Arc VII: A Rookie's Week
Sausage note: That's right, paisanos! I've finally decided to add ARCS to the fic! Each arc will contain a group of related chapters, which should hopefully give the fic more structure, eh?
Speaking of chapters, I told myself I was only going to make two more chapters before... it... happens. But honestly, having such longass chapters all the time is probably such a ball ache for you guys. So to make things a little better, I've split this one up a bunch, and also, I've decided I'm going to split up some of the older chapters!
I'm not going to do it immediately, but this is just a heads up, in case you get fooled into thinking I've done, like, six uploads at once, or something. XD
Last time: Ben stole the first lemon, and Team Shadow caused a ruckus which had to be stopped by one of two water rabbits!
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Vanishing Sun
It was another day, and Buneary, Maractus and Grumpig were investigating the bulletin boards to find missions to do for the Sunday ahead of them.
The rabbit was still embarrassed over earlier. She'd tried to join in with the morning chant, but she'd practically flubbed every line. It had been made worse as she'd tried to over correct herself, and ended up stumbling and stuttering like she'd lost her mind. She was sure she'd heard a snicker or two from the others, so she desperately needed something to take her mind off things.
She glanced around as other teams walked around the room, talking amongst themselves or discussing the posters they'd plucked off the bulletin boards.
Her attention was grabbed by Team Cloud having a small argument. That was, Hobby Ducklett and Uppity Rufflet. Actually, he preferred being called 'Noble Rufflet', didn't he? She wasn't sure which one to use. The polite option, or the option everyone else went for?
"Aww, come on, dude!" Ducklett whined, flapping his wings in indignation. "I wanna do a rescue mission for once! When's the last time we did one of those?"
"But I much prefer going after outlaws," Rufflet replied, ruffling his feathers in distaste. "Leave the rescues to the other teams."
"Ughh! Y'know, I agreed to become an explorer for some variety! Not just to chase bad guys all the time!"
"And you consider running petty errands to be exciting? What a load of crock."
Ducklett slapped a wing to his face in pure exasperation. "You're impossible, dude..."
Buneary shook her head. Tsk... Rufflet sure could be a handful. Maybe sticking to 'Uppity' wouldn't entirely be a bad idea after all.
Still, an outlaw mission, huh? She was still a bit worried about the idea, ever since yesterday's mishaps, but... hmm...
Before she could think any more on the matter, Maractus let out a light gasp of delight. "Ooh!" she said, bounding forwards and plucking one of the notices off the board. "How about this one?"
Grumpig took the piece of paper and read it. "'While exploring...'" She paused a second, eyes scanning the paper. "'I somehow got lost while sunbathing. Someone, help...!'" she finished, dryly waving her hand for dramatic effect. She looked back at the others. "It's a rank E mission. Gotta rescue Smoochum from Sunny Spot Hill, for a hundred poké and a load of 'gravelrocks'."
Maractus giggled. "Gravel rocks? I thought they were graveler rocks," she said.
Grumpig shrugged. "Kid probably didn't get the memo, eh? If she's getting lost sunbathing, though, I guess she's probably not the brightest."
"Teehee, mean, but I guess so!"
Grumpig turned to look down at Buneary. "Anyway, how does that sound, Buneary? Just a simple rescue one for today."
Buneary paused a short while. Well... it seemed less scary than an outlaw mission, so... "Sure! Sounds fine to me~" she replied.
Grumpig smiled and nodded. "Cool." She shoved the note into her bag. "Off we go, then, girls."
"Woo~" Maractus cheered, hopping away. "I love that place, so this should be fun!"
Grumpig chuckled. "Figured you'd say that."
The group walked towards the stairs. As they walked past Team Cloud, Buneary noticed Rufflet's eyes widen as he looked at her.
She offered a wave as she went, though Rufflet just gave her an incredulous look.
"Do... I know you?" Rufflet asked aloud.
Stopping in place, Buneary blinked. Had he forgotten her already? "Huh? Y-Yeah, I-" she started, stopping in her tracks. Wait... he'd seen her nude last time, hadn't he!?
But... he especially should be remembering her, after everything that had happened. So why...?
"Yeah, man, that's Buneary. She joined a couple of days ago! Remember what Donphan said last morning?" Ducklett responded.
Rufflet turned back to Buneary. "You did? Huh..." he murmured. He looked around. "What happened to that... ugh... crude chinchou?"
Buneary's eyes went wide. Oh, right, of course! The transformation! "Sh-She, uh, she... she died!" she blurted out, using the first thing that came to mind. Her face went hot as Ducklett and Rufflet gave her horrified looks in response. Whoops.
"W-What!?" Rufflet snapped, the color draining from his face.
"Bwaa! Who died!?" Ducklett cried out, wings splayed in shock.
"Uh, of embarrassment!" Grumpig quickly interjected, having stopped nearby with Maractus. "Poor girl couldn't handle the, um... the 'incident'."
"Yeah! She went running for the hills in a heartbeat~" Maractus chimed in, giggling. "You'll never see her again. Thankfully, though..." She scooped up Buneary for a big, painful hug. Oof...! "Buneary joined just in time to replace her~!"
"Y-Yeah..." Buneary said, wincing from the needles pressing into her from everywhere.
Rufflet and Ducklett gave a collective sigh of relief.
"Jeez, you sure know how to scare a guy, Buneary," Ducklett said, a wing to his chest as he heaved out a heavy breath.
"Sorry..." Buneary replied, her face still warm. Well, at least this was less embarrassing than having to explain the streaking incident. She owed her teammates her life for this!
He frowned sympathetically. "Sucks the other girl left, though. Didn't even get to meet her."
"Good," Rufflet interjected, straightening out his feathers with a haughty huff. "She was extremely crude, going about with her... unmentionables on display."
Ducklett blinked. "… Huh. Are you, uh... sure you can't get her to come back?" he asked, amusement in his tone.
An amused huff escaped Grumpig's lips. "Oh, I'll bet you want her back," she joked.
