"…you know, if there is one thing I can't wrap my head around, it's her reaction to seeing those two dead," Glaceon rolled his eyes, "They are just dragons. It's what dragons do. Die. Miserably."
The mutt looked at him as if he grew a second head. Which was, all things considered, rather rude. Even if he likely would've been able to pull off such a gruesome mutation.
"Tho-those were Legendaries," she squeaked out, throwing a short glance to the timer that still had seven minutes to count through. He was not sure if "Legendaries" was supposed to mean anything to him, so he gave Absol one of his better deadpan expressions. She seemed to take the hint, "Le-legendaries to norm-normal Pokemon are what y-you are to other Glaceons"
"More beautiful, stunning and mesmerising?"
"…s-sure. Also m-much more powerful," she had the sense to agree, "S-some are like t-those two dra-dragons. Very rare a-and powerful. J-just a few across- just a few across the w-world. And some a-are more powerful than any-anyone can imagine. With-with Arceus at the t-top"
"Well, these two were far from impressive. A couple of paltry tricks, and barebones presentation," Okehazama shrugged.
"Y-you don't g-get it," Absol shook her head, "F-first, the weak-weaker Legendaries are, like… Endangered. There are o-only a few of the-them left. E-even if they are powerful, killing th-them is a huge loss," the mutt tried to explain. Not that he cared all that much about dragon extinction. Ugly, brutish things, the lot of them. If anything, he did the world a great service every time he extinguished those wretched beings, "Also… The hu-humans captured the Legen-legendaries many years a-ago. A-and locked them all in a pla-place they call 'Vault'. And if n-now they've opened it-"
"There might be more of these 'Legendaries' to fight, and some of them might be much more dangerous," he took a guess. The Absol nodded.
Well, this made things slightly less convenient.
At first, he thought those two dragons were akin to the Flygon the other day - similarly powerful, slightly smarter, and about as capable of taking hits. They could track him somehow, despite his invisibility - be it through sound, or some other sense - and managed to put him on defensive early into the fight. Once Nagashino saw fit to distract them for a brief second with some of her Combees, he managed to counterattack, freezing one of two dragons mid-air, and causing the wretched thing to crash into the ground and shatter into many ugly pieces. The second one had some sort of an invisibility cloak of their own, but all Okehazama had to do was to repeat that same trick with a measuring freezing claw, that he utilised against Flygon earlier, to find his opponent. After that, the battle was pretty much over.
If Legendaries were like those two, he wouldn't have had much to worry about. But if on the other end of the spectrum was Arceus…
Glaceon was pretty sure that there was no chance in Hell for him to defeat Arceus. If what the mutt said was true, then he could only hope they were not about to encounter anything THAT powerful.
The timer finally reached zero, and the doors leading out of the room unsealed. These were massive, automatic doors, too big and heavy to just pry them open. Okehazama could probably puncture a hole through them, but 'not-human' did not want to force their way in for some reason. Something about emergencies.
The three of them entered the darkness past the heavy doors. Nagashino was not with them. For some reason, the 'not-human' was very quick to decide not to have any Combees enter the building, and without those, the Vespiquen was pretty much useless. Meaning, it was just 'not-human', the mutt, and him.
The darkness in this place - some sort of a derelict shopping centre - was almost overwhelming. Only one measly lantern managed to disperse some of the inky blackness around them, playing with the shadows and causing them to constantly jump and flicker. He couldn't even separate from the group - not if he did not wish to wander around blindly. And there was too much shattered glass and dirty debris lying around to even consider.
Suddenly, the mutt stopped in her tracks.
He looked ahead, finding nothing of worth. The 'not-human' also stopped, looking at the Absol with some sort of concern, quickly shifting into an outright worry. Also, there was another light source.
Mutt was standing in place, shivering, her eyes glowing even brighter than the lantern, only to suddenly dim a few seconds later, as she fell to the ground, panting and whining.
Judging by the fact there was nothing in the vicinity… He could've guessed what just happened.
"Another vision?"
"Do not… Answer… 'Yes'…" she managed, before gagging. Whatever she saw, was bad enough to cause her to almost faint. Of course, a Metagross was also enough to cause her to faint, but… Yeah, he was not going to ignore predictions of an Absol.
'Not-human' was quick to approach the gagging mutt, asking what she could do to help, suggesting different berries and such. Meaning they were stuck in this place for the next several minutes, instead of trying to find their mysterious fourth. Also, he was pretty sure he just stepped into something sticky.
Gross.
Glaceon looked down at his paw, covered in something dark and smelly, and froze off whatever it was, leaving it pristine once more
Hm…
Wait, what was this sticky thing again?..
He turned.
In front of his eyes, was a frayed rag of leather, filled with something that gave it a deformed shape. He could guess two soft, leathery horns protruding from the top, and he saw a… A human face?.. Yes, some sort of a human face at the side.
Oh, this was not leather, was it?..
