Sausage note: I hope you guys are ready for this dungeon that appeared in Super, but no one will remember, because it was completely pointless and uninteresting. XD Here's hoping I made it a bit more worthy of note, now!
On that note, feel free to look up any of the dungeons that I mention in the fic, if you get curious enough! Almost all of the ones that appear in the fic will have either appeared in their respective games, or will be from Super! Though of course, with a twist or two...!
Last time: Buneary woke up and [404 INTERESTING PLOT NOT FOUND] all morning!
Chapter Twenty-Four: The Cracks of Chaos
Buneary let out a yawn as she glanced into yet another hole larger than she was. She didn't see anything inside. Gee, this was a lot more dull than she'd expected it to be...
Huffing through her nostrils, she glanced around at the place known as Hidden Cave. It was a rather dry cavern, though it was still filled with bushes around the place, each bustling with rather large leaves.
Most notably, cracks ran along the rocky walls, the ceiling and the dry, grassy floor. Not just small ones, but humongous ones, too. A pokémon could easily squeeze into them to hide away, with lots of room to spare.
Right now, they were travelling through the depths of the first floor, peering down each crack in the ground to see if they could find one that led to the next floor. So far, they'd not had much luck.
Oh well... it could have been worse. Nothing terrible had happened to them, yet!
That thought suddenly sent a shot of anxiety through her. What awaited her in here, once they got to the tougher floors? Would the caterpie be okay? Would they find that TM? Would the gligar be too tough?
Would she even do well on her first official mission?
Well... once they found their way to the next floor, she would find out, she supposed!
Hearing Grumpig give a frustrated breath, she turned to look at her. The pig was shaking her head while looking down another of the large cracks. "Well, shame on me for thinking this would be easy," she grumbled.
"It's not so bad~" Maractus chimed, hopping out of an especially large crack in the floor.
"Yeah. At least we haven't been attacked, yet!" Buneary added cheerfully, hopping over to another hole to peer down it.
"I guess," Grumpig muttered, cracking her back. "Hey, Buneary, before joining us, you said you were in some squad or another, right?"
"Yep! The Blazing Squad!" Buneary replied cheerfully. "The leader was my cute little brother, Blazing Chimchar!"
"Wow, cool!" Maractus chimed. "Tell us your adventures!"
"Heehee, well... my brother had always wanted to be an explorer, like the ones Elder Slowking would tell us about." Buneary peered into another hole. She didn't see anything, so she moved on. "So he gathered up everyone together who seemed interested in joining a team, and made a huge one! He even convinced some friends from the neighboring towns to make a squad of their own!"
"Sounds like a pretty charismatic kid," Grumpig replied, kicking a pebble down one of the holes.
"He is! More than, uh... I am, anyway," Buneary said, trying not to grumble. Clearly, he'd gotten all the social genes in the family, while she'd gotten all the awkward ones...
"Aww, you're plenty social, too!" Maractus chimed, hopping towards her with outstretched arms.
Buneary tensed up in apprehension. She knew where this was going...!
The cactus took several more bounding hops towards her before yelping as she accidentally fell into one of the cracks. Shortly after, she let out a small grunt of pain as she presumably landed, a plume of sparkling dust shooting out the hole after.
Buneary gasped and hopped over. "Oh, Maractus! Are you alright?" she asked, peering into the hole.
She saw Maractus lying in a large pile of sparkling, yellow powder. She seemed unharmed.
"Yeah, absolutely~! I'm..." She blinked. "Wait, what did I land in?"
"Uh oh," Grumpig muttered, also looking into the crack. "Looks like emera powder."
Buneary blinked. Emera powder? That sounded familiar...
Her eyes widened. Oh, of course! The little jewels you could either shove into a looplet for benefits, or you could crack and pour the contents of over yourself to feel more powerful! Gosh, what was going to happen to Maractus, then?
"Yeah, it... it feels like it," Maractus replied. Her face strained with some unknown emotion.
"Uh... how do you feel?" Buneary asked. She did a double take when she saw Maractus' bulging arms. Huh... had she always been that muscular?
"Really... really..." Maractus started. Her face contorted into a hard, uncharacteristic glare towards no one in particular, "pissed! Why's it taking so long to get to the next floor!?" She flailed her limbs. "Argghhhh!"
Buneary jumped. "Whoa! M-Maractus!"
"Uh oh. Guess she found the emera powder that makes her testy," Grumpig said, pulling a face. "Hey, Maractus, keep your head on, won't ya?" she called down the hole.
"No, fuck my head!" Maractus retorted, aggressively pushing herself upright. She held her hands skyward as her spiky fingers and nettle-like ring on her wrist glowed a bright purple. "I just want to go dowwwn!"
Suddenly, large thorns erupted out of her arms. They, too, glowed purple, and were dripping with an obvious, viscous bubbling liquid. With a loud growl, she slammed a fist into the floor, cracking the rocky ground and spraying the poisonous liquids everywhere. Not letting up, she punched it with her other fist, cracking it further.
Buneary watched, feeling admittedly unnerved as the cactus went into a rhythm of punching the floor over and over again, making her ears and chest sway violently with each punch. She punched the floor with enough force to send rock fragments, poison and yellow powder flying with each strike. Buneary and Grumpig had to inch away to avoid getting hit by anything, due to how violent Maractus was being.
Soon after they stopped looking, there was an almighty crash. It was followed up by Maractus yelling out a scream that sounded more like a battle cry that grew quieter as it went on, until suddenly stopping with another small crash. The scared squeals of some different pokémon rang out lower down before fading.
Buneary worriedly peered down the hole, along with Grumpig. It seemed that the floor hadn't been able to take any more punishment and had nosily caved in. Maractus was lying face down on the ground a floor below, seemingly dazed. Her poison attack seemed to have faded.
"... Feel better?" Grumpig called down the hole.
Maractus dizzily got back to her feet. Well... her foot. "Yeah, I... I think so!" she called out, looking up to see them. Buneary noticed that she seemed far less muscular than before. "Uh... wait, why was I so angry, again...? I don't... I don't think I was paying much attention..."
"You were just going into a berserker rage, don't sweat it," Grumpig called back dryly.
"... Huh?"
Buneary gave a light, awkward giggle. Well... they could move forward, now, at least. Though maybe she would hold her breath as she went down...
Now deep into floor two, the trio were looking around for a way to get to the next floor, where their first objective was.
Much like the first floor, it wasn't exactly easy. Any of the huge cracks lining the ground could go to the next floor, but they wouldn't know until they investigated each one.
Buneary gazed down one hole. It had nothing. She hopped over to another hole and peered inside. It was filled with dry moss and twigs.
She tilted her head before shrugging and moving to the next one. Looking down it, she was hit in the face with a blast of hot air, knocking her back and surprising her. Wah!
Shielding her face and peering down again, she saw a pool of bubbling lava filling the bottom of it. Yeesh, definitely not that one, then! She supposed this place wasn't entirely safe from the volcanic lands outside, after all!
Moving away, she moved to another crack. She peered inside, and saw a long, purple rope, which was moving towards- Oh, sugar!
She leapt backwards just in time to avoid being bitten on the face. The ekans that had erupted out of the hole hissed aggressively at her. Her chest suggested female.
"You'll get yours, explorer!" she yelled. "Come here, so I can bite you!"
"Uh... no!" Buneary retorted. How rude!
The snake seemed thrown off by her answer. "What? No! Come here, now!" She glowered at Buneary.
A heavy shiver went down Buneary's spine. She felt her fight or flight instincts immediately kick in. J-Jeez, why was she so scary, all of a sudden?
Ughh, and her stomach... the fear was making her nauseous, for some reason. If she tried eating something, she wasn't sure if she could.
The snake's eyes suddenly glowed red. The second Buneary saw them, her entire body went stiff as stone. Gck! W-What the...!?
"Hey!" Grumpig shouted from somewhere to Buneary's left. "Cut that out!"
"Yeah, leave our Buneary alone!" Maractus added from Buneary's right, followed closely by her distinct rattles as she hopped closer.
"You'll all feel sorry!" the ekans retorted, unintimidated. "Come get bit!"
Buneary tried to wiggle free. At first, she couldn't move an inch, but then her body suddenly limbered up out of nowhere. She waved her arms about, feeling completely fine. Huh...
She looked back at the snake, and saw that she was looking back and forth between Grumpig and Maractus, preparing some sort of poisonous liquid in her mouth.
Seeing the opening, Buneary hopped forward, sending energy to her ears. "I'm still here!" she shouted, smashing her ear into the snake's face, which sent loose poison spraying.
Buneary hissed lightly as some of it hit her head and ears, sizzling when it did. Ignoring it, she repeatedly punched the snake over and over in a steady rhythm. Stunned, the ekans just stayed in place, taking it.
"Ohh, you... I'll gonna... pay you make...!" the ekans slurred, clearly dizzy.
A blast of psychic energy from the side knocked the snake out of the hole. "I'll get youuuu!" the ekans screamed out as she went sailing into another large crack, stopping with a heavy thud and some metal clatters.
Wiping the poison off her head and her ears with the fluffy tip of her ears, Buneary looked over at Grumpig. "Thanks!" she said.
"No worries," Grumpig replied. She smiled. "You did pretty neat, kid!"
"Yeah!" Maractus added cheerfully.