Now free from Maractus' prickly grasp, Buneary glanced away in embarrassment from the duck's statement. Maractus responded with giggles, while Rufflet gave Ducklett a look of questioning distaste.
"Man, Team Nebula, never change," Ducklett said. "You guys're always a fun time! Even the ones who aren't here anymore, I guess."
"Heehee, okie dokes~!" Maractus replied, hopping up and down. "They don't call me 'Big Fun Maractus' for nothing~"
Buneary noticed Ducklett's pupils following the cactus rabbit's massive chest as it bounced heavily from the motion. "Uh... y-yeah. You can say that again."
Buneary inwardly pouted. She wished she was big enough to grab boys' attentions. It would be embarrassing, but... her ego...!
"Well, anyway, as you were," Rufflet quickly interrupted. He haughtily stuck his beak up. "I have outlaws to apprehand!"
"Apprehend?" Grumpig offered with an amused huff.
"Y-Yes, yes," he spluttered back in response, face tinted red.
"Ugh, oh boy..." Ducklett groaned.
The two teams exchanged some farewells - somewhat halfheartedly in Rufflet's case - and left each other to their own devices.
Buneary let out a long breath through her nose. "Hey, thanks for covering for me, girls," she said, looking up at them.
"It's alright," Grumpig said, looking down at her. She smirked. "Really though, kid. 'She died'?"
Face heating again, Buneary pouted. "… I panicked!"
Maractus giggled adoringly at her. "You're just so cute, Buneary~" she cooed.
That didn't help the pout on Buneary's lips go away. Not one bit.
Grumpig huffed out a chuckle before patting her bag. "Okay, back to business. Let's go sort out our items," she suggested. "I think I'll swap my stamina band for a defense scarf, this time. Should be a fair few berries growing about the place, with how sunny it is."
"Teehee, I'll bet!" Maractus joked, earning a dry look from the pig. "Well, I wanna keep my detect band!"
"Alright, then." Grumpig looked Buneary's way. "You want your pecha looplet again?"
Buneary nodded and held up her wrist. "Yup!" she replied, beaming at its pink and green colors, as well as the pecha berry shaped gem lodged in its side.
It may not actually do anything for her, because of Klutz... but wearing it truly made her feel like a proper explorer~
Grumpig snorted out a chuckle. "You didn't wear that thing all night, did you?"
She snapped her arm back to her side, pouting as another wave of embarrassment hit. "… N-No," she lied a little.
Buneary was finding it extremely hard to fight off the urge to sunbathe, along with all the other wild pokémon who were littered about the rolling hills that made up this dungeon. The name wasn't kidding. This place was extremely sunny!
She and the girls were currently walking through Sunny Spot Hill, and it was every bit as sunny as described! It turned out to be very pretty, too! The grassy fields and hills were utterly coated in flowers, and there was hardly a cloud in the sky to obscure the sun's rays!
Speaking of which, she could feel the warmth of it all across her fur. It was wonderful~
"Not bad, eh?" Grumpig said, walking around an aipom lying face down on the grass. The sunlight gleamed against the pig's pearls and the gray, almost metal-like scarf tied around her neck. "For some reason, it's sunny all day in this place. Even at night."
"Eee~ I'm a big fan already!" Buneary replied, excitedly hopping up and down.
"I know, right? This place is so looovelyyy~!" Maractus sang, her detect band's red tassels loosely flowing from where it was tied around her ear.
Buneary smiled in her direction. She was surprised when she saw pink flowers sprouting all over the cactus' body, matching the ones on her ear tips.
That wasn't all. Vines were sprouting from the flowers, connecting to each other in a thick bundle that stretched tightly against her body, especially around her single leg. They resembled veiny muscles, almost.
"Oh... are you using a move, Maractus?" Buneary asked.
After hopping over a slakoth, who was sleeping belly up, Maractus tilted her head at the rabbit. "Huh? What move?" she asked.
"You know! The pretty flowery one with all the- … Huh?"
Buneary suddenly felt someone breathing down her neck-
"That would be Maractus' Chlorophyll ability, Buneary," an oddly smarmy voice said, suddenly.
Buneary shrieked and spun around on the spot. She shrieked again when she saw an almost zombie-like spinda talking to her. W-What the heck!?
A crooked hand erupted out of its crotch. It rested a claw made of darkened shadows on the goggle specs resting on its belly. "In strong sunlight, it causes the pokémon to quite literally grow faster."
Buneary blinked. That... was one knowledgeable zombie.
"Uh... are you the librarian?" Grumpig asked. "Study Stalk Mimikyu, right?"
It let out a creepy chuckle while pushing its blue specs with round yellow lenses upwards. "Correct...!" he confirmed. "Nice memory, there, Grumpig."
"Hard to forget you..."
Buneary stared. Oh... right... that guy... "H-Hi there..." she wheezed out. Legends above...! Was this a sort of payback, for getting him to let her buy a book on the cheap? It must've been...
"Oh! Hiii, Mimikyu~!" Maractus chimed. "What'cha doin' outside your library?"
"Not just trying to scare us, I take it?" Grumpig sassed, a hand on her hip.
He chuckled again. "Oh, I was just out for a stroll. After all, the best way to learn about the world is by exploring, is it not, explorers?" he explained.
"I... guess?" Buneary mumbled, distracted by his creepy costume. He hadn't been wearing that before, had he?
… Actually, he'd been wearing a pikachu costume last time, right? He must've enjoyed wearing different ones. If she ever encountered another zombie, maybe she'd wait to squeal. Or try to, at least.
"Anyway, don't mind me. As you were, girls..." he said, slowly sinking into his shadow while chuckling.
The girls stared at the shadow as it seemed to dissipate into nothing.
"… Bye, Mimikyu~!" Maractus chimed.
"Is he... always like that?" Buneary asked.
"Pretty much," Grumpig sighed out. "Anyway, let's get going, before he comes back."
"Okay..." Buneary replied, nodding faster than she'd meant to. Well, at least he seemed nice at heart, even if he was a bit creepy...
