Undersea Hunt

-.-.-.-.-.

The region of Unova – far away from the likes of Kanto and Hoenn, but it had a lot going for it.

With a large population, some of the most unique species of Pokemon ever discovered, and a decent climate, it was a popular tourist destination. People from all over would flock to Unova when school let out and summer finally pushed spring out of the picture, and places like the Castelia City, the Nimbasa amusement park, and Undella Bay would see hundreds of foreigners visiting every day.

The latter was, by far, Unova's claim to fame when it came to places to spend the summer holidays. Undella Bay was the largest body of water that lay within Unova's borders, and when combined with the lovely beaches and picturesque town nearby, it was no wonder that a grand total of people numbering within the millions visited in the space of a single year. The bay itself, in particular, sported crystal-clear water whose average temperature contrasted wonderfully with the otherwise unbearable summer heat. The wide variety of Water-type Pokemon that could be seen on the scuba-diving trips that were frequently held there was icing on the cake.

For humans, Undella Bay was absolute perfection.

Unfortunately, there was something down there that had lay claim to it first.

Frillish had been a problem in Unova since the first settlers had sailed over from Kalos to populate the region. While the Water-and-Ghost-types subsisted mostly on an inoffensive diet of other oceanic Pokemon, they also had a notorious habit of snaring land prey with their poison-covered tentacles and dragging them down to their dark lairs to eat. Attacking sailing ships definitely wasn't against their standards – not only for food, but because Frillish as a species were quite proud and easily insulted, and they didn't like foreigners encroaching on the seas that they had already claimed as theirs. They had lived in the waters around Unova for thousands of years, so it wasn't like they were about to up and leave because some land-dwellers were trying to take it for themselves.

While Frillish attacks were certainly not unknown, the Water-and-Ghost-types had learned by now to treat humans with the utmost caution. There was a fragile balance between the two species – while they left each other be for the most part, Pokemon Trainers would still take Frillish from the wild and raise them, and Frillish would still prey on the odd swimmer when the opportunity presented itself.

Such was the way of nature. But… anyway.

It was no coincidence that summertime was when Frillish, extremely social creatures, would flock together in immense numbers to pair off and breed. Just as emotional and complex as any other Pokemon, the large jellyfish mated for life and went to great lengths to find a worthy partner. In their case, the bright pink females would frolic excitedly in large schools, while the dark blue males hunted alone to find something that their future bride would deem acceptable. The more impressive the prey, the better.

And for a Frillish, nothing was as impressive as something snagged from the coast.

As mentioned, summer was when the waters were positively roiling with activity as humans and their Pokemon companions cooled off the in the compelling surf. Perfect for the scores of camouflaged male Frillish desperate to show off for the females.

It was just another morning in Undella Bay when our Frillish, a young male that we shall dub Cyan, emerged from the crevice in which he had spent the night. Yawning and stretching his tentacles wide to embrace the dim sunlight that filtered down from hundreds of feet above, it didn't take him long to wake himself up. Nervous excitement was flowing through his proverbial veins, as it had been for the past week. Having only reached adult size in the past few months, it was his first time participating in the mating season. He was anxious, but he was determined to fight it and prove himself as a strong hunter.

Cyan took a moment to admire his surroundings. No other Frillish was in sight, so things were peaceful down here at the bottom of the bay. But quickly, the urge took hold of him and propelled him away from his sleeping spot. Instinct drove him toward the surface, where the sunlight was stronger and prey more numerous.

As he suspected, the other males were already swarming near the coast. When Cyan arrived, there were at least twenty of them gathered about fifty feet below the surface. Each and every one were staring upwards. Cyan averted his eyes toward the surface as well – and they widened when he saw that there were already many humans and Pokemon splashing about.

The sight gave him hope – if there were so many potential prizes this early in the morning, there would surely be plenty of opportunities to nab something for the females. Grinning craftily, Cyan dove deeper, heading toward the small crowd of fellow males.

When he got closer, the other Frillish observed him with a mix of wariness and confidence. He knew he was still young, with plenty of energy left in him, and unburdened by sickness or injury. As he cast his eyes over the group he had joined, he already saw several males that seemed inferior to him in some way. He grinned at them, showing off his sharp little teeth. Some grinned back, others simply glared.

The sound of high-pitched chattering reached Cyan's ears, and he turned around to look at the crowd of female Frillish that had gathered. They were swimming playfully in circles, smiles never fading as they chirped and gossiped excitedly amongst each other. They were very different from Frillish and his fellows, with ruffled fringes around their tentacles instead of the more sharply-edged fringes of the males, and a vibrant pink skin tone. Fortunately for them, they could afford to be so brightly-colored because they hunted in packs, unlike the solitary males.