Buneary beamed at them in gratitude, despite the stinging in her head.
"Good job psychic's good against poison, huh?" Maractus said, hopping over towards the hole the ekans had fallen into.
"Yup," Grumpig replied.
"It is?" Buneary asked, investigating the poison she'd wiped away. Eww, it was all over her ear fluff, now... At least it hadn't poisoned her, she guessed. She wished she could say it was because of her pecha looplet, but...
Actually, her stomach felt a lot better, too, now that the ekans had gone. She wasn't anywhere near as frightened, either.
"Yeah," Grumpig answered her. "Psychic energy deflects poison for some reason." She waved her hand while emitting psychic waves. The poison on Buneary's ear fluff was repelled away, much to her delight. "Not so great when you're made up of poison energy, eh?"
"Guess so!" Buneary replied. How nifty! She wasn't sure if it would ever come in handy, but she took a mental note.
Maractus suddenly flung her arms up in celebration and shook her hips to her distinct rattles. "Woohoo! There's loads of money in here~!" she cheered while peering into the hole. She hopped inside. "Move over, lady!"
"Explorers... bite... Shit..." the snake murmured, sounding very much out of it.
As the distinct sound of pokécoins jingling rang out, Buneary murmured in thought. "What was that move she used with her eyes?" she asked.
"Looked like Glare," Grumpig said. "It's supposed to freeze you in place for a bit, and leave you paralyzed." She looked Buneary up and down in intrigue with a hand on her hip. "Huh. You don't look paralyzed, though."
"I don't feel it, either," Buneary replied. "Did she miss?"
"Didn't look like it... but hey, can't complain. Saves us some cheri berries."
Buneary shrugged and nodded. "Yeah!"
She must have been lucky!
Buneary and the girls continued looking throughout the floor for a way to the next one. At the same time, Grumpig and Maractus were keeping an eye on their badges, just in case one of their objectives came up.
They had to look for Cabbage Caterpie... a TM of Play Rough... and the hooligan known as Arms Gligar. With the way the dungeon was structured, it was likely they'd be hiding out in a crack or a bush somewhere, which meant more searching...
As the trio turned a corner, Buneary let out a breath through her nose, wondering if there was anything to say to liven up the journey. Maybe she could tell them about one of her old squad's adventures?
While thinking it over, she glanced around. The wide tunnel they were in was filled with wide cracks, like the rest of the- Wah!
She ducked to the side, but was still hit in the bosom by a sudden energy attack that flew out of the hole in the wall. Her chest jiggled as the ball of purple energy bounced off to explode against another wall, stinging harshly. Ouch!
Holding her sore bosom, she peeked into the hole. She saw what seemed like an angry braixen deep inside, based on what she remembered reading about them. He had a soft, yet masculine face, so Buneary could tell it was a guy.
"Oh, that sneaky stinker," Grumpig huffed, running up to the hole. The gem on her forehead glowed before she used it to fire a stream of bright energy filled with dazzling circles into the hole.
The braixen's fur suddenly turned reflective, like a mirror. Grumpig's Psybeam immediately bounced off the fox and headed back at her.
Buneary squeaked and hopped away. Murmuring in surprise, Grumpig made a motion to block. Her own attack hit her in the arms, making her cry out. She was sent stumbling backwards, where she fell into one of the cracks to a loud squelching sound. "Ughh, shit," she cried out, sounding disgusted. Buneary hoped she wasn't being literal in some way.
"Uh oh!" Maractus cried out, looking at the hole the pig had fallen into in shock. As their attacker leapt out of the hole he'd been hiding in, she looked back at him with a frown. "Hey, what's the big idea, meanie?"
Frowning back, the braixen didn't respond and simply held his stick in front of himself aggressively.
Buneary stayed on alert, not quite sure what was going to happen. Maractus gasped, though.
"Buneary, he's gonna Fire Pledge the place!" she called out, waving to grab her attention. "Watch out for the floor!"
Eyes widening, Buneary frantically looked around. Sure enough, the floor seemed to be glowing in several places with a red hot energy.
Seconds later, a pillar of flames erupted out from underneath those spots, surprising her. The flames continued to spew as more spots on the ground began to glow.
Noticing she was standing on one of those spots - which was growing increasingly warm under her feet - she hopped out of the way with seconds to spare before more flames shot forth.
The air felt steaming hot as the amount of safe places to stand in the tunnel were slowly filled with flaming pillars which wouldn't go away. A lot of the bushes in the area were beginning to catch fire, too. Buneary started to feel the pressure. If the braixen conjured any more, things weren't going to go well!
Maractus didn't seem to mind, though. She was hopping around the fire pillars to the rhythm of her distinct rattles without a care in the world. She was twisting and turning like she was in a dance as her arms, her ears and large bosom swayed to the beat.
Inching towards the braixen with each hop, she readied her hands with poisonous thorns. They didn't seem as long and pointed as before, nor did they seem to be leaking quite as much poison. All the same, they seemed terrible to be hit by!
The braixen glowered at her and brought another stick out of his poofy tail. This one was a deep shade of blue, and had several branches that curved forwards into U shapes. A wand, it seemed.
Maractus twisted around with a large leap to plant her feet against the wall. She pushed off and lunged at the fox, poisonous fists first.
"No," he stated simply and firmly, bringing his wand toward her. He fired a beam of blue energy filled with small, white circles etched with numbers and black lines.
With a twist, she barely dodged out of the way. It looked really cool, until her large chest tagged it. The energy immediately enveloped her.
"Oh! Whoooooopppppsssss," she cried out, her voice going incredibly slow and drawn out.
In fact, it wasn't just that. She was now flying through the air at the speed of a slow shellos.
The braixen huffed and brought out his original stick, aiming it in Maractus' direction.
Buneary frowned. Oh no he didn't! She brought her paws together and fired some small stars from them, using Swift.
They flew through the air, past the many fiery pillars, and struck the braixen in the shoulder. He cried out in pain, staggering slightly from the impact. He turned his glare her way.
She took a stance, ready for whatever he had planned. She expected more flame pillars underfoot, but was surprised to notice a dome of purple discs form above her. Huh?
The discs formed into balls of glowing energy and rapidly rammed into her, one after the other. She screamed at the pain. It was like being punched over and over again!
She felt her nerves start to flare, but tried to quash them. No! She wasn't... going to let... Run Away kick in!
An especially sturdy knock to the side pushed her into a flame pillar. She screamed again as the jet of flames burned her badly and launched her into the air.
Even as she left the fire, she felt a sharp pain all over, and her entire body felt red raw. Y-Yowch...
Still in the air, she saw the braixen - likely thinking that Buneary had been dealt with - haughtily turn his attention back to Maractus, who was currently getting back to her feet from her prior attack. She was still extremely sluggish, though.
Buneary gritted her teeth. That braixen was wrong. She wasn't finished yet...!
She conjured a Bounce in her feet and used the flying-type energy to push herself forwards. Going through the air, she twisted around to go feet first.
He turned in time to get smashed in the face by her flying-powered feet. A soreness ripped through her soles on impact, but she ignored it to flip around and land on her feet.
The braixen stumbled backwards towards one of the giant cracks, gripping the spot she'd hit. Stopping before he could fall in, he shook off the pain and aimed his wand her way.
Without warning, Grumpig - who was covered in a mysterious purple gloop from head to toe - lunged out of the nearby hole and smashed a glowing green fist into the braixen's back. Orbs of energy traveled from the point of impact, all the way up Grumpig's arm, where it was absorbed by her.
"Gck...! Bitch!" the braixen shouted, ineffectively trying to smack her with the wand from an awkward angle. He managed to stumble backwards towards one of the large pillars of fire, catching Grumpig's back with the flames.
She didn't even flinch. Instead, she punched him again, draining his energy and sending him stumbling forwards. Twisting around, he immediately fired the wand at her.
"L-Look out!" Buneary called out.
Grumpig smirked and spread her arms wide. The blue beam with numbered circles hit her... and bounced right back, as colorful sparkles came off her slimy body.
The braixen barely had time to yell before he was hit by his own attack. His movements became extremely sluggish, as if he were wading through syrup.
Buneary beamed. Wow, what a counter!
"Consider that revenge for the Mirror Coat, pal," Grumpig retorted, reaching forward with her glowing hand.
An aura of psychic energy wrapped itself around the braixen's wand. His other hand very slowly reached for it, his fingers wrapping around empty air as Grumpig yanked it away from him.
Maractus leapt up from behind the fox - albeit just as sluggishly - and slammed her poison leaking fists into his back, leaving visible purple marks.
The fox stumbled forwards in slow motion, his screams slow and drawn out. He slowly tumbled into a large crack, soon falling out of view.
The flame pillars he'd created earlier all fizzled out at once, leaving only a smoldering burnt patch where they'd once burned. Thank legends...
"Phew..." Grumpig muttered. She looked at Buneary and Maractus. "Everyone alright?"
Buneary looked over the red raw marks covering her while wincing in pain. "I got burned pretty badly..." she muttered.
"IIIII'm stilllll sloowwwwww...!" Maractus said, her words coming out of her mouth at half the speed.
"Ugh. Damn it," Grumpig said, looking over the gloop covering her with a disgusted expression. "And I'm covered in filth. Just perfect."