"Ā̵͍̝̇̈́M̶̨̢̦̾̽̾ ̸̱͚͍͘Ḭ̷̡̋ ̵̦̃C̵̦͆͝͝Ű̷̢̀̅Ṭ̶̠̏̏̚E̴̫͔͔̽̊?̶̜̳̥̋̃͌"
He glanced down towards the voice, noticing holes punctured through the bottom half of the shape, separated from the 'head' by a length of a rope tied into a noose. At the bottom, the figure dripped with something dark. There was a smell of rot in the air. And through one of the holes, he saw a baleful, malicious glimmer of an eye.
For the first time in his entire life, Okehazama felt an actual chill down his spine.
"Ā̵͍̝̇̈́M̶̨̢̦̾̽̾ ̸̱͚͍͘Ḭ̷̡̋ ̵̦̃C̵̦͆͝͝Ű̷̢̀̅Ṭ̶̠̏̏̚E̴̫͔͔̽̊?̶̜̳̥̋̃͌" the macabre thing demanded again, causing Glaceon to take a step back. By this point, the other two were also paying attention to whatever happened, seeming as they suddenly got very, very quiet. He did not turn to check.
Do not answer 'yes', huh.
Was answering 'no' any better?..
"I'm pretty sure we are here for you," Okehazama tried to smile. Despite his impeccable acting talent, he was failing at it miserably, "See that Absol? She predicted the end of the world. And we're gathering a group to prevent-"
"Ā̵͍̝̇̈́M̶̨̢̦̾̽̾ ̸̱͚͍͘Ḭ̷̡̋ ̵̦̃C̵̦͆͝͝Ű̷̢̀̅Ṭ̶̠̏̏̚E̴̫͔͔̽̊?̶̜̳̥̋̃͌"
The Pokemon was smaller than Glaceon, and did not move at all, yet he felt like every time this same damn question was asked, the small figure covered in human skin was looming over him more and more. By this point, he was shivering for some reason.
"Ā̵͍̝̇̈́M̶̨̢̦̾̽̾ ̸̱͚͍͘Ḭ̷̡̋ ̵̦̃C̵̦͆͝͝Ű̷̢̀̅-"
"No!" he shouted, unable to stop himself.
The small figure twitched, and a sharply clawed limb crawled from beneath the skin. Impossibly big for the coverings of the creature. Then another one, and another one, and another one, and another one-
"Ṭ̵̠̘̈H̴̱͍̃É̷̼̰̠̂N̶͍͎̓̄ ̶͉͈̉̃D̵̥̣͐I̴̬̯̅̉̚Ê̴̗̜̼͝"
Before Okehazama could even think about what he was doing, he ran.
A massive claw stuck at the place he just was, then another one - at the place he would've been if he did not dodge to the side, then two more clapped at him mid-dodge, only for an ice pillar to suddenly ram him out of the way.
Did he do that?
Another claw struck at 'not-human', who hid Honnoji in the Pokeball a moment before, and only dodged the attack by skin of her teeth.
Then he blinked.
Next moment, the monster was right in his face, the limbs shooting out at him from all angles. This time consciously, he shot his own body through the air by a column of ice, narrowly escaping the claws, and shooting a wave of needles into the horrible creature. The attack connected, tearing the coverings in several places, something dark and wet plopping onto the floor out of the 'head'.
It did not stop the thing.
"Y̸̤̱̦̲̑O̷̭̫̳̟̳̓U̴̗͓̅ ̶̧̧̬́͛̚W̵̽ͅI̷͔̖̰͔͆̔͜L̷͓̳͑̇̉͗͝L̸̢͕͉͓͛͋ ̵̜̟͕͐̒̃͐̋B̶̧͇̳̖̬̅͗͛̎Ë̴̛͉̩̂͛ ̵̣̕T̷̘͕͇̈́́Ḩ̶̖̤͛̄́̑ͅE̸̼̺̠͌̇̅̓̽ ̴̺͓̰̺̣͑̅̏͊͒R̵̩͓͋̉͝Ė̴̥͙Ṕ̴̺̼̕͜L̷͇͇͔͍̒Ą̵͔̝̒̈́̚͝͝C̸͇̊̕E̶̲̿̿̊̾M̴̱̩̰̘̋͐́E̷̢̧͛̾́N̵̤̥̊̕͜T̴͖͊̄!̴͎̮͇̖͑͌̍ͅ"
Several of the limbs planted themselves into the ground, raising the small figure into the air - and then it ran towards Glaceon like some sort of a bug from hell.
And it. Was. FAST.
Faster than him, and by far. He launched himself with ice pillars again and again, hoping not to crash into something. The lantern was already so far, he could barely tell walls from the floor, but the creature did not care, did it? It was out for blood, HIS blood, he was going to die, and he was going to become an ugly rotting rag, and-
Suddenly, Okehazama was in the light.
He stumbled, and rolled across the floor, into the side of something big and soft. A sofa?.. Uh, where?..
He was in that room, with the big door. The big door which was now slamming shut.
What just happened?..
"THIS… Is why… I wanted to keep… The door…" 'not-human' breathed out, slowly walking to the sofa, and falling onto it face-first, "We need… Another plan…"
Honestly?.. Okehazama agreed.