Currently, our protagonist's attention was locked on one particular female. She was smack in the middle of the school, one of the biggest and brightest of the lot – one that we shall dub Cherry. He shivered with delight when he saw how her eyes twinkled and how her giggles rang out above those of her friends. Surely, if he presented her with something impressive enough, she'd be willing to stay by his side.

Nodding to himself, Cyan started to circle, swimming with his back to the ocean floor so he could keep his keen vision on the surface. With so many humans and their Pokemon out and about today, there would certainly be one well within his abilities to catch, yet good enough to win him a mate. While some males would probably duck out and resort to grabbing ocean prey, something they knew the females enjoyed, Cyan was feeling up to the challenge.

It wasn't about playing favorites, it was about proving oneself as a hunter. And with his mind concentrating firmly on the female he hoped to wed, the risk would be worth it, even if it meant gambling his life.

The others noticed Cyan circling and grew still. One of their number had plucked up the courage to take the first step and start looking for a target. Some of them began circling as well, while the rest kept still. Meanwhile, the female Frillish waiting in the wings – Cherry included – stilled themselves too, although it was clear that most of them had too much energy to watch events unfold with patience, and they still swam about excitedly as they observed the males.

Cyan suddenly caught sight of something promising, and paused for a second, but then kept moving so as not to alert the rest of the males. He knew how sneaky his species could be, and he wouldn't put it past one of the others to try and intercept him before he could make his move. He kept his eyes locked on the small Pokemon above, which was wandering from the main group of land-dwellers. Whether or not the Pokemon realized it, it was swimming farther and farther away from safety.

Smirking, Cyan broke away from the group and darted upwards, moving as quickly as he could while still maintaining a pace stealthy enough to approach the Pokemon above without alerting it. He could hear some of the others stopping their own searches in order to watch him, but he didn't care. All of his senses needed to be completely focused on his target.

As he got closer, the sunlight got brighter and he was able to see the Pokemon in more detail. It was much smaller than he was, but it swam strongly despite its size. Cyan recalled seeing a Pokemon like this last summer – he thought it was called an Oshawott. Another Water-type would be an interesting challenge. His predatory grin widened as he approached the sea otter from below, knowing that it wouldn't see him until he was right on top of it.

Closer… the backstroking Oshawott was kicking bubbles into Cyan's face.

Closer… he could see its scalchop gleaming on its chest.

Closer… he reached out with his arms, and it was only now when the Oshawott seemed to realize something was wrong…

SPLASH!

The Oshawott let out a squeal that was almost instantly cut off as Cyan dove back under, taking it with him. Its cry was reduced to a gurgle as it let out all of the air in its lungs before it even realized it was underwater. It was struggling now, but Cyan tightened his grip and grinned ferociously, knowing that his paralyzing poison would put an end to its futile thrashing soon enough. Unless it drowned first.

He hadn't been swimming for five seconds before he caught a flash of blue at the edge of his vision. Not even a moment later, he was rammed in the midsection, hard enough to elicit a shriek of pain and to jar the lucky Oshawott out of his grasp. Stars danced on the edge of Cyan's vision, but he shook himself free of the dizziness just in time to see another male Frillish jetting after the fleeing mammal.

How dare he?!

Our protagonist screamed with outrage and pursued the interloper, catching up mere seconds before his rival could steal his prize. He wrapped his tentacles around the rival and dragged him down, away from the surface. The other male broke free, turned around, and fired a Bubblebeam, one that he avoided with ease.

More Bubblebeams missed their mark as Cyan swam circles around his new enemy, being both younger and healthier than the one whose tentacles he could now see were frayed with old scars. Perhaps his rival was one whose mate had died the previous year. But Cyan didn't care – he wasn't appreciative of the other male's underhanded tactics. He got in close after dodging another Bubblebeam and struck with Absorb, grabbing the older Frillish by the waist and using the super-effective attack to drain his strength.

Defeated, the rival sunk back down into the depths, exhausted from the energy drain. Cyan spread out his veil-like arms as widely as possible, red eyes glowing with fury and a ghostly wail pealing from his mouth. The threat display did the trick, as the defeated male didn't come back.

Cyan huffed, supremely irritated by the fact that someone would even dare resort to such unfair measures. He looked back up at the surface and made a noise that would pass for a curse – the Oshawott was already gone, having fled into the safety of the crowd while the two jellyfish Pokemon were fighting.

Cyan knew that humans weren't stupid. The second they figured out they were being hunted, they'd be out of the water in an instant and wouldn't come back for a few days, at least. It was a sheer miracle that the fight over the Oshawott hadn't been noticed. There was no way Cyan could risk blowing his next chance now, so he'd have to succeed or else spend the rest of the week by his lonesome again.