"Are you sure this was an E-rank mission?" Buneary said with a grimace.
"It was supposed to be." Grumpig shrugged. "It's only a prediction, though, based on the location and how tough the pokémon usually are in the area. Sometimes, pokémon will come in from elsewhere, just to spice things up. Or something strange will happen, like the chinchou incident from yester-"
A loud sudden hissing sound cut her off. Buneary looked around to see what was causing it, until she realized it was coming from the hole the braixen was inside.
Tilting her head, she hopped over to it. Grumpig and Maractus followed, the latter at a slow pace.
Peering inside, Buneary saw the fox lying on top of a pile of bulky-looking blast seeds. They were letting out sparks, and the red parts of them were flashing rapidly as he watched on in horror.
"Oh, sugar!" Buneary shouted in shock, her heart dropping at the sight.
"Uhhhh ohhh...!" Maractus shouted, turning and hopping away for cover. Her slow speed made her escape ineffective, however.
"Yeah, time to go!" Grumpig shouted, grabbing Maractus's arm and running, dragging her along.
Buneary joined them and hopped away for dear life. The whole group leapt into a large crack in the wall just as an explosion filled the hall they'd been in just a second ago.
Buneary shuddered. Holy moly, this dungeon wasn't boring anymore!
She looked at the others. Grumpig was looking rather perturbed, but relieved. Maractus seemed the same as her, but in slow motion. Buneary really didn't blame them!
After a short while, the girls left the hole and were met with the sight of a humongous, scorched hole which had been blown into the rock. It was so deep that it even led down to the next floor.
Embedded in the ceiling above was the unconscious body of the braixen, so charred that he resembled some horribly burnt toast.
"Welp... guess something good came from this, after all, eh?" Grumpig joked.
"Y-Yeah..." Buneary said, eyeing up the scene in horror. For sure, she had to make sure not to go into any of these cracks indiscriminately. Not if this was on the table!
"Leeetttt'ssss gooooooo~!" Maractus chimed, sluggishly diving into the huge hole with a super slow twirl. Her chest contorted in some very interesting, yet strange ways as she fell.
Buneary let out a breath. Hopefully, it was all up from here...
Crouching, Buneary peered into one of the many thick bushes that was in the room, hoping to find Caterpie, or maybe even the TM. According to the currently flashing badges, one of them was around here in this room somewhere!
She looked at the others. Grumpig was peering down a hole contemplatively, while Maractus - who had thankfully regained her speed - was fighting off a hoard of budews that had emerged from one of the holes. She was having so little trouble that Buneary and Grumpig were just leaving her to it.
The rabbit got to her feet, wincing lightly from her burns. Ugh... Grumpig had offered to heal them, but the grime she'd fallen into earlier had turned her rawst berries grimy and rotten. If the rabbit ate them, she would surely get sick.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Buneary's heal seed wasn't in her bag anymore, either. According to Grumpig, she'd likely had it stolen when she'd been hit by the braixen's Fire Pledge, because of his ability, Magician. Darn it!
Apparently, although treasure bags were mostly indestructible for magical reasons, their contents inside could be affected by things like Bug Bite, or Incinerate, or slime from a grimy trap. Why had their items been messed with not once, but twice!? And when she desperately needed healing, too, of all times!? Ughh...
She peered into another bush. Well, at least the grime that Grumpig had fallen into hadn't gotten all the berries. Only the important ones that were needed, because of course...
A load of string shot out of the bush and hit her in the face out of nowhere, surprising her. What the-!?
"Back! B-Back! I'm warning ya!" a scared-sounding voice cried.
Buneary hopped backwards and tenderly - because of her burns - scraped the sticky goo off her face. It refused to come off entirely. Ick...!
Getting it out of her eyes, she looked at her attacker, who was poking out of the foliage, and saw... a caterpie? Aha!
"H-Hey! Don't worry, we're here to help!" Buneary quickly said.
"Help? What? What do you mean?" the caterpie asked, faltering from his battle stance. "This... better not be some kind of trick!"
"Cool it, kid. We're explorers," Grumpig said, coming closer. "We're here to help you."
His eyes widened. "E-Explorers? Really?"
"That's riiight~" Maractus sang from a distance away, holding her arms in front of herself to block a budew's attacks. The needles on her arms were tremendously thick and greatly extended, blocking all of the much smaller plant's attacks. "You're Cabbage Caterpie, right?" The needles on her arms rocketed outwards, bombarding the area with needles and stabbing the budews attacking her.
The caterpillar beamed brightly. "Th-That's right! Oh, thank legends!" He leapt forwards and hugged Buneary for dear life, making her yelp. "You found me! I'm so happy, thank you! I only wanted to find the rumored golden cabbage, but it was so scary in here! I give up!"
"Th-That's okay!" Buneary replied awkwardly, wincing from him agitating her burns.
"Yeah. No need to worry anymore," Grumpig added. She pulled something out of her bag. It looked like an escape orb. "Here, take this and teleport out to safety. Saves you from any more hassle."
"Sure, sure!" Caterpie said, letting go of Buneary and grabbing the orb as it was thrown his way. He stalled. "Uh... where do I take the reward?"
"Either drop it off at the Donphan Guild, have it mailed to us at a Pelipper Post Office, or drop it by a Café Connection place. It'll find its way to us, don't you worry."
"Oh, okay! Thanks again!"
Buneary instinctively hopped backwards a few steps as the caterpillar held the orb high. The orb shattered and a dark void slowly erupted outwards, engulfing Caterpie. After growing even bigger, the void rapidly shrank into a small speck of light, which flew upwards, presumably towards the surface.
"Woo! One down~!" Maractus chimed, hopping over while brushing stray Razor Leaves and Poison Sting needles off herself.
"Yep," Grumpig replied, smiling.
"Yay!" Buneary cheered. She blinked. "Um... where are we going to find the TM, though?"
"Dunno, but the badge'll tell us." She wiped some purple gloop out of her eyes with a huff as it dribbled down her head. "Items get replenished a load in dungeons, so there's bound to be one somewhere. We just have to hope we won't have to go down too far for it..."
"Yeah..." Buneary mumbled, wincing as she tore more string off her tender face. She hoped so, for their sake. These first few floors had been harrowing, to say the least!
The group had managed to find another crack in the earth that led to the next floor. So, now on floor four, they were looking all around for a Play Rough TM. The badges were once again reacting, so there had to be something here!
The three girls were peering into the cracks on the floor and walls, and peeking into bushes whenever they could. It was tiresome, though. Buneary really wished that she could have a badge of her very own, already. It apparently flashed faster the closer you were to your objective, so it would've sure made things easier...
Oh well, maybe she'd be given one, tonight!
She noticed a couple of bushes with a crack hidden between them. She moved over and parted the bushes to peer inside.
... Meh. Nothing but water. Though maybe she could soothe her burns with it!
It was a fair drop, though. How would she...?
"Ahaaaa!" a voice cried out.
Something fell onto Buneary's head, giving her a hard knock. She squealed at the strange, hard to describe 'nibbling' feeling it produced, like some kind of bug-type attack.
The pokémon that had hit her leapt off to land in front of her. A surskit. "What do you think you're doing, trying to barge in on my home?" he demanded, sounding boyish.
Buneary rubbed her aching head with both paws. "W-What?" She quickly glanced upwards and saw a gaping crack in the ceiling, where the bug had apparently come from. "But... why were you in the ceiling if you live here?"
He slid to and fro on the floor, as if it were made of ice. "Don't question it, whore! I'm gonna kick your ass!"
Buneary frowned. "Hey! That's so rude!" she complained, taking on a fighting pose. This wasn't going to end peacefully, she could tell...
The surskit inhaled and fired a thick stream of water at her. She hopped out of the way, but was surprised by how heavy her body felt. Her arm was harshly hit by the water, pushing it back from the force.
Imbalanced, she fell on her already sore back. Ow...
She quickly looked herself over. She didn't notice anything out of the ordinary - aside from the red marks dotted across her body - but she felt a heavy weight on her head. Like something was there.
She didn't have time to investigate, because the surskit was sliding around her at a super fast speed that reminded the rabbit of Sneasel's Quick Attack.
Buneary hopped to her feet and used Bounce to leap high in the air, avoiding a sudden ram.
She expected to go higher, but her momentum slowed much quicker than expected, sending her falling. She squealed as she fell into one of the giant cracks.
After a short fall, she harshly hit the floor. It clicked under her. Uh oh!
She briefly saw a picture of a chespin under her, which had chestnuts falling onto it. Not even a second passed before a load of spiky chestnuts fell onto her head from nowhere. She gripped her sore head. "Ow, ow, ow...!" she whimpered.
She heard the surskit's voice call down after her. "That's what you get, you dumb broa-! Oh, shit!"
She looked up in time to see him dash away. Some large gems flew through the air after him and shattered noisily.
"What, I thought you wanted a fight?" Grumpig called after him, followed by some heavy footfalls. "Oi! Don't you-!"
Maractus cried out loudly. Some more commotion followed, after.
Buneary let out a breath and got to her feet. She accidentally stepped on a chestnut and squealed again. Ow...! Not on her already burnt feet...!
Nudging it aside, she hopped out of the hole with Bounce. She saw the surskit sliding around the rocky floor rather quickly, while the others threw attacks at him. Because of Quick Attack, he was dodging everything thrown his way.
