemon, given dark power, water was strong against ground pokemon and dark types are completely immune to psychics. The only option for a pokemon he had to defend himself with was Coco the Eevee.

Naga released Eevee, who saw the Pokemon in front of her and shuddered in terror at the dark energy she felt eminating from it, but moreso from the Gliscore that was controlling it. She was already hurt from earlier, not in the best condition, but the others would surely fail. "Coco, you're the only one I can rely on right now, let's go!"

"Voy, voy-voy! Voyscowe!" She yelled, looking up at Gliscor.

"The Gliscor controlling them? You think if you can take him out that the others will stop?"

"Voy!" She bobbed her head.
"Allright, new strategy, I'll try to distract, avoid, and evade Poliwhirl while you shoot at Gliscor!"

Eevee split off into the fog, while Naga put his hands on his ears like a monkey and stuck his tongue out at Muda. "Na-na-na-boo-boo!" He taunted him, before running, baiting the pokemon. Muda ran after him, and threw a strong punch, which Naga literally had to jump out of the way of to avoid. It sent a crack up the cave wall, destroying the stelagtight that Gliscor was holding onto, forcing it to fly about the room.

Flint engaged Taru in melee combat. With one eye out of commission, he struggled to block Taru's rapid claw attacks, sustaining multiple cuts. This one attack was as strong as Taru and Muda's team attack before. To make it all worse, it almost felt like Honedge was pulling itself in different ways than Flint wanted it to go.

"Honedge, you can't disobey me right now!"

"THAT'S YOUR PROBLEM, COWBOY! I RESPECT POKEMON, I TREAT THEM LIKE EQUAL BEINGS. SURE I TAKE 'EM WHEN THEY'RE WEAK ENOUGH TO BEAT, BUT I'D DO THAT TO A MAN ANY DAY! MY PARTNER IS MY SECOND HALF! YOUR PARTNERS ARE SERVANTS!"

"Ho-nedge!" His pokemon seemed to agree.
He couldn't keep up! As it seemed Taru was attacking with four arms like his team attack, it became clear that he was! Somehow the dark power had made him sprout a second set of arms. He was attacking with the same kind of force and speed as a machamp!

What Taru said was right, and Flint realized this. He took a moment to show he trusted and respected his pokemon, closing his one good eye, and following Honedge's commands and movements for once.

He trusted in his pokemon, and not a single attack more landed on Flint's flesh. He felt his hands, nigh, his entire body, move on it's own, putting his faith in his pokemon, as the blade; blades? parried Taru's furious swipes. Working as a team they were able to detect the attacks before they happened.

Taru pushed himself harder, throwing all the power and speed he could into his attacks, but he couldn't breach the wall of the sword pokemon's blade! As his need grew more desperate, the dark power granted him a third set of arms, which grew below his first set. This transformation was accompanied by the black veins on his body growing more prevalent, his horns growing larger and his face morphing into a more monstrous one, covered in sores with a pig-nose. The dark power granted to Taru by Gliscore was reinforced by the genuine malice he had towards Flint and his ilk. "I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU, I HATE YOU GOODY-TWO-SHOES- NEVER LET ME HAVE WHAT I WANT- I'LL END YOU! I'LL END EVERY RIGHTEOUS BOUNTY HUNTER ON SITE!"

Despite it all, all the hatred, all the power, Taru was still only matching Honedge and Flint. He tried to attack at different angles and speeds, yet they always managed to angle their own defense in the perfect way.

It was hard for Naga to see through the fog as he ran from Muda. He was constantly having to guess where the next attack would come from. Coco had an equally hard time shooting at Gliscor, from what she could tell, not a single coin had hit the pokemon. Gliscor flew completely silently, and the fog was preventing him from being seen too. It was horrifying to think that it could come from anywhere.

Naga juked Muda, going one way then quickly switching directions, avoiding his punch, but Muda extended his tongue to lick Naga. There was some kind of skin-ingested neurotoxin embedded in his saliva that paralyzed Naga, leaving him frozen in place. Naga tried to move but he just shook and stuttered. Coco stopped fighting Gliscor, headbutting Muda in his back, knocking Muda over.

Over the next few seconds, Naga was able to regain his movement as Muda and Coco clashed, exchanging punches and scratches. But it was all a distraction, as Gliscor swooped down and snatched Coco up with its tail.
"NO!" Naga yelled, as Coco yelled back.

Naga couldn't see, but he was able to hear the sound of Gliscor ripping into Coco, it sounded grotesque.

Quickly, Naga released Margo, and Muda got into a fighting stance to take her on. 'A psychic? This idiot doesn't even know type matchups.' Muda thought to himself.

"Margo, do you trust me?!" Naga asked, panicking.

"Well I-"
"MARGO, I NEED YOU TO TRUST ME!"

"Allright," She said, a bit worried.

"Margo, use perish song."

There was a moment of hesitation, before Margot began.

"Morte pro nobis omnibus venit."

Naga pulled out a pokeball and held it up to Gliscor.

"Per finem carminis huius cades"

"This is the perish song! By the end of it everyone who hears it dies! Gliscor, release everyone from your hold and get in the ball, or I'll have us all die here to stop you!"

"Domina noctis te vocat ad eius"

Gliscor seemed to be ready to admit it's defeat, and panic set over Taru and Muda, addicted to their new power. Taru stopped attacking Flint, leaving his pokemon to land a swipe against taru, cutting off all three sets of his arms in one strike!

'tentatur a voce cantoris mali.'

Taru didn't even seem to care about losing his arms, as he sprinted over to Naga, his black blood making a mess all over the place. "NO, DON'T DO IT MASTER! I'D RATHER DIE THAN GO BACK TO BEING HUMAN! MUDA, WRAP UP THE BOY, I'LL KILL THE JYNX!"

'Scis te debuisse meliora facere;

Muda wrapped Naga in his tongue, and started squeezing him. Taru tried kicking Jynx in her groin to cause her as much pain as possible and shut her up, but she powered through it, continuing to sing.

"nam in fine huius carminis exiliit fatum-"

And just like that, one word before the song ended, Coco dropped to the floor as Gliscor entered the pokeball. The fog cleared and a white light came over Taru and Muda, as they reverted to their original forms. Muda's stomach swirl was still misaligned down it's center scar, and Taru had two deep cuts going from the bottom of his front ribcage over his shoulders and to his back ending at his shoulder blades, a lesser version of the full-on decapitation he sustained as a vampire. He tried to turn around to attack Naga, but all the energy he had used up and damage he sustained as a vampire that he could have powered through came back to him immediately as he fell to the ground crying.

"I don't want to live like this! I cant live like this!"

Those words resonated with Naga, the same words he had said to Kappa the day he left his hometown. He was taken aback, with the realization that this team Helix grunt was a person just like him, with goals and desires, who also felt unsatisfied with life for one reason or another. Flint got to handcuffing Taru, and putting Muda in his pokeball, and pocketing the ball to keep it out of Taru's hands.


They returned to the village, after Naga gave Coco a Chansey egg to help her recover, and decided to spend the night there. The elder gave Naga an animal-skin outfit for Margo, as promised, along with food for their travel. The two boys were given their own tents to stay in.

"With this," Margot said,"I will be able to invoke the power of the primitive humans, and invoke the ground type. Toiling in the dirt, humanity at one point climbed down from their treetop homes onto the land, where they grew into something great."

"That's…weirdly insightful for you, Margo."
"Oh, did I project that thought to you? Sometimes when I try on a new style it sort of just comes to me."
"I see," Naga said,"It's interesting how much you're teaching me about pokemon as you learn about humans."

Margo giggled, before standing up. "So, um, how do I look, ?" she asked, slowly dancing around their tent, wiggling her hips. The new outfit did show off alot more than the plain dress from before. Her arms, and most of her legs were exposed as it had no sleeves and the brown fur one-piece outfit ending at the top of her thighs, held up by two shoulder straps.

"You're beautiful," Naga said, starry-eyed. It was clear to Margo that the infatuation she had towards him was at least partially reciprocated. She was way too forward when they first met, and had been playing it cool since then, but she still wanted him.

"Thank you," she said."I think you're beautiful, too, Naga."

"Aww, me? Shucks, you're just saying that cause I told you,"Naga said,"I got dirty overalls and messy hair-"

"And beautiful eyes, with long eyelashes that draw me in."

"Thank you," Naga said, blushing and looking away.

"I really do mean it, Naga."
"That means alot. More than anything, I'm happy you trusted me tonight."
"Of course I trust you. I'm not completely reliant on you or anything, I said no the first time, but I could tell you really meant it the second time."
"Well, it's nice to know you're not just, like, mindlessly following me."
"Heavens no," Margo said,"I'm still my own person, with my own judgment."

"That makes it even more meaningful to me that you'd…feel the way you do."
"You feel it too, right?"

"Yeah," Naga said, as he leaned in and initiated a kiss with Margo. When they pulled apart Margo smiled. The one time they had kissed before was when she aggressively came onto him, so him returning it made her burst into a big smile. It was actually hard for her to purse her lips together again for the second one; and the third; and the fourth!

"You know Naga, you got a big bedroll here, I was thinking this when you stayed in the last town but-"
"It's big enough to fit two people, yeah," Naga said, smirking.

While Margo and Naga were having fun enjoying each other's company, Flint's tent was not so jolly. Taru was handcuffed so his hands were behind a poll he was stuck to in the tent.

"I'll get you back one day Flint!"

Flint said nothing, rolling his eyes. He had heard the same thread hundreds of times in his life as a bounty hunter.

Taru had alot going on internally. He felt like he was going through withdrawal. The power that came with being a vampire was the best high of his life. But he regretted what he said about team Helix. He needed them to achieve his goals.

"We just want to give people the same powers as pokemon, you know," Said Taru.

"Yeah, and?" Flint asked,"I can get the powers of pokemon whenever I need with the help of my partners! Hell, you helped me evolve my Honedge into a Doublade by showing me I needed to respect them more as partners."
"You never understood. I respect pokemon's power. They are naturally strong and can do things I never could, it's not just about treating them good, it's about being in the same league as the deadly monsters that roam the earth! I love Muda so much, he's like a brother to me, but I don't want to rely on him forever. I hate having to rely on others."

"You had to rely on the Gliscor for your power anyway," Flint said, holding the pokeball in Taru's face. "Yeah, Naga gave it to me. Poor kid didn't think he could handle its power, said it was evil and that he didn't want to do evil. But you and me, Taru, we don't care about getting our hands dirty do we?" Flint asked, putting Gliscor's pokeball in one of his holsters.

Taru didn't speak, simply waiting for Flint to turn his back, as he slipped his hands to his belt and pulled out a pokeball of his own. "Go-" he was cut off by Flint turning around.
"You got a second pokemon, aye?" Flint asked, walking over to Taru, I'll be taking this!" Flint said, bending down and forcefully taking Taru's ball from him.

'I do now,' Taru thought, as Flint walked back over to his bedroll and sat on it.

"I oughta whip out a flamethrower and burn you to death right here," Flint said,"But you have two pokemon that love you. Maybe if you realized that the pokemon you steal and experiment on are loved by people just like you love your Poliwhirl."

"You're not gonna get to me, bounty hunter. You can't guilt trip me or get in my head. It's been tried before. I can put a barrier in my mind. Now shut up and let me sleep. I'm guessing your journey's far from over."
"No, but yours is. I can send a message to interpol tonight, leave in the morning, and have you in their custody by this time tomorrow. In fact," Flint said, pulling out his global interpol communication device,"I'll do that now."

Naga lay in bed with Margo, in her arms as the little spoon, as he held his frontier tracker, and inserted the USB device that he was given into it. "I have learned alot about pokemon since I started this journey."

"I'm sure this professor hemlock would pay you alot for what you've learned, Naga. If I were you I'd use it!"

"Well, I definitely had a crazy encounter with this region's version of Gliscor, and I definitely learned alot about Jynxes." Naga said, as Margo giggled. Naga decided he'd give the info he collected so far to the professor, minus his knowledge of infinity energy. He didn't quite know yet if he was that trustworthy.