The rest of the males had probably figured that out, too, because they were starting to rise from the safety of the deep waters. Cyan's mind raced, eyes flicking from one land-dweller to another. He didn't have much time.

That was when he saw them. At the end of a pier, only a short distance away from the crowded waters of Undella Bay, was a fisherman and Pokemon dangling their legs into the water. Cyan smirked his widest so far – this would be far too easy. He had quite the distance to swim, since the pier was on the very edge of the enormous bay, but it'd be worth it. Humans couldn't swim worth squat, especially with those heavy water-absorbent clothes weighing them down.

Cyan started his approach, taking care not to swim too close to any of the beachgoers still messing around at the surface – there were so many that they were coming this far out to sea. The shore was about half a league away. Just narrowly passing by a human-Pokemon pair tossing a ball back and forth between them, Cyan glanced behind him and saw several other males gathering near the main crowd. Any one of them could suddenly see him swimming so purposefully away from the bay and follow him out of curiosity, and that wasn't something he wanted. Still, it was more than likely to happen, so Cyan needed to be sneakier this time…

He drifted closer to the human, eyeing the fishing rod and its gleaming hook. He wouldn't want to accidentally get caught on that. Then he studied the Pokemon – even though he was at a considerable depth below the surface, he could see that the green-and-blue creature was about his size and carried a massive dish-like thing on its head. Fortunately, he knew that it was the Water-and-Grass-type Lombre. Which made things very interesting. Such a Pokemon would be a champion swimmer and resistant to almost all of his attacks, and might even be able to breathe underwater.

The last thing Cyan wanted was another cheating male complicating things for him. He looked around, and thought he saw something blue move out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn't be entirely sure. He'd have to be extra careful, and plan out his strategy carefully.

Silently, he approached the human, red eyes never wandering away. Of course, the fisherman never saw him. Then, he slowly started to rise, still not getting any sort of reaction. Allowing a smile to cross his face, Cyan allowed the current to push him forward, letting his body go limp so that none of his movements would stray from the current and alert his target. He waited until he was next to the fishing rod, then stopped. One more glance around to see if he was being followed… nothing. But he had this suspicious feeling, like he was being watched, so he'd proceed with caution…

With another glance at the Lombre, Cyan determined from how its head drooped that it was taking a nap. That was perfect. He didn't have to worry about it being troublesome, at least for now.

He grabbed the fishing line, being sure not to get caught on the hook, and gave it a little tug.

Just as he suspected, the human reacted. Seemingly jolting to life after feeling the tug, the fisherman started to slowly pull the line back, trying to draw Cyan closer. He would play the human's game for a little bit, following the line and occasionally tugging on it to assure the fisherman that he hadn't left. Then, when he felt like he was close enough, he yanked on the line.

The fisherman shouted and yanked back so hard that the fishing rod ended up above his head. But just in time, Cyan let go, then darted forward and savagely pulled on his leg.

There was a very loud splash, and lots of bubbles. The human was under, flailing and spluttering. Now time for the next stage of the plan – aha, there was that flash of blue again!

At that moment, Cyan whirled around, expecting another intruder to come rushing forward – and he wasn't disappointed. A male Frillish that looked about as old as him charged, in hopes of ramming him out of the way, but our protagonist smartly avoided it. Not bothering to continue his assault, the rival turned around and grabbed hold of the human's leg, although not in time to stop the land-dweller's shouts for help.

The Lombre was wide awake now, frantically reaching over the edge of the pier to grab his friend's hand. But he was Frillish's real target, not the fisherman – the latter had just been bait to distract whichever males he had expected to steal his prize again. The Lombre, totally oblivious to all of this, was startled out of its wits when it saw the water suddenly erupt and a grinning underwater specter come lunging out.

Cyan's arms wrapped around the kappa-like Pokemon and dragged it under, using its surprise to his advantage. Not wasting any time, he headed straight down, down to a depth where the Lombre wouldn't be getting away even if it broke out of his grasp.

It was difficult to hold onto the Water-and-Grass-type. It was as big as Cyan was, and several times heavier. Normally, its weight would have worked against it in the water, but it had managed to take a breath of air before being pulled into the sea. And now that the shock had worn off, Lombre was beginning to struggle for its life.

Gritting his teeth, Cyan rearranged his tentacles so that they were pinning the Lombre's arms to its sides. He doubled his pace, slowly growing more confident as the light dimmed with their increasing depth. But that was short-lived, as the Lombre put on a new burst of strength and almost managed to slip through his arms.