Buneary suddenly noticed some weird, heavy-looking figure stuck to Maractus' chest, which almost looked like some sort of discarded bug skin. It was in the same shape as the surskit.
The rabbit blinked. She felt at her own head. She felt a similar shape sticking to her, its flaky skin crumbling lightly at the touch.
She frowned. Ugh! As if her burns weren't making things annoying enough already!
She held a paw out and focused on an attack. She wasn't entirely sure how to do those 'powered' moves yet, but maybe this would do it?
She felt normal-type energy rush into the tip of her paw. She held onto it with her other paw to keep it steady as she focused.
The surskit suddenly rushed up a wall and jumped off. He fell towards Grumpig while wrapped in a ball of bright, lime-green energy waves.
"He's using Lunge at'cha!" Maractus cried out.
Grumpig's fist glowed green. "Try it!" she retorted.
As the bug drew near, she threw a Drain Punch. The bug landed against her fist with his feet, both attacks cancelling each other out. He slid down her arm, undeterred by the gunk coating her.
Grunting in surprise, she swung her other arm, knocking the bug off. He landed and immediately used Lunge again, diving into Grumpig's belly while wrapped in energy.
She yelled out in pain and stumbled backwards as he bounced off, leaving a glowing imprint of his green aura on her.
She began flinching and writhing lightly, as if she was in extreme discomfort.
Seeing that was all the motivation Buneary needed. Feeling that her move was full of charged energy, she finally fired a large star out of her paw. Spinning rapidly, it flew quickly through the air, gliding directly in the surskit's direction.
He seemed to notice it and dodged, but the star curved upwards to redirect itself in his direction. It followed him incessantly as he ran for dear life.
A cheerful feeling bubbled in Buneary's chest at the sight. Had that counted as a powered move? Was it just as simple as charging one's move for long enough?
Though... Yamask had managed to use one far faster than she'd done, and she still remembered when she'd flung out a Dizzy Punch projectile pretty much instantly. Clearly, she had to practice until she could use them better and faster!
Oh well. Following up on her attack, Buneary crossed her arms as she charged some normal-type energy in them. She flung her arms outwards, sending much smaller Swift stars flying out at super fast speeds.
They didn't home in on the surskit, but there were so many of them that he got hit by a couple, making him stagger. The large star caught up and rammed into him, sawing at him with its spinning motion and making him yell.
"Oh, I hate whooores!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, stopping when a large Power Gem crushed him and shattered. He lay amongst the glassy rubble, unmoving.
Buneary let out a breath. Thank goodness for that...
"Phew... what a pest," Grumpig muttered, scratching at the surskit's imprint on her belly, which glowed a strong light-green. "Ugh, man that itches..."
"Good going!" Maractus praised. She eyed up the surskit-shaped block hanging off her chest with a wince. It was making her right breast sag greatly, making her whole bosom look lopsided. "Ugh! When I saw that he was using 'Pounce' on me, I didn't think it would be some sort of weird bug move!" she complained, scratching at the skin around it.
Buneary pulled a face. So Pounce left those surskit-shaped weights, and Lunge left some weird glowing imprint? Gosh, she was going to have trouble remembering that, because of how similar the move names sounded, but she'd try her best. Especially if she had to fight against it again, some day!
"Man, we've really gotta work on our strategies for bug-types," Grumpig remarked, crossing her arms. "They'd be a lot easier to deal with if we weren't both weak to their attacks."
"Yeah..." Maractus sighed.
"Oh, it's super effective against you?" Buneary asked. "Why's that?"
Maractus grunted as she tried to tear the Pounce weight off her with little success. "Y'know how bug moves usually feel like tiny nibbles on the skin? Well it really hurts my grassy skin, and sucks hard!"
"Yeah, and it does weird things with my mind, so I can't use psychic moves as effectively for a bit." Grumpig added. "Makes it feel like stuff's crawling all over my skin."
"Yeesh..." Buneary replied, cringing. "And the worst I have to worry about is fighting-type moves..."
"How does that feel?" Grumpig asked. "My psychic energy dulls the fighting aura, so it doesn't hurt much."
"It's really fierce when it hits me, so I get knocked back a load." She knew all about it, no thanks to her brother's typing. Or at least, the type he was going to be. Helping to train his fighting moves had been tough! Especially since he'd been strong to begin with!
"Huh, damn. Guess we'd better make sure you don't get caught out by one, then."
"Yeah! Don't worry, Buneary!" Maractus chimed. She shook her body to and fro, making her bosom heavily sway, no thanks to the partially torn weight attached to it. "When I'm around, fighting-types never even want to touch me!"
"I wonder why, Miss Prickles," Grumpig chuckled. "Anyway, as enlightening as this is, let's get finding that TM."
"Okie dokes~!" Maractus sang, hopping to a random crack in the floor.
Buneary nodded. "Okay~" she replied. She began hopping to a random hole, but stopped when she felt herself struggling to move from the weight on her head. Oh yeah, that reminded her... she'd wanted to hop into the water and soothe her burns, right?
She looked around. Uh... which one had it been, again? in the confusion of the fight, she'd lost track.
She searched around in the general area she remembered finding the water. On finding the bushes she remembered it being hidden by, she peeked inside and found the correct crack. It had a whole load of water at the bottom in a small pool.
Beaming, she leapt inside. She fell into the pool with a splash and quickly resurfaced to tread water. Ohh, the cool water was so good...! Normally, she'd hate it being so cold, but it immediately soothed all of the burns on her body. She could feel them fade away into nothing.
Her eyes widened when she suddenly noticed a ledge next to the water. Sitting on it a little further in was a pretty pink disc. Oho, what was this?
With a little difficulty because of the weight on her head, she pulled herself out of the water and investigated the disc. On the front, it read 'Play Rough'. Bingo!
She was about to call to the others, but stopped when she noticed a small tunnel leading somewhere lower in the cave. It seemed big enough to fit all three of them, though only if the others crouched.
"Hey, everyone, I found the TM!" she called out, picking it up. "And I found a tunnel, too!"
"Oh, nice one, kid!" Grumpig called out. Seconds later, she hopped down the large hole to join Buneary on the ledge. Her eyes widened when she saw the tunnel. "Oh, hell, that's a bit small, isn't it?"
Maractus fell into the hole beside them, also landing on the ledge. After glancing at the hole, she giggled. "It's not that small," she said.
"Yeah it is, I'll need to suck in my gut for that one."
Maractus grinned cheekily. "Maybe it's a sign that you've gotta eat less, huh?"
Grumpig huffed in bemusement. "Oi." She gathered some of the stinky grime that was covering her on her finger and flicked it at Maractus, making her squeal.
"Um... we can make it, I'm sure!" Buneary said, hoping that they'd go for her positivity.
"Alright... well, I'll do my best," Grumpig relented.
"That's the spirit!" Maractus chimed.
Buneary smiled. Yay!
Maractus suddenly frowned scoldingly at Grumpig. "Before we go through any tunnels, though, you get that stinky gunk off, missy!" she said, pointing towards the pool of water beside them.
Grumpig clicked her tongue. "Yes, Mom," she replied dryly.
Buneary giggled. Well, she wasn't complaining. Just seeing Grumpig being covered in that grime was enough to put her on edge, so she couldn't even imagine how she would've coped if she'd been covered, herself...
Walking through the tunnel, Buneary turned back to look at the others. Maractus wasn't having too much trouble wiggling through the tunnel - despite her huge chest - but Grumpig was grunting a lot from exertion.
Buneary's stomach grumbled suddenly. Oof... all the adventuring and battling really took it out of a girl.
"Hungry~?" Maractus asked with a teasing giggle. Her own stomach rumbled immediately after. "... Huh."
Buneary laughed. "Um... I guess we all are," she said.
"Not me...!" Grumpig replied with a grunt. "Not even... peckish, yet."
"Oh, well, that's because of your stamina band!" Maractus replied. "If you didn't have that, you'd be begging for apples right now~"
Grumpig clicked her tongue. "I'm not taking this... from the girl who was covered in cake crumbs... this morning."
Maractus giggled sheepishly. "I can't sleep when I'm hungry..."
"So you eat something sugary. Aye ai ai..."
Buneary giggled. "So, uh... the stamina band makes you less hungry, huh?" she asked.
"That's right. That includes stuff that... incites hunger, like traps and orbs and... the like."
"How handy!" Buneary replied with only a twinge of jealousy. "Oh, what does the detect band do, though?"
"It lets me see what moves people are going to use, and where!" Maractus explained.
"Ohh, okay! So that's how you knew that braixen was going to use Fire Pledge!"
"Eeeyup!"
"That's real handy, too!" Buneary replied with an even bigger twinge of jealousy. And here she was with a looplet she couldn't even use...
Well, at least it was pretty, she... guessed? Huh, as if on cue, she spotted an emera lodged into the wall. It sparkled with a red light, which shone from within.
She tugged on the small, glassy, egg-shaped object until it came out of the wall. She admired its dazzling beauty.
Well, cool. She threw it into her bag and carried on walking. After some steps, she contemplatively glanced at her pecha looplet.
... Oh, what the heck. Shrugging, she took the emera back out of her bag and shoved it into a slot on her looplet. It easily slid into the indent with a click despite a slight size-difference, and flashed briefly before settling.