Buneary, Maractus and Grumpig continued their trek through the dungeon, looking for the lost smoochum. Because it was an outdoor dungeon, as opposed to the caves Buneary had been traveling through as of late, the dungeon was composed of 'fields'. Right now, they were on field three, after an extremely laid back first couple of fields. Pokémon were just too busy sunbathing to attempt any sort of attack.
Sure enough, Maractus' hops seemed to be going higher and further than they usually did. She even had to stop every now and again, to let the others catch up. Mimikyu sure knew his stuff!
Sadly, the cactus had to do it quite a few times, because Grumpig wasn't exactly doing great with the heat. She was moving a bit on the slow side, and was sweating up a storm. It was understandable with how hot it was, though Buneary was certainly enjoying herself! She could do this all day!
After some more walking and taking in the sun's rays, Buneary jumped when a flying grass-type drifted around a huge, sleeping snorlax, unheard because there had been no footsteps. It had no legs, tiny stubby arms, a giant yellow flower on its head, some breasts, and what seemed like flowing red hair.
The pokémon blinked at them a couple of times, a confused look on her face, then scowled. "Stupid trespassing explorers," she growled. She lunged at them. "Your kind aren't welcome here!"
"Tsk. So much for the peace," Grumpig grumbled, flicking sweat off her forehead with a hand and taking on a defensive pose.
Buneary got ready for action, herself, and noticed Maractus do the same. Darn, even here, wild pokémon just couldn't help themselves but get aggressive over nothing!
"Get lost!" the wild pokémon yelled, dropping to the floor. The grass under her gleamed brightly just before she landed on it, and she used it to rocket forwards. She slid towards Grumpig while glowing a bright green.
With lightning fast speeds, Maractus quickly hopped in the way. "Not so fast, Gossifleur!" she cried out, forming a shield of spikes with her hands and holding it out.
The wild pokémon - a gossifleur, apparently - growled and angled to the side. The path of shining grass ahead of her went in the same direction, allowing the girl to swerve around Maractus. Now close enough, she hopped and smacked straight into Grumpig, bouncing off her belly to a safe distance.
However, Grumpig barely flinched, her scarf shining briefly. "… Ow," she muttered apathetically.
"Oops! Sorry, Grumpig!" Maractus called out. "She's slippery, that one!"
Frowning, Buneary watched the gossifleur take to the air again, likely getting ready for another attack. The apparent grass-type's attention was turned to the other girls, leaving her open.
Taking the initiative, Buneary sent energy to the tips of her ears and jumped towards her. "Take this!" she cried. Her ears pounded the pokémon's back over and over again.
"Argh! Stop it!" the gossifleur yelled out in pain, being forced forwards with each punch.
Buneary kept her Dizzy Punch up, hoping to knock the gossifleur out, but the pokémon's red hair suddenly split apart, spewing vast amounts of thick cotton that washed over the whole area.
Buneary yelped as she was pushed back by the wave of cotton, being coated in enough of the stuff to completely block her vision. It clung to her fur and made it harder to move around. She heard yelps from everyone else in the area, her teammates and other pokémon alike, so she assumed that everyone else had been affected, too.
Wiping cotton from her eyes confirmed her guess. Cotton was everywhere! On the floor, on the sunbathing pokémon, and covering Grumpig and Maractus.
The gossifleur herself was unaffected. She was floating in the air, growling at the rabbit. "You can leave, too, explorer!" she said. Opening her mouth wide, she fired several streams of Bullet Seed at her.
The seeds collided painfully with Buneary's skin, making her cry out. She blocked with her arms, even though it continued to hurt.
The pain suddenly stopped when Grumpig stepped in the way of the attack. The seeds noisily ricocheted off her cotton-coated skin, though Grumpig didn't so much as flinch or murmur out a whimper. The way her gray scarf glistened tipped Buneary off as to why.
"I got this, Buneary!" Maractus called out, holding out her hands in front of her. The needles on her arms began to glow bright and grow huge before rocketing off. Redirecting themselves, they flew in the gossifleur's direction.
Baring her teeth, the grass-type dodged around each of the needles darting towards her. Each one was a near miss, but she managed to avoid all of them.
She didn't avoid a direct punch to the face by Maractus' spiky, poison-soaked hand as she somehow appeared next to the pokémon in a flash.
Spores flying out of her flower and more cotton out of her hair on impact, the gossifleur screamed out obscenities while flying backwards. She lay in a crumpled heap on a bed of her own cotton, not moving again.
Grumpig let out a breath and began to brush cotton off herself. "Could've gone worse, I guess. Good going, Maractus," she praised.
"Thaaanks~!" Maractus chimed, bounding into the air and spinning around, flinging loose cotton off herself. Lots of it still clung to her needles, but she didn't seem to mind, much.
Nursing her lightly bruised arms, Buneary eyed up the spores lingering around the cactus' head. "Um... is that... not bothering you, Maractus?" she asked.
"Huh?" Maractus asked in confusion. She saw the spores and giggled. "Oh, right. Naww, that won't affect a grassy mon like me~" She breathed in heavily, bringing the spores into her mouth. They didn't affect her one bit. She giggled again as she finished. "Nada~"
"Ohh, useful!"
"Heh, that's why I like making her fight the Effect Spore mons," Grumpig said. "Saves me a berry or two."
Maractus clapped her hands to her cheeks and gasped sharply. "Grumpig wants to avoid eating a berry!? Teehee, impossible!" she joked.
Grumpig snorted with a smirk. "Oi."
Buneary giggled at their playful banter. "I guess I'd better watch out for them, too," she said.
"Best had," Grumpig agreed. "It's usually mushroom pokémon that have it, but there's a few odd ones out, too. Like gossifleurs and... uh..." She pulled a face and scratched her head. She shrugged. "Well, whatever. If you're fighting them, make sure you stay far away and use Swift, or somethi-"
A dark shape lunged out of the cotton and right at Buneary. It knocked her over and stood over her.
"Wah! Buneary!" Maractus called out.
"Stay down!" the pokémon growled.
"W-W-What!?" Buneary squealed, spitting out cotton that had gotten into her mouth. She paused when she saw her attacker properly. "Wait... but you're-"
She heard a noise from nearby. Looking over, she saw that the gossifleur was floating again. She'd launched a storm of hundreds of brightly glowing leaves which were traveling in a huge spiral towards the team.
Buneary stared in shock. But she'd fainted, right!? What could've caused her to come back from that!?
The fox over Buneary re-angled his foot so that his leg took the brunt of all the leaves. They sliced at him, and the bright energy surrounding them seemed to burn him, making him growl in pain.
She looked at the others. Grumpig was being knocked back by the force of the leaves - even with her defense scarf - and Maractus was hopping away a safe distance at rapid speeds, crying out in alarm as she did. She soon misstepped and tripped over a sunbathing pokémon, earning an angry cry from him.
"Whoops! Sorry!" she said, scrambling to her foot.
"What's the big idea, ya big breasted bastard!?" the primeape shouted. He went in for a punch, but missed by a wide margin as Maractus quickly bounded over him and hopped away in the opposite direction. The monkey gave chase, ranting and raving the whole time.
Buneary turned her attention back to the gossifleur. The grass-type's attack seemed to be growing weaker and weaker by the second. The leaves were far fewer in number, and the glowing energy surrounding them was growing dim.
This was Buneary's chance! Still lying on her front, she took Grumpig's advice from earlier to heart and held her paws out, charging a Swift star between them. When it was big enough, she fired it between her protector's legs.
Spinning rapidly, it went directly through the eye of the large spiral of leaves and hit the gossifleur square in the face. It spun into her, slicing at her, before she was sent flying backwards with an angry, pained yell.
Buneary breathed out a sigh of relief. She looked up at the fox above her. "That was close! Thanks for helping, Umbreon!"
The dark fox with messy fur nodded back to her with a small smile, a bit shaky on his feet but seeming otherwise okay. "Don't mention it," Dark Mark Umbreon said, stepping away from her.
She hopped to her feet. "What brings you here, though?"
He turned to face the others. "It's like Donphan said at breakfast... Banette didn't show up after she got her ass blasted away."
"Oh! Yeah, I remember!" she said, facing the same direction. According to Donphan's morning report, Banette had apparently sent out a note sometime last night, asking for someone to come get her. "So you're here to get her?"
He nodded. "That's it. She's a bitch, but someone has to."
"Eheh, yeah..."
Buneary watched Grumpig and Maractus. Maractus was dancing around while avoiding the primeape's blows, and Grumpig was running after them, summoning Power Gems from the earth as she did. They hovered around her as she went.
"Guess I'd better help..." Umbreon said, running over. Before he could even get close, he accidentally set off a trap underfoot, but was too focused to pay it any mind.
Buneary's eyes widened. They widened further when she saw a giant snowflake shoot out of the trap and into the sky. Heavy clouds formed high above, blocking the sun.
There was an immediate outcry from all the wild pokémon in the area. It only grew louder as heavy amounts of snow fell from the sky.
Oh, no, what happened!? Buneary hopped over to check the trap tile. It had a picture of a pokémon who seemed to be made of icy clouds. She couldn't tell what it was, though.
The wonderful warm sensation that had been following her all throughout the dungeon suddenly changed to a biting cold one that made her fur stand on end. Eeeek...! Whatever that trap was, she hated it most of all!
Umbreon didn't seem to care one bit, however. Shivering and hugging her body for warmth, Buneary watched as the fox performed an aggressive twirl. A sword-like beam of bright energy came out of his tail and sliced at the air. It sent out a sharp shockwave in a wide radius that spread outwards, hitting the primeape and sending him tumbling across the grass. The beam of energy dissipated, after.
Buneary stared in awe. Oh, that had been a cool move! Uh, no puns intended.
"I see your friend has Wide Slash," somebody suddenly said from next to Buneary.
She shrieked and turned to see a familiar spinda. "Oh, my legends! M-Mimikyu!?" she shouted.
Ignoring her, he pushed his specs up on a clawed finger while chuckling. "It's one of the two known typeless attacks, next to Vacuum-Cut. Good for attacking in a wide radius, as you can see."
"Oh... thanks..." Buneary murmured. Had... he been following them the whole time, just to wait for an opening to explain something?
She glanced back. She was alarmed to see that one of the wild pokémon who had been sunbathing - a teddiursa - was repeatedly hopping up and swiping at Grumpig's face at speeds fast enough to make his claws blur. "Ya punk explorers! Ya ruined my relaxin'!" he complained.
Frowning, Grumpig blocked his attempts with an arm with barely a flinch. She had to jump backwards and re-angle herself to simultaneously block an attack from a vigoroth girl, who was hitting her over and over with a flaming fist.
"These explorers got rid of the sunshine!" the vigoroth shouted loudly enough for everyone to hear. "Let's beat them up and get it back!"
Her declaration was met with resounding cheers.
Buneary gasped. Oh... sugar.
One of Grumpig's Power Gems from earlier slammed into the vigoroth from above, smashing her into the floor and shattering noisily. It had been too late, though. A mass of pokémon were already approaching the group, riled up by the vigoroth's words.
Grumpig clicked her tongue. "Ugh, this is just great..." she groaned.
Maractus was dancing around a couple of croconaws' swipes, bites and punches, though she had a bunch of other pokémon eyeing her up from nearby to worry about, too. With her speed, it wouldn't be a problem... except, her extra flowers and all the vines connecting them had wilted away to nothing! But why!?
… Oh, the strong sunshine was gone! Right! Oh, man...
Because her flowers and vines were gone, the cactus was a lot more sluggish, not helped by the snow and the cotton all around. Her dodges were far too close for comfort.
Umbreon wasn't faring much better. The primeape from before kept making lunges to try and grapple him, and was close a few times. The fox was dodging and trying to swing what looked like... a shadow-infused ball on a chain dangling from his tail? Actually... the ball was shaped like the primeape's fist? What an odd attack.
Umbreon jumped over the primeape as he lunged and, flipping forwards, swung the fist on a chain into the back of the monkey's head. The primeape was violently smashed into the ground, leaving him dazed.
Umbreon twisted around and grabbed the primeape by the ear with sharp, darkened teeth. He twisted around once more, throwing the primeape a good distance away with a growl. His chain and the fist connected to it dissipated as he swiped with Wide Slash, sending some advancing green pansear-like pokémon flying.
Buneary watched the scene unfolding in front of her with a growing sense of horror. Oh, this wasn't going to get any better any time soon, was it? She was lucky she hadn't been spotted, yet!
She heard the crunching of snow behind herself and turned to see a couple of pokémon coming her way. A haunter and another buneary.
"You... sons of... bitches..." the haunter said, delaying on his words for some reason. "You'll pay for... taking our... sun... away..."
"I'll say!" the buneary shouted hotbloodedly with a very masculine voice. He flexed his muscular ears. "Frickin' explorers! A species traitor like you needs a good punishing!"
Wallflower Buneary gulped and got herself ready to fight them both. She'd spoken too soon...
"Looks like your friend's caused us some trouble, huh, Buneary?" Mimikyu said, though with the same confident, smarmy tone he usually had. He pushed his glasses up his belly. "Thankfully, I have the perfect strategy for dealing with fellow ghosts. In fact, I'm putting it into effect..." He huffed in amusement, "… now."
The haunter's shadow sprang up and hit the purple ghost from below repeatedly. He shrieked in pain and rapidly backed off while looking all around in a panic. "Holy... ... ... shit!" he shouted.
The shadow withdrew into Mimikyu, who let out another creepy chuckle. "I believe that's your cue, Buneary," he said.
Wallflower Buneary snapped herself out of watching the scene unfold and nodded determinedly. She picked her target - the other buneary, who was watching the haunter in surprise - and used Bounce to get high above him. She came down at him as fast as she could, feet first.
Unfortunately, he looked up in time to see her surprise attack. Glaring, he rolled up both ears and angled them to block her feet. He lashed out with them, sending her springing upwards.
Yelping, she flipped around to correct herself. She landed up to her fluffy waist in the snow and cotton. Shivering, she tried to pull herself out, but found herself struggling.
"Hah! That's what you get!" the other buneary shouted triumphantly. He took a deep breath and brought both arms up. A swirling aura that resembled the Milky Way flew down from the sky and formed around him. "Behooold! A rabbit's connection to the moon!"
Wallflower Buneary stared. "... What!?" she said, bewildered. Since when did she have a connection to the moon of all things!?
The other buneary's cosmic aura suddenly faded. He stared at where it had once been, horror building on his face. "… Where's my frickin' moon!?"
"Heh heh heh... I wondered if one of you had a status move for me to Snatch," Mimikyu said as the Milky Way aura began to swirl around him, instead. He pushed up his glasses. "Thanks for the Cosmic Power. I'll be sure to use it well."
"Noooooo!" the other buneary screamed. The fluff on one of his ears was completely enveloped by a swirling portal of spacial energy. "Give it back!" He leapt forwards and swung his ear for a punch.
Mimikyu turned translucent just in time for the buneary's ear to go straight through. He kept going and punched the haunter hard in the face.
"Whoops! Sorry!" the buneary shouted, deactivating his attack.
"Oof. That... hurt..." the haunter said, flopping into the snow and cotton on the floor.
"Bold of you to use normal-type moves on a ghost," Mimikyu taunted, going fully opaque again. "Perhaps this defense boost was unnecessary, after all. Heh, heh..."
"Screw you, moon hater!" the buneary shouted, even though it didn't make much sense.
Wallflower Buneary finally managed to pull herself out of the snow and cotton while that had gone on. She nearly fell over again because of the soft, uneven ground. Shivering, she looked for somewhere safe to go.
She saw the snorlax. Despite everything, she was still asleep, blissfully unaware of everything going on around her.
She was much bigger and, uh... 'rounder' than the snorlax she knew, which gave her an idea. With a bit of difficulty from the soft floor, she managed to leap up with Bounce and land on the snorlax's belly, making it wobble slightly.
She quickly looked around to see how the others were doing. Grumpig was surrounded by half a dozen fainted pokémon and looking no worse for wear.
The pig kept taking potshots at the otherwise healthy pokémon circling her with Power Gem or Psybeam. Whenever anyone became brave enough to try and attack her directly, they were slugged with a Drain Punch that sent them reeling.
Maractus was still dancing around attacks directed her way to her own rattly tune, occasionally retaliating with a Poison Jab to the backs of her enemies, scoring a strong hit.
After getting far enough away from a bunch of them, the needles on her hands began to glow as she held them out in front of her.
"Here's a Pin Missile~!" she cried out loudly enough for Buneary to hear. Spiked streams of white energy flowed from her fingertips and rocketed into the pokémon, who shrieked. They shrieked again
as she twirled around and flung them away, seemingly using the white streams as a rope. The pokémon crashed against others before collapsing to the ground in a heap.
Wow... that was a cool new variation on Pin Missile Buneary didn't remember seeing before! She made a mental note to ask about it, later.
Umbreon was surrounded on all sides by pokémon. He still had a manifestation of the earlier primeape's fist on a chain attached to his tail, and he was trying to spin it around in a circle as he glared at the other pokémon around him, teeth bared.
On failing several times to spin it, he seemed to give up in frustration, instead making the fist appear over one of his front paws. He went in for a swing at a green, evolved pansear-like pokémon, striking a blow that sent it flying away. On landing, one of Umbreon's paws got caught in the snow and cotton covered ground, however, keeping him in place.
He tried to yank it free as other pokémon advanced on him. When they got too close, he gave a loud growl, producing dark soundwaves that pushed them away and caused a visible distortion of darkness to linger around them.
It was enough to keep him safe for the time being... but for how long!? She had to help! Even if the ground would be soft and cold...
She got herself ready to go help him, but was stopped when something painfully smacked her in the side. She turned in time to be hit in the forehead, knocking her flat on her back, against the bouncy, soft 'floor'.
"Oww...!" she whined. She looked up at her attacker and gasped lightly.
The other buneary was standing on the bump that made up the snorlax's covered breasts, which were huge by virtue of the snorlax being massive, herself. He let out a triumphant laugh as dozens of Swift stars floated above his head. "Like my star show, traitor?" he gloated. His Swift stars swirled around in the air above him in a bit of a clumsy pattern. "The friends of the moon are your doom!"
"Why are you so upset about the sun going away if you like the moon so much!?" Wallflower Buneary asked, getting very exasperated.
"The sun is another friend of the moon, and it was giving me a killer tan! Now suffer!"
The stars started to fly at Wallflower Buneary one after the other in quick succession.
Yelping, Wallflower Buneary hopped about in a frenzy, trying to dodge as many stars as she could. Some of them hit her as she moved, making her yelp each time. Ow! That hurt almost as much as the revolver's bullets had, yesterday!
She really had to admit, though... it was a very unique use of Swift! She had to learn that for herself! For now, though, she had to figure something out!
The other buneary laughed heartily as he continued to launch stars at her. Almost manically, even. Was he even doing this for 'justice' or whatever it was he'd said, anymore?
She looked around for any opening she could. She noticed that the other buneary was still standing on the covered breasts of the snorlax, even though it was pretty uneven for obvious reasons. She didn't seem to care one bit, and was still busy sleeping. Even through the cold and the hail of Swift stars, which bounced off her blubbery body.
Wallflower Buneary realized something as she noticed all the wobbling. If she knew anything about breasts, then...
She hopped high into the air and flipped around, facing upside down. She used Bounce to launch herself downwards by kicking the air and crashed against the snorlax's belly, landing with both ears to protect her head.
The bear's whole body wobbled, which especially included her breasts. They jiggled enough to throw off the other buneary's balance and make him stumble about. His stars went erratic as he tried to regain his footing.
Hopping to her feet, Wallflower Buneary threw a Swift star at the snorlax's breasts. They wobbled heavily on impact, sending the other buneary sprawling to the floor with a shout. All of his stars disintegrated into stardust.
Good! She rushed towards him with bounding hops, powering a Dizzy Punch in her ears.
He hopped to his feet and powered something in his own ears. When she went in for a punch, he intercepted it with a punch of his own. She tried to punch with her other ear, but he caught that, too. They were left staring into each other's eyes, pushing their ears against each other for dominance.
Gritting her teeth, she pushed her ears against his harder as he did the same. Their solidified ear fluffs shoved against each other with the same amount of force, with neither of them wanting to give the other an inch.
Well, 'the same amount of force' wasn't quite true. He was pushing back against her with a strength she couldn't match. Her ears were threatening to collapse under the strain, and he was gaining more ground by the second. She couldn't stop, either, or she would get punched, for sure!
"Heh... I'm gonna... Pound you...!" he said, grinning cockily.
Her eyes went wide. "W-What!?" she stammered fearfully.
"... like mochi... on the moon!" he continued.
She blinked. Her face went slightly warm. Oh, right. Eheh, whoops. She didn't know what 'mochi' was, but she had a feeling she'd, um... misunderstood something.
The momentary distraction was enough to give him even more of a push. She felt her legs buckle from the force. Ahhhgh...! She had to do something...!
She clenched her paws tightly. When she felt the ache of her stubby fingers pushing into her palms, she suddenly realized something.
Clenching her paws even harder, she swung a fist into his chest. He let out a grunt of pain, but didn't flinch much. She swung again with her other paw, this time hitting his stomach. He actually cried out at that, getting some excitement out of her from the progress. She didn't hit with her paws very often, but it was doing something!
She went for another swing, but he caught it with his own paw. He easily pushed hers back with little effort, despite all her effort to push back. Noticing how much more muscular his arms were compared to hers, it was easy to tell why.
"Hah! Nice try, sun and moon hater!" he taunted.
She frowned while sweating. She didn't want to faint here... not on an E-rank mission...!
But... how could she make her punches stronger? If she used her move in her paws as well as her ears, she was going to burn herself out!
Though... if she used a different move, it might not be so bad? She went through the possibilities.
As Swift crossed her mind, she finally figured something out. She conjured a star in her free paw, grabbed it, and jabbed the sharp end into his chest.
"Gyah!" he cried out in pain while stumbling backwards.
It was music to her ears! Dispelling her star, she smashed her rainbow-tinted earfluffs into his face in a steady rhythm, stunning him with her punches. As he swayed dizzily on his feet, she spun around and, powering a Bounce, slammed her brightly glowing sole into his stomach.
He was sent flying backwards. "Nooo! My moooon!" he screamed before sailing head first into the snorlax's bosom and tearing the furry chest covering. He got stuck between her breasts, unable to escape the fur that was keeping them covered.
Buneary smiled. "Heh... I did it... Yay...~" he muttered. She collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily. Boy, that had been exhausting. Was this really an E-rank mission anymore, at this point? Or was she really that pathetic? Ugh...
She looked at her weedy arms. She needed to do some training, pronto. If she was going to be a great explorer, it was essential!
The sounds of battle brought her out of her thoughts. She looked to see how the others were doing.
Mimikyu was nowhere to be seen, though that might've been because the snorlax was in the way of where she'd last seen him fighting the haunter. The others, however, she could see.
Grumpig, Maractus and Umbreon were utterly surrounded by pokémon. The girls weren't having much trouble fighting them off - with the pig keeping them at bay with beams and punches while deflecting projectiles with Mirror Coat, and with the cactus hopping across their heads while delivering attacks as she did - but Umbreon was struggling badly. Pokémon were on all sides of him, punching, kicking and using basic moves on him as he vainly tried to Bite back at them.
Buneary stared in horror. Oh no! What could she do to help!? He was going to faint!
She could see the dark fox saying something, so she angled her ears to listen.
"Get... off...!" he strained out, anger in his voice.
The pokémon surrounding him ignored him. They kept bashing him over and over again.
"I... said... get... off...!" Umbreon repeated, his voice growing oddly darker as a deep scowl grew across his red eyes.
Buneary was startled when his rings began to gleam brightly like pure beacons of light. What Buneary first mistook as sweat - but now realized was some sort of viscous yellow liquid - poured from his rings like small rivers, pooling at his feet. His pupils dilated, soon getting lost in the burning red color of his eyes which she swore weren't that bright before.
W-What the heck!? What was he doi-?
He threw his head back and loudly roared with enough force to violently fling off most of the pokémon attacking him. Almost everyone in the area's attention snapped to him, even pokémon who hadn't been going after him.
Buneary's heart nearly leapt out of her chest. She immediately felt her Run Away ability trying to kick in and make her panic. H-H-Holy sugar!
Before she could even take a second to acknowledge what was going on, Umbreon was on the attack. He conjured a set of giant, glowing curved fangs in front of his jaws and clamped them down on a falling croconaw. He crunched the living daylights out of the crocodile and flung him at an aipom, who was crushed under his weight.
The croconaw's apparent friend, a totodile, angrily pounced at Umbreon and clamped her jaws on the fox's leg. She seemed to stiffen in shock as she got a mouthful of Umbreon's weird yellow ring gunk.
He didn't even flinch at the Bite. He threw her forwards and fired a bolt of dark lightning from his mouth. It engulfed the crocodile and made her scream before she was blasted away.
As Umbreon's curved fangs dissipated, the darkness that had been in his jaw seemed to form around his tail, instead. He leapt into the air and spun with some force before slamming his tail into the ground. Plumes of darkness erupted from the ground, rapidly going forwards in waves. Any pokémon caught in them were thrown high into the air and stunned by the dark energies.
Umbreon's assault didn't end. He eyed up some more wild pokémon nearby and lunged at them with reckless abandon.
Buneary couldn't tear her eyes away. This whole thing was sort of scary to watch! Even Grumpig and Maractus was watching him unsurely, now safe thanks to the wild pokémon either changing targets to Umbreon, or, more wisely, fleeing.
It was no wonder, really. Umbreon's movements and actions were, to put it simply, 'feral'. It reminded Buneary of the part of Time & Darkness where Donphan and Snorlax - unevolved at the time - had been dragged into the desolate future. Because time had stopped for the whole world, most pokémon had been driven mad and couldn't be reasoned with anymore. Buneary'd had a hard time picturing what that would've been like while she'd been reading the story, but seeing Umbreon here, she finally had a feel for it.
"Hmm, how interesting...!" a voice said from next to her.
Buneary shrieked and twirled to face the speaker. It was Mimikyu, who had appeared next to her from out of nowhere to watch Umbreon in intrigue.
"D-Do you have to do that!?" Buneary asked, pouting in irritation. Did he want to give her a heart attack!?
He simply snickered in his usual way before continuing. "I've heard of this phenomenon before... It seems that when Umbreon began leaking his species' signature poison, he entered a new state of mind. Thus his new set of moves."
Buneary stopped being grumpy to stare at him in surprise. "New set of... moves?"
"Absolutely. Before going off the rails, he had Bite, Snarl, Foul Play and Wide Slash. Correct?"
"I... g-g-guess?" she mumbled, pulling the puffy part of her fluff up to wrap around her upper body, which was getting cooooold...!
"Mmhm. Right now he has Crunch, Roar, Dark Pulse, and... what appears to be Lash Out, looking at how he's absorbing power from the elements that're slowing his movement. Namely, the snow and cotton."
She glanced over at Umbreon. Sure enough, he seemed to be somehow absorbing power from the snow and cotton covering the floor into his legs. He used them to utterly beat down a poor yanmega, delivering darkness-powered punches and kicks so quickly it was hard for Buneary to keep track. He finished by clamping his teeth around the bug, twirling to toss him away and shooting Dark Pulse in the form of lightning at him from his mouth.
Fried a crispy black, the bug was launched across the field, out of view.
Buneary shivered, and not just because of the cold. "W-Wow... he sure didn't have that earlier!" she said. "How did he...?"
"The means to use pokémon moves are subconsciously stored in our minds," Mimikyu explained. "Namely, how to conjure and use the energy around or inside of us. Naturally, there are only so many moves we can retain at once. Four, to be precise... But, Buneary, imagine if you will that we're in a completely different state of mind. What would that mean...?"
Buneary's eyes widened as she took in his words. "Oh! Our moves would be different?"
"Right you are. Much like the time you became a chinchou, and your moves changed."
"Wow, that makes a lot of sense!" She smiled. "Gosh, you sure know your stuff!"
He pushed his glasses up his face. "Of course. I'm quite clever, wouldn't you say? Heh heh heh..."
"Heehee, I guess... so..." She blinked blankly. "... How, uh... d-did you know about the chinchou thing?"
He snickered once more and began to disappear into her shadow. "Anyway, I'll leave you to it, Buneary...!"
She let go of her fluff to desperately wave her paws in an attempt to stop him. "No, w-wait!" She lunged for her shadow, but it was too late. He was gone.
Now on her knees atop the snorlax, she shivered more intensely. Hoooo boy... she really hoped he hadn't learned about, um... 'anything else' regarding that incident...
Trying not to think about it too hard to save her ever dwindling sanity, she turned back to the action. Most of the wild pokémon had scattered in fear from Umbreon, leaving him alone with the primeape from earlier.
Despite how strong primeapes usually were, Umbreon didn't care. He just rushed towards the monkey with a rabid look in his red, glowing eyes that Buneary could even see from this distance.
The primeape was ready for him. "Come to daddy, you dickhole!" he yelled loudly, powering his fist with some sort of ghostly energy that also enveloped his whole body. In fact, it enveloped him so much that he became completely obscured by it.
A short while went by until the ghostly energy dissipated a little, and... uh... gosh, the primeape looked way more dark and evil, now. His long gray and white fur floated freely as it glistened with shadows, his eyes glowed crimson with power, and his muscles bulged more than any muscles Buneary had seen in a long time, making her feel a blush coming on.
His large fist still glowed with an otherworldly power as Umbreon leapt at him, blissfully unaware.
"Wah! Umbreon, watch out!" Buneary called out.
The primeape slugged Umbreon with all his might, causing an explosion of spiritual energy to completely engulf the fox. He was sent flying backwards in a tumble, completely black and blue with bruises and soot. He'd been knocked out for sure.
Umbreon roared loudly, flipped himself around to land and lunged forwards. He produced a detached holographic set of curved Crunch jaws in front of his mouth, and grabbed the upper row of teeth, leaving the lower one behind. He used the translucent fangs as a weapon, wildly singing their sharp edges into the primeape.
The monkey screamed as he was slashed and stabbed over and over again by the teeth and had glowing poison flicked onto him with each swing. Buneary was flabbergasted by the sight. But... he'd fainted, surely! How was he still moving!? Even Grumpig and Maractus looked completely surprised by the scene.
Eventually, Umbreon delivered a battle ending slam into the primeape's side, stabbing the fangs into him with a good amount of force. The monkey was sent spinning backwards from the impact before slumping into an unconscious pile, his ghostly hair flopping around his sides. He didn't move again, even as the teeth in his side dissipated.
Umbreon stood in place, muscles still tensed from the fighting. He glanced around, likely looking for more foes... but there were none. Not unless one counted the dozens upon dozens of fainted pokémon all around, cluttering the field.
He seemed to realize this, because all at once, his demeanor changed. The yellow gunk dribbling from his dimming rings subsided, his red eyes lost their bright glow, revealing his pupils once more, and his muscles relaxed. He blinked a few times and groggily looked around.
"... Huh?" he muttered. "Why is... When did everyone... all... ugh..."
He flopped to his side and lay there, completely motionless.
Buneary hopped off the snorlax's body and rushed towards Umbreon. It was hard to move through all the snow-covered cotton, but she managed. Grumpig and Maractus joined her, rushing over from where they'd been watching a safe distance away.
They stood around him. Grumpig nudged him with her foot. "Hey, you alive?" she asked.
He didn't respond. He just lay there, completely out for the count.
"Yep, he's not getting up for a while," she continued with a sigh.
"Yeah..." Buneary muttered with a breath of her own, staring at the fainted fox. "I'm sure glad he's on our side, though! Holy moly...!"
"Yeah! Woooow..." Maractus said in awe. "He really got so angry he just plum refused to faint, huh?"
"No kidding..." Grumpig mumbled. "And after getting that freshly evolved maniac's fist to the face, too."
Buneary looked at her in surprise. "Freshly... evolved? Primeape don't evolve, though, do they? That's what Elder Slowking said!"
"'Fraid he's wrong," Grumpig said. "I'll tell you in a bit. For now, you girls look around for some sort of reviver seed. May as well, with everyone unconscious like this."
"Sure thing~!" Maractus chimed, hopping away to look.
"Okay..." Buneary muttered, displeased about knowing Slowking had gotten something wrong. Darn it all!
She began to stroll away. Well, it was impossible to know everything, she guessed, but he'd been very insistent at the time! She wondered if there were other things that weren't general knowledge she didn't know about, yet...
As she went, she looked around at all the bodies of the fainted pokémon everywhere and immediately felt inadequate. They'd defeated so many... and she could barely hold her own against another buneary.
For sure, she needed to get stronger pronto!
The group were walking through the meadows once more, now with Umbreon in tow. He seemed a bit wobbly on his feet - because they'd only been able to find a tiny reviver seed to help him recover with - but he was alright, otherwise.
Thankfully, the weather in the third field - the one they were currently in - was a lot sunnier than the last. It seemed the bad weather's effects hadn't traveled out this far, thankfully.
Feeling much better because of the hot sun, Buneary was taking the opportunity to practice. She creased her brows in concentration as her Swift stars swirled above her, being guided by her will alone. They were rather wonky, and it was hard to maintain the pattern without some strain, but progress was progress!
"Hey, you're getting good with those stars, kid," Grumpig praised.
"Yeah, they look good," Umbreon added with a faint smile.
"Thanks!" Buneary chimed, looking their way. The stars above her threatened to spiral out of control when her concentration faltered, so with a yelp, she focused again. Ughh, jeez...!
"Hey, Umbreon, I've reaaally gotta ask," Maractus started, doing large bounds again, thanks to her Chlorophyll activating once more.
Umbreon murmured curiously. Buneary was too busy focusing on her stars to look at him properly to definitely tell if he was listening, though.
"What was the deal with you going all crazy and kicking everyone's butts to next Tuesday?" the cactus asked.
"Yeah, what's the deal?" Grumpig added.
"Oh, I... don't know," he replied quietly. "I was fighting... and then they overwhelmed me... and it reminded me of when... when I wasn't there on the day when my village was being attacked. And my thoughts turned to... to Min-..." He let out a long groan that sounded like it was filled with more negative emotions than Buneary had ever felt in her life.
She chanced a glance and saw that Umbreon had briefly stopped to drape a paw over his face, which had pure angst written over it. He let out a shaking breath, as if to dispel whatever thoughts he was harboring. "... Uh... and then I came to, feeling like complete shit, and fainted."
The others awkwardly stared at him. Buneary had even dispelled her Swift to do so.
"... Huh," Maractus said simply. She beamed. "Well, it worked out great, so thanks, Umbreon~!"
"Y-Yeah..." Buneary mumbled, looking forwards again. Poor guy...
She saw more sunbathers in the distance, blissfully unaware of what had happened only a field away. She still liked this dungeon, she supposed... After all, it was very pretty, with its grassy fields and various flowers. She might have liked the place a bit more, however, if she didn't get a strange foreboding feeling about it. Since that trap Umbreon had triggered, the dungeon didn't feel very friendly anymore, despite all the sunbathers choosing to mind their own business. For now, anyway...
She kept an eye on the ground before her, hoping she wouldn't see any more traps. She stepped around a sleeping kirlia, soaking in the sun. A boy, judging by his masculine face, the lack of breasts, and his big penis and testicles hanging