Determined to succeed this time, Cyan stopped swimming and used his other tentacles to cover as much of his prey's body as possible. The more quickly his paralyzing poison took effect and ended the Lombre's frustrating attempts to escape, the better. It was difficult enough trying to get back to a comfortable depth with that heavy thing slowing him down.

Up above, there was a commotion. It seemed as though a couple of the other Frillish had succeeded in their hunt for land prey to take back as gifts to the waiting females. The humans had finally noticed that the bay wasn't safe anymore, and the screaming and splashing that ensued as they fled back to the safety of land could be heard even way down where Frillish was resting.

Knowing that, soon, those male Frillish that were unsuccessful would disperse and likely come across him and his hard-won (or nearly-won) reward, Cyan concentrated on diving deeper. The Lombre was still squirming about, but sluggishly, thanks to the poison that Cyan had done his best to slather it in. Why wouldn't the stupid thing just give up and drown already?

Just as Cyan was thinking that, the Lombre did the impossible and overcame the toxins covering its body, breaking free and immediately making a break for the surface. Angry now, he tackled it and brought it into a Constrict, winding his tentacles around its arms and neck and squeezing with all his might.

Finally, the struggles of his victim ceased completely, and they started to drift downwards toward the sea bottom. Cyan waited, just in case the Lombre was still alive and was just playing dead, but got absolutely no response.

The sweet sensation of a well-earned victory swept over Cyan at that moment, causing a genuine smile to spread across his face. But he still wasn't done – he had to rapidly swim back to where the females were and present the object of his affection with his hard-won prey, before they all fled. Now that all the action was over, and would be for several days, the Frillish school wouldn't be sticking around for much longer.

Cyan slowly swam back to where his brethren had been swarming, and found that, just as he predicted, there weren't many of his kind left in the area. Those that were left were skimming the seabed, perhaps feeling safer there now that the humans had been alerted to their presence. Humans were dangerous enemies to make.

It didn't take long for Cyan to spy the female he wanted. Thank goodness, Cherry was still there, and still surrounded by several of her peers. Trembling with anticipation, Frillish tightened his hold on the Lombre and dragged it closer, calling out to the females to get their attention.

They heard his cry and turned their lovely faces in his direction, bubbling to themselves curiously. As soon as they saw the dead Pokemon in his grasp, their eyes started twinkling slyly and they started chattering amongst themselves again. They were no doubt wondering whom the young, talented male was after.

With a confident grin, Cyan swam right into the middle of the small crowd and approached the object of his affection. He was unable to stop a faint blush from blooming on his face, but that didn't stop him from looking her straight in the eye and pushing his prey along the seabed toward her. A gurgle emitted from his mouth as he communicated his desire for them to be together.

Cherry put her tentacles to her mouth and hid a giggle, blushing even more vividly than he was. Her friends all squealed ecstatically at his forward proposal and swam in and around one another, unable to sit still.

Cyan, with growing excitement, watched Cherry look back up at him, and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the undisguised passion in her eyes. She closed the distance between them and tenderly wound her tentacles around him, leaning her head into his neck and crooning lovingly.

His heart swelled. All that trouble he had went through to prove himself as a worthy mate had paid off – the land-dwelling Pokemon was a worthy gift, and now she was his. He returned her embrace and nuzzled her, as thanks for her acceptance.

Laughing and cheering, the other females circled the new couple and let out encouraging cries before swimming off into the distance, perhaps to find something to eat now that there weren't any males to provide them with offerings.

Cyan tightened his grip around his mate's waist and murmured in her ear, rubbing his cheek against hers to tell her how much he loved her. She responded by reciprocating the affectionate gesture, bubbling softly in reply.

He had never felt so alive. The presence of the beautiful female filled him with an inexplicable energy that almost drove him wild. Feeling like an eager hatchling again, Cyan let out a chirrup and darted away with a snap of his tentacles. Giggling, Cherry playfully chased him across the seabed,

As they continued their game, they gradually followed the slope of the land to a much greater depth, where the lower light levels were more comfortable for both of them. Once they settled down, they'd set to work searching for an ideal den to raise their family. And then, if all went well, the cycle would repeat itself the following year. A new generation would gather in Undella Bay to show off and court, while Cyan and Cherry would stay together, having eyes for no-one else but each other.

Life could be cruel in the harsh region of Unova, but for our lucky Frillish and his new partner, it couldn't have been more generous.

-.-.-.-.-.

"If its veil-like arms stun and wrap a foe, that foe will be dragged miles below the surface, never to return."

Frillish's Pokedex entry wouldn't be worded like that if all it ate was fish, so my head-canon is that it goes after people and land Pokemon, too.

I'm planning on making this a series of sorts, so if there are any Pokemon you'd like to see me pair up, feel free to send a request.