... As expected, she didn't feel any different. She didn't even know what this thing did. Oh well.
She continued onwards through the tunnel, hoping that they would stop to have a bite to eat once they got out.
Now on floor four, the girls were strolling around, looking for the gligar. The note had said that he was likely to be on one of these floors, as he'd been causing lots of mischief around the place, lately. If he wasn't on this floor, then perhaps it would be one of the following ones.
Buneary and Maractus had taken the time to get some apples out of their bags and eat them while they walked and hopped along. Grumpig hadn't bothered, still staying fine because of her stamina band.
Buneary blinked as she realized something. "... Hey, if we'd already had a Play Rough TM, would the client still want us to come here?" she asked.
"What'cha mean, Buneary?" Maractus asked, taking another bite of her apple and getting juices all over her face.
"Well, the note asked us to come here, didn't it?"
"Not really," Grumpig replied. "Missions like this tell us places we're likely to find them... but if we already had one, it'd be an easy win for us, eh?"
"Ohh, okay!" To be fair, she hadn't read the note properly herself, so...
"Oh!" Maractus suddenly piped up. "He's here, somewhere!"
Buneary whipped her head in the cactus' direction and saw her indicating towards the badge pinned against her bag. The button in the middle was pulsing slowly.
"Ah, good. Saves us yet even more searching," Grumpig said, sounding pleased. "Now, watch out for this guy. The note said that he's been acting like a pest ever since he watched Forest of the Bandits, so he'll probably act like that rabble rouser did."
"Who? Sand Devil Gligar?" Maractus asked.
"You got it. That said, this guy's only worth three stars, which is equivalent to a D-rank. So I doubt he's anywhere near as tough."
"Thank Arceus for that! I don't wanna end up dead~"
"Um... okay," Buneary replied, not liking the sound of that. She didn't know what a rabble rouser was... and she'd never even seen that 'Forest of the Bandits' story... though a 'sand devil' did sound scary! But she didn't know what 'Arms Gligar' had to do with any of that, title-wise...
She considered asking more about things... but darn it, what if she wanted to read this story for herself, one day? Or 'watch' it? She didn't want to spoil herself! Oh, darn it all...
She let out a breath and mentally shrugged. She was sure it would be fine, as long as her teammates were here!
After several minutes had passed, the team were travelling down a narrow tunnel. The floor, for once, was fairly crack free, but they kept looking through the holes in the walls and ceiling as they travelled, hoping to see the gligar.
Buneary had to admit... she was a little worried. They weren't quite at full strength. She and Maractus were still weighed down by the Pounce weights attached to them, Grumpig was still affected by the Lunge mark on her, and Buneary's aches and pains had only continued to build up during the adventure. Would they be okay...?
Well... there was only one way to find out, she supposed.
Still walking along, she looked through one crack. It had some grimy food, covered in the same slime Grumpig had been covered in, earlier. Ick... no thanks. A short while earlier, Grumpig had explained that eating that stuff would make one more than sick. It could even poison, burn or paralyze people, and perhaps more, too! Not exactly her idea of an exotic meal.
She looked through a crack in the low-hanging ceiling. It seemed to lead to some big empty room.
She looked through a different crack in the wall. It... Huh?
Her rolled ear sprang up and she looked back at the hole in the ceiling she'd passed. Oh? Had she heard something?
A sharp, piercing sound made her jump. Eep!
The others also murmured in surprise. "Whoa! What was that?" Maractus asked.
"Our badges are flashing at a rapid pace, so I think I know what," Grumpig replied.
"It came from in there!" Buneary replied, pointing at the hole.
"Right. Let's go!"
Buneary leapt high into the air, through the crack in the ceiling. She heard Maractus and Grumpig follow her, with a grunt of exertion from the latter.
She found herself in a dome-shaped room with a flat floor, filled with yet even more cracks all over. Off to the side, she saw a purple scorpion-like bat donned in a spiky glider, hovering in the air over an illumise, who was gripping her arm in pain.
The gligar, she presumed, was wearing a large belt equipped with a bag, some wands and lots of sharp-looking bladed objects. He was also wearing a bright yellow bandanna across his head, patterned with gray, spring-like swirls.
Alarmingly, the man was brandishing two objects Buneary didn't recognize in his pincers, and was waving them around threateningly at the illumise. Were they some kind of wand?
"How's about it, lady? Want a matching one on your other arm?" Arms Gligar announced in a rough, haughty voice. "I wanna test this new toy out all day, so it's fine by me either way!"
"What's your deal, you mean jerk!?" the illumise shouted, growling at him.
"I thought you wildies liked fighting us townsfolk!" He aimed one of his weird objects again. "Alright, well, that's all I needed to hear, anyway! Where's that other arm?"
"Oh my legends, he even has the damn revolvers..." Grumpig muttered. Glancing at her, Buneary saw her burying her face into her palms. "His role-playing's authentic, if nothing else..."
"No kidding," Maractus replied, light amusement in her voice. "Didn't cover his eyes, though~"
Buneary blinked. "Re...volver?" she asked, utterly confused. Was that some sort of spin trap, or...?
"You'll figure it out soon, I'm sure. Unfortunately..." Grumpig griped.
Maractus nodded. She let out a breath and frowned at the scorpion. "Hey! Leave that poor girl alone, cowboy guy!" she shouted.
Gligar turned his attention their way. "Oho? What's this? Do you girls want a bit of this, too?" he asked mockingly.
"No, just drop the guns, so we can avoid a headache," Grumpig called out to him. "Where'd you even get them from? I thought those were fictional."
The gligar laughed and aimed one of the 'revolvers' their way. "Oh, these? I found 'em in the Prehistoric Ruins! They go great with a coolass gligar like me, wouldn't you agree?"
"No, you dick!" the illumise shouted, rapidly fluttering her wings. A forceful gale blew forth from them, coated in hundreds of sharp, silver scales.
Gligar yelped and covered his face. The scales cut into his rough skin and left small bruises. "Agh! Son of a-" he yelled, stretching out his tail. It appeared to become longer and bladed as he spun around and swiped at her with it, trailing poison.
It smashed into her at full force, making her scream as it sent her tumbling back. Gligar immediately aimed one of his revolvers at her and pulled on a small lever.
The same loud piercing sound Buneary had heard earlier rang out, making her flinch. A second later, the illumise was knocked back even further with a scream, flying into one of the cracks. Only groaning followed.
"O-Oh no!" Buneary cried out. That poor woman!
"Hoo boy..." Grumpig muttered, taking on a battle ready stance. "He's gonna fire bullets from those things, so watch out."
"G-Got'cha!" Buneary replied, taking on her own pose. Jeez, that was some wand! If one of them were aimed her way, she would have to get ready to dodge these so called 'bullets'!
"Charrrge~!" Maractus sang, hopping closer while holding her hands together. They appeared to form together, producing a shield of long, thick spikes in front of herself.
"Ohhh no, ya don't!" Gligar shouted, aiming for her with his revolvers. He fired a couple of times with them.
Maractus moved her shield to block the bullets effortlessly. They ricocheted off into the walls, and kept bouncing afterwards.
Buneary hopped to one foot as a bullet hit the rocky floor by her feet. "Eep! Are they supposed to bounce so much!?" she yelped.
"I think it's that bounce band he's wearing," Grumpig said. She sighed and put a finger to one of the gems on her head, willing it to glow. "Guess it affects guns, too."
Buneary watched as a gem erupted outwards from the rocky floor, near Gligar. It aimed a pointed end at him and fired a pretty, sparkling laser.
It hit the man in the back, making him cry out in pain and turn to shoot at it. Maractus took the moment of confusion to close the gap, dispelling her Spiky Shield and producing large, poison dripping thorns from her arm. She rammed it into him as hard as she could, sending him tumbling away with a loud shout.
He crashed against the wall, nearly tumbling into one of the cracks as he did. He groaned and pushed off it to fly much higher into the air. "You... think that'll stop me?" he said with a growl, aiming with his revolvers again. He seemed to be having trouble deciding where to aim, though.
"Hey, girls, he likes shooting, right?" Grumpig said. She polished the gem on her belly. "Well then, let's shoot back!"
"Yeah~!" Maractus replied, drawing green energy from the land around her to form a blobby Energy Ball in her hand.
"Right!" Buneary added, forming a Swift star in her paws.
Gligar audibly clicked his tongue. "You call that shooting? Laughable!" he mocked, flying even higher. "You hear me? Laugh! A! Ble!"
"Let's see you laughing at this, then!" Grumpig retorted, firing a big ring-filled, purple beam of energy from her belly's gem. Maractus followed up by flinging her watery ball of pure energy at the scorpion, while Buneary threw a large, spinning star.
All projectiles flew in Gligar's direction, too large and numerous to be dodged. The scorpion flew into one of the cracks adorning the ceiling, disappearing from view. A few seconds later, the projectiles flew right in after him, causing a huge explosion that rocked the cavern.
"Woo~! That was easy!" Maractus chimed.
Grumpig huffed in satisfaction. "Yeah. Went way better than it did in the movie," she joked.
Buneary beamed. "Hooray~!" she sang. They'd done it! Gosh, all the missions had gone so well!
... Wait... She heard something in the floor. Like, a sort of... drilling noise?
Her eyes widened. "W-Wait, wait, I don't think-!" she stammered.
Gligar burst out of the floor with a flourish. He had his guns pointed right at Maractus' head.
"Only guns win, bitch!" he taunted, pulling both levers.
"Wha-!?" Maractus shouted.
The revolvers fired. The bullets went right into Maractus's head. She fell to the floor, hitting it with a loud thump.
Buneary gasped. "M-Maractus!" she called out.
The gligar laughed and blew the smoke away from the tips of his revolvers. "That's what you get, girl!" he gloated.
Buneary stared in shock at the fallen cactus. Even Grumpig was staring in worry.
Maractus suddenly groaned and sat up, rubbing her bruised head. "Owwww...! Man, that really stung!" she complained loudly. She frowned at the scorpion. "Ohh, you're lucky I have this thing on my tits weighing me down, buster!" She patted the surskit-shaped block that was still on her chest, making her bosom bounce. "I'll dodge next time, though!"
Gligar recoiled in surprise. "Oh, come on! You didn't even faint!?" he shouted.
"Hell no! Not to your little Bullet Seeds!" she replied.
Buneary and Grumpig let out a breath.
"Thought so. They're not quite as lethal in real life," Grumpig said.
"That's... good?" Buneary said. Well, that was good to know, she guessed. Still, it looked like a direct shot would hurt!
Still, now that they knew he had Dig, he wouldn't be surprising them like that again!
All the needles on Maractus' body suddenly started to glow and grow. "See how you like it!" she cried, spreading her arms.
Her needles erupted out of her body. The scorpion barely had time to turn around before being sprayed with them. They coated his back and made him yell out in pain.
"Son of a-!" he screeched. He winced harshly as the needles didn't fall out, and stayed stuck in him. "Fuck!"
Buneary decided to take the initiative and throw a Swift star at him. It missed as the scorpion unintentionally dodged while flying away for cover. He flipped around and fired a shot.
Buneary yelped and hopped backwards. The bullet hit the floor where she'd been, but bounced off and hit her in the side. Yowch!
She groaned in pain and massaged her stinging side. Man, those things really did pack a punch! She was lucky he'd whiffed it!
The scorpion dodged a Psybeam laser from Grumpig and lined up for another shot. A resounding click rang out from both guns repeatedly.
Grumpig chuckled, relaxing her posture. "What's the matter? Did you expend your ammo already?"
The gligar clicked his guns even more times, growing more frustrated as he did. "Damn it, damn it, damn it!" he shouted.
"Some Sand Devil rip off you are. Can't even count your bullets."
While fiddling with his bag, he glowered at her. "Shut it, pig!"
"Hey, y'know, speaking of which..." Maractus started. "shouldn't you be seeing with the power of the sand, and stuff?"
He stopped fiddling with his bag to splutter indignantly. "D'you know how hard it is to see things with sand alone!? That's crazy!"
Maractus giggled. "Huh. And don't you need to smack them guns to fire, or something?"
"It kept going off course! So I had 'em altered, so I could pull the - Actually, fuck you!" He tossed his guns away and brought up the bladed stick he'd had holstered. In fact... it was a sword, wasn't it? Not unlike Dynamite Aegislash was. "Melee time! I'll slice those cocky grins off your faces!" he yelled, diving for Grumpig.
She took up a defensive position while allowing her fists to glow bright green. "Bring it," she retorted.
The scorpion swooped in and swung at her. She hopped backwards in a dodge, hopping again as he did an overhead swing for her head.
She rushed forwards and managed to punch him in the gut, knocking him back and absorbing some of his energy. While he recovered, she used the glowing gem on her head to summon a few Power Gems, which erupted out of the rocky ground. Their ends aimed at the scorpion and fired an intense ray of sparkling light.
Gligar huffed and stabbed his tail into the ground. He rapidly spun around, sending Maractus' needles flying off his back before drilling into the floor as the lasers passed over him. A second later, he erupted out of the ground near Grumpig, getting close enough to slice her across the belly.
Yelping in pain, she stumbled backwards, but used her springy tail to bounce into a backflip, back onto her feet. "Not bad," she replied, stroking her lightly bruised belly.
"I'm just... getting started," Gligar responded through pants, taking on a menacing pose with his sword.
Buneary watched the ongoing fight in awe. This was admittedly fun to watch! Maractus seemed to think so, too, as she watched on while shaking her arms to make rhythmic rattles. Almost like she was trying to make some appropriate music to go with the scene.
Gligar zipped forwards in a glide. He suddenly landed on his tail and rushed forwards while spinning like a top, blade outwards. It almost looked like some sort of pokémon move, though not quite, from the lack of any type energy being used.
Grumpig concentrated before swinging her glowing arm forwards to meet the blade. It snapped into two clean halves, with one half falling into one of the many cracks dotted about.
Gligar stopped spinning a small distance away and took up another offensive pose with his sword overhead and tipped towards Grumpig. When he noticed that it was only half the sword it had been before, he squealed in shock. "You fucking bitch, what did you do to my sword!?" he demanded loudly.
"Hey, fighting's good against steel for a reason," Grumpig laughed.
Gligar let out many infuriated, anguished sounds. He grabbed one of the smaller blades from his belt and flung it at Grumpig, who punched it out of the air as it came close. She yelped as she hit the sharp bit and nursed her fist.
While she'd been distracted, he was already rushing for one of his discarded guns, which was lying next to a crack. He reached into his pouch with a pincer as he did, pulling out some small, metal bits. Bullets, Buneary guessed.
"Ohh no, that's enough outta you, mister!" Maractus said, hunching over. The needles on her back grew huge and launched out, propelled by some strong energy pouring out of each one.
As Gligar grabbed his gun and began clumsily stuffing bullets into it, the needles were already bearing down on him, each one as long as he was. They curved inwards on him before violently stabbing him all at the same time.
He yelled out in agony as they stuck out of him. He tried to aim his gun again, but suddenly collapsed, tumbling into the hole after.
"Thanks for the help, at long last," Grumpig said sassily, though not without an air of playfulness.
"What? I didn't wanna interrupt your one on one fight!" Maractus replied with a giggle.
The pig shook her head with crossed arms. "Oy..."
"Uh... I didn't know I had to. Sorry..." Buneary mumbled, embarrassed.
Grumpig smiled at her. "Heh, I'm only messing, don't worry. Besides, it was sort of fun, I'll admit."
Buneary smiled back. "Oh... okay~"
Grumpig rubbed her bruised belly, particularly on the section that was glowing a strong light-green, no thanks to the surskit from earlier. "Tsk... I think that Lunge that surskit did really softened me up. My Drain Punches didn't feel nearly as hardy as usual."
"Didn't slow you down too much!" Maractus replied.
"I'll say," Buneary added. Geez, she'd still snapped that guy's sword in half. How strong was she, if that was considered weak!?
Grumpig huffed. "I guess. Could've still ended the fight earlier, though." She let out a breath and looked towards the hole Gligar was in. "Oh well. Either way, let's capture him and drag him back to be lectured by Magnezone." She started towards it. Maractus and Buneary followed. "I doubt he'll be going to jail for this, but..."
A brief, yet bright flash suddenly emanated from the hole, surprising the three.
"What the...?" Grumpig muttered, running over to the hole. She peered over the edge for just a second before jumping backwards in alarm, the sound of a bullet ringing out after.
The bullet bounced against the sloped ceiling and went haywire, bouncing back and forth. The girls ran and dodged around as it threatened to hit them multiple times.
Buneary couldn't believe it! By the way he'd tumbled into that crack, he'd looked like he'd fainted! How was he still fighting back!?
She heard him muttering to himself, so she listened closely. "Man... I sure lucked out, falling into all these seeds! Only needed the reviver one... though? Wait, what?"
Buneary took the initiative and hopped towards the hole to peer into it. She saw Gligar resting on a fairly large pile of different seeds. He was staring at his gun, which had a couple of bullets in its six holes, as well as... a seed?
The seed - a lavender one layered with white cloud-like patterns - seemed to fit inside the gun's hole, albeit a bit squashed.
"It... fits?" he muttered to himself. He looked up, and his gaze met Buneary's. He jostled his gun in her direction.
Yelping, she tried to hop away, but the weight on her head slowed her enough to get shot in the forehead. It stung harshly before bursting into dust, which coated her, and... and... she... She was suddenly...
She yawned loudly and struggled to stay on her feet. Oh fudge... that must've been some kind of... er... sleeping seed, or... or something...
She began to weave in and out of consciousness. She heard the scorpion laugh triumphantly.
"Yeah! I can- ... the seeds, like bull-... -at's so..." he announced, though she had trouble following. She couldn't... focus...
Her eyes closed and she felt herself nod off. She shook her head to stay awake. She saw Gligar suddenly standing in front of her, sticking his tongue out at her. Her head dipped again, and she saw her fluff turning into cake dough. Mmm, yummy...
She reached down to pull off a piece. When she felt fuzz against her paw, she realized she was dreaming and tried to blink herself awake. No, she... she had to fight against the... the, um... the gligar, right?
Several sharp stabbing pains in different places on both her sides woke her up immediately on adrenalin alone. Fully awake, she was alarmed to find that Gligar had stabbed into her with the spikes on his gliders, and was holding her alarmingly close to him.
She tried to push him away, but she hissed in pain as the spikes were lodged in deep. She was trapped!
"Guess who got his second wind!" he shouted in her face, pulling a wand out of his holster. One which was decorated to look like it was wrapped in a plume of fire.
She struggled harder, despite the pain. She was suddenly shoved away, only to be sliced at by the blades that had suddenly grown out of the sides of the guy's tail as he spun around. She cried out in pain, and felt poison seep into her system. Ughh...!
The guy finished twirling as his tail blades withdrew, and he aimed the wand at her. "Sucks to be you!" he shouted, firing an explosive energy out of it.
Gasping, she made a futile attempt to block. She was hit full force by a big explosion that completely engulfed her.
She was sent flying backwards. But... she didn't feel much pain. Huh...?
She flipped around, using Bounce to cushion her landing against the wall. Falling to the floor, she watched the other girls stare at her in alarm and surprise.
Buneary swayed lightly as she suddenly felt really woozy, a grisly feeling in her stomach. She stared in contempt at her pecha looplet, complete with its lightly shimmering emera. Ugh... if only she didn't have Klutz.
She went on alert as she saw the gligar flying in the air while taking another seed out of his bag. A blue one with a glowing red cross cut into it.
Before he could jam it into his gun, Grumpig had already taken the initiative by firing a continuous Psybeam at him. Growling, he took evasive action, doing swoops and swerves to avoid the attack. He seemed like he was having trouble putting the seed into his gun while he was dodging.
"Oh, fuck this!" he yelled, aiming his tail at her. From the tip sprayed a viscous, blobby purple liquid.
She dodged it easily, leaving a large puddle of poison on the ground. The distraction gave Gligar enough time to shove the seed into his gun, though. He dived into a crack while rapidly spinning.
"He's planning on using Dig on ya!" Maractus called out.
"Ohh no. I know a feint when I see one!" Grumpig called back. "Watch out for him!"
Buneary nodded determinedly. That made sense! He was probably going to shoot one of them with his seed!
She hopped closer, ready to help out. Her hops were a little sluggish, because of her injuries, the Pounce weight on her head, and the poison making her head feel weird... but she was determined to help!
She hopped over large cracks in the rocky floor, making sure not to fall in any. She hopped past the puddle of poison that had been left on the-
Maractus gasped. "H-Hey, Buneary, watch out! That's Venoshock!" she called out.
Buneary halted and looked around in alarm. "Wh-What is!?" She turned around. "What- Wahhh!?"
She jumped as the puddle of bubbling poisonous goo suddenly came to life, springing at her as if it were truly alive.
She tried rapidly hopping backwards, but wasn't going fast enough. She was so sluggish that it was almost on her in seconds.
She dodged to the side just as it 'leapt' at her, like a small tidal wave. It crashed against the floor where she'd been, but immediately rose and lunged again. It poured over her, burning her badly with a sizzling hiss.
She screamed as it constricted her. It burnt in a way that felt like it was trying to break her skin open and get inside. She felt everything go dark in seconds.
She felt herself floating in a void. It was like she was physically there, but at the same time, she wasn't. Was she dreaming?
She tried to wake herself up, but she couldn't. Even in this 'dream', she felt completely worn out.
She felt like she should just close her eyes and let herself fade away for a good rest. At least, until she could get her strength back...
She felt something on the back of her head, like someone was gripping her there. She tried to rationalize what was happening, until she felt something enter her mouth.
It popped and crackled in her mouth. She spluttered and coughed while sitting up. W-What the...?
She looked up and came face to face with Grumpig kneeling down in front of her, relieved.
"Phew, that Venoshock got you good, huh?" she asked. "It gets attracted to poison, and anyone who's been poisoned. So yeah."
"Y-Yeah..." Buneary mumbled. Darn it... she'd wanted to help so much, too...
She hopped to her feet. She was surprised by how light on her feet she felt. She didn't feel poisoned... and a quick check of her head confirmed that the Pounce weight wasn't on her anymore! "Oh, did you heal me, too?" she asked.
"No... well, sort of, I guess," Grumpig replied, turning to face Gligar's direction. "I thought about using a tiny reviver seed, but it wouldn't have healed up your problems. So I used a proper reviver seed."
"Oh, okay. Well, thanks!" Buneary replied, also looking at the scorpion. That was a handy thing to remember!
Gligar was currently flying around Maractus, looking for an opening to shoot her. The cactus wasn't giving him one, though. She was constantly hopping around evasively to the beat of her rattling rhythm, while throwing small Energy Balls his way. The weight on her chest barely slowed her down at all.
Buneary suddenly noticed the giant glowing red X pattern plastered across Grumpig's back. "W-What happened to your back!?" she asked in alarm. She blinked as it occurred to her that it was the same red pattern as...! "Wait, that's from the seed, isn't it? Did you get hit while helping me?"
Grumpig shot her a quick sympathetic smile. "Hey, don't worry about it, kid. It was just a ban seed, so I'm only prevented from using Psybeam for a while," she answered.
Buneary frowned sadly. She wasn't saying no...
"What the-!? You're still going!?" Gligar shouted angrily. Looking his way, Buneary saw him looking her way. "What part of 'sucks to be you' don't you understand!?"
"Funny. Sounds like something I'm going to say to you, in a second," Grumpig replied, turning back to face him. "You've pushed me into doing something incredibly embarrassing, so I hope you're ready for what comes next."
"What're you talking about, piggy?" Gligar asked, frowning at her in bemusement.
Maractus clapped her hands together excitedly. "Yay! She's gonna do it~!" she sang.
He turned his frown her way. "What? What's it?"
Curious, Buneary hopped away to give Grumpig some space. The pig took a breath with her hands to her side. After a pause, she did something completely unexpected.
She began to dance.
Buneary stared in surprise. Huh? Was this a move? It seemed pretty unlike her. Especially looking at the dance she was doing.
She was moving her arms in a slow, wavy rhythm that circled around her body, while holding them at completely different, constantly moving angles. She held herself up on one foot, her body swaying in ways that gave off the impression that she were floating.
Her eyes were half-lidded, as if she were concentrating deeply, and all the gems on her body began to glow harsh, psychedelic colors.
Buneary couldn't stop blinking at the spectacle. That was... one heck of a strange dance, she couldn't deny it.
Maractus was dancing along with her own, usual energetic dance, letting off a series of rattles once more, in a 'shaka-shaka' pattern. Gligar, instead, was laughing his butt off.
"Yeah, yeah, that really sucks!" the scorpion said, wiping his tears away with his gun. He grinned menacingly. "Hah, but not for me!" He fired a normal bullet right at Grumpig.
The bullet was on course to hit Grumpig right in the head, but stopped in front of her. It waved around her airily, like it were floating on rippling water.
"W-What!?" Gligar screeched. He fired another bullet. He yelled out an explicit when it went the way of the first bullet, doing its own little slow dance as it lazily drifted around her.
Buneary let out a relieved breath. She was still perplexed, though. Had the dance helped with that?
Actually, Buneary felt an immense build up of power in the room. It was hard to describe, but it was enough to almost make her fur stand up on end. What was this...?
She yelped when she noticed more cracks begin to noisily open up in the room. Already existing cracks also widened, making Buneary wonder if the whole cave was collapsing in on itself.
Before she could panic, she gasped when she saw humongous gems of different colors pour out of the ground to float in the air, all of them much bigger than she was. Whoa! Was this... Power Gem!?
She cried out in surprise as one erupted out of a crack that had been near her, coated in lava that had presumably been inside the hole beforehand. Holy moly, she felt like a baby buneary compared to the size of this thing! Was all of this just from Grumpig dancing!?
Gligar was utterly freaking out at the sight of the dozens of giant gems closing in on his direction. He tried to make a break towards one of the cracks for cover, but one of the longer gems shifted to swing around and crash into him, sending him tumbling backwards through the air.
He corrected himself just in time for all of the gems to point towards him, all glowing with an intense array of differently colored energies.
Grumpig did a slow twirl and ended on a bow, the floating bullets dropping by her feet. "... Sucks to be you, kid," she quipped.
Huge, differently colored lasers poured out of the giant gems. They completely enveloped Gligar, who screamed as he was fried to a crisp. His strap and bag were burnt to ashes, and even his gun seemed to glow red from overheating.
He stopped screaming to glare at them. "No...! You...! Stupid...! Little...!" he groaned.
His retorts were interrupted as all the gems rammed into him at once, shattering and sending crystal shards flying everywhere. He tumbled into one of the cracks somewhere in the corner of the room, plumes of colorful feathers randomly pouring out as he crashed.
Buneary covered her face as crystal shards came flying her way, but they disintegrated before they could hit her. Phew...
"Wooo~! Grumpig~! Grumpig~!" Maractus cheered, waving her arms in the air as her bosom heavily swayed from the weight on it.
"That was amazing!" Buneary praised, beaming. They'd done it, and it was all thanks to her!
"Phew... thanks..." Grumpig replied, hunched over. She let out a heavy breath and rolled onto her back. "Ol' 'bandits of the numbnuts' over there deserved it. Er, 'forest of the numbnuts', even. Eh, I dunno."
Giggling, Maractus hopped over to her. "Are you tuckered out because of the move, or the dance?" she asked jokingly.
"Tsk... not sure," Grumpig replied, face reddening as she frowned. "Never doing it again, though, I'll tell you that much."
Buneary hopped over to her. "Was that some sort of move, that dance? It was pretty amazing, whatever it was!"
"Nah. Us grumpigs improve our psychic energies when we dance." The pig's face went redder still. "... It's not very flattering, though, as you saw."
Buneary smiled. "I liked it! It was exotic!"
"Yeah! Your doofy moves are so cute, Grumpig~!" Maractus added cheerfully.
Grumpig slapped a palm to her face. "Ugh... like I said, never again," she grumbled.
Maractus laughed, while Buneary let out a small giggle. Well, at least it wasn't her being embarrassed, for once.
"Anyway, if we're done making fun of my dancing," Grumpig started, "you guys go get the cowboy. Oh, and better check on the illumise, too. When I'm done being exhausted, we'll teleport out with the escape orb. I think we're good for today."
"Okie dokes~!" Maractus chimed, hopping over towards the apparently feathery hole the gligar had fallen into.
"Right away!" Buneary added, deciding to go towards the hole the illumise had fallen into, earlier.
Ear twitching, she stopped when she thought she heard something that sounded like heavy shuffling. Extending her rolled ear, she looked around at the sky, half expecting to see the gligar again.
Instead, she faintly saw a figure on the ceiling. Squinting, she just about saw that it... looked like a crab, who wore some odd headwear. It was hard to make out, though, because the crab blended into the rocky ceiling high above.
Before Buneary could get a good look at it, the crab clambered into one of the holes on the ceiling and out of view. It didn't return.
The rabbit scratched her head. Huh... had he been there the whole time?
She stared for a short while. Shrugging, she went back to moving towards the illumise's hole. Must've just been an onlooker. Legends knew she would've been curious about that whole debacle, too!
TO BE CONTINUED!
Finished: 11/10/2023 (Fourteen days before me birthday! :D)
Word count: 12,932
VGS2's sausage notes: Y'know, I was going to make this chapter a bit longer so I could squeeze something in, but ahh, fak it. Next chapter. XP
Either way, dungeon over in just one chappie! Huzzah, it's a neeewwww record! :D
On another note, it goes without saying, but for sure, emeras will come into play every now and again! However, their effects aren't always correlated to what colour they are, like you'd imagine! For example, the... um... oh. Actually, they are mostly relevant, looking at this list, aren't they?
Alright, I'm talking out my arse, it seems. XD Regardless, if one seems a bit random, or if something else seems to have a better fit, I'll be sure to change the colour! It's not like it really matters, but bitches love consistency!
Here are the colours and what they mean! (Mostly so I can remember, myself!)
Green: Health related
Yellow: Attack related
Red: Defense related
Light blue: Sp. Attack related
Dark blue: Sp. Defence related
Purple: Speed related
Aaaand that's it. Unless they introduce a new stat sometime, or something. XP
Today's shameless promotion: Ambition's Shadow
Author: Sunhat Leafeon
Universe: An original Mystery Dungeon world
Main species: An icy ninetales, a glameow, a fennekin and a floragato, amongst more!
Summary: Snute has been preparing for a long time to join the Vanilluxe Guild. This hostile ninetales has big plans, a bigger ego, and an even bigger backside. Now, if only she hadn't been teamed up with a load of goodie-goodie fools.
Romance: Lots dotted around!
Wackiness: A lot of wackiness to be had!
Lewdness: Lots of wink wink dirty humor!
Action: Lots! Fighting is constant!
Grittiness: A fair bit of somberness here and there, sometimes involving death!
Length: Looks to be quite long!
Now this is a criminally underated fic if ever I've seen one! It has all manner of fun things, such as a futuristic airship, fun dungeons galore, a girly robotic AI, a grumpy protagonist, a deadly murder mystery, romance and more! I always enjoy it whenever it updates! :D
Sunny was even kind enough to let me submit an OC for him, which was a fun time! I won't say who it is directly, but I will say one thing... she probably tastes like meringue...
Either way, thanks for the opportunity, my man! You've done the girl justice! :D
Fun mistakes of the day:
#1: 'peering over the hole.'
(Why over it and not into it? Do you care for Maractus' wellbeing that little?)
#2: 'Though maybe she would hold her brew as she went down...'
(Don't! You'll spill it!)
#3: 'The snake's eyes suddenly glowed red. The second buneary saw them'
(Oh look, it's her identical twin sister! Social Butterfly Buneary! Her titties are looking as massive as ever, I see, though it's a shame she's rather prudish!)
[She's got zero cheeks, unfortunately] - Sunhat Leafeon
#4: 'She ducked to the side, but was still his in the bosom'
( :D )
#5: Grumpig's beam of Psybeam
(That's like saying 'flame of Flamethrower' or 'water of Water Pulse'. Sounds oddly pretentious, actually. XD)
#6: '"Uh oh!" Maractus cried out, looking at Grumpig's hole in shock'
(I almost left this in, too, which is the funny thing...)
#7: 'How handy! She wasn't sure if it would ever come in handy'
(Naww, it's actually footy. Every Brit's favourite sport!)
#8: 'Maractus' and Grumpig's badges had begin to flash, meaning that one of their objectives'
(The badge have begin to flash!)
#9: 'She was hopping around the fire pillars to rhythm of her distinct rattles, twisting and turning like she was in a dance as her arms, her eras and large bosom swayed to the beat.'
(Her eras? You mean, like, several generations of Maractus? Here, in this room? Was Celebi involved!?)
#10: 'Buneary hopped backwards and scraped the sticky good off her face'
(The upcoming chapter where the lagos meet for the first time is looking pretty wild!)
#11: 'while the others threw attacks at time.'
(How the hell did I-!? Alright, speaking of time, it's time to sleep, before they start attacking space, too, or something. XD)
#12: 'but the star curved upwarps to redirect itself in his direction'
(Now what've you done, Kirby!?)
#13: "Yeah, and it does weird things with my mind," Psychic added, "so I can't use psychic moves as well,"
(Grumpig learns a new move! Sadly, due to inexperience, it then proceeded to take over her mind...)
#14: 'making her bosom heavily sway, no thanks to the partially town weight attached to it.'
(Her tits are so huge, the whole town can fit onto them, apparently!)
#15: "Hell no! Not to your little Bullet Seets"
(Imagine sitting in a bullet seat and riding around on it.)
#16: "That's... god?"
(Gligar becomes a deity.)
#17: 'Buneary decided to take the indicative and throw a Swift star at him.'
(I just imagine her stealing the indicators from a car and then attacking the car owner.)
#18: 'She yelped asshle hit the sharp bit'
(That's the last thing you want hitting something sharp!)
#19: 'It stung harshly as it hit her head burst into dust,'
(I guess that was a death seed! RIP)
#20: 'He seemed like he was having trouble putting the seed into his bag while he was dodging.'
(Your seed is supposed to come out, not go back in! You can't recycle it, you sausage! Who are you, Chris-Chan?)
#21: 'She didn't ferel'
(Thank God, because ferals are in every PMD fic these days, it seems. XD)
#22: 'She held herself up one one foot'
(One plus one is two, and most people only have two feet, so there's no problem here!)
#23: 'He yelled out an explicit when it went the way of the first bulklet.'
(A baby cat is called a kitten. A baby goat is called a kid. A baby chad is called a bulklet.)
#24: "Nah. Us grumpigas"
(Snoogrumpigas usual, I see!)
-About Her-
#25: 'She looked at it and gently held his paw in her as he led her towards the arch.'
(Um... one more for the road, I guess. XD (If you want context, go read the fic!))
- Cheeky ravengal moment .mp4-
Even as she left the fire, she felt a sharp pain all over, and her entire body felt red raw. Y-Yowch...
... Though not as red raw as she'll be once Pikachu gets ahold of her, yeaaaaah! B)
... You know, when he actually meets her. In about twenty years. Maybe. If we're lucky. :D
- Cheeky ravengal moment .mp4 (1) -
Gligar burst out of the floor with a flourish. He had his gun pointed right at Maractus' head.
"Only guns win, bitch!" he taunted, pulling the lever.
The revolver fired. The bullet went right into Maractus's head.
...
...
...
"She's dead, Jim," Grumpig said solemnly.
Buneary slowly held a paw to her mouth, staring at the lifeless body, as dramatic music played and the screen did a fade out.
- Cheeky ravengal moment .mp4 (2) -
Buneary decided to take the initiative and throw a Swift star at him. It missed as the scorpion unintentionally dodged while flying away for cover.
The large star flew onwards, crashing through the dungeon ceiling. It kept going, crashing through every ceiling, until it completely broke free and soared through the open air.
On and on, it travelled, past wastelands, ocean, meadows and deserts, until it finally reached its destination. Turning ninety degrees, it plummeted towards the earth, where it landed next to a pink puffball with a walkie talkie.
"Yay!" he cried in joy, hopping aboard the large star.
It floated into the air briefly, while the pink puffball waved to the camera, before they both rocketed off elsewhere.
Welp, that'll do it for today! I will now make like Amos™ from Bandits of the Forest™ and Bandits of the Outlands™ (both of which were made by PokeMaster64™), and piss off. XD Good night, thanks for reading, and until next time, tata for now! c: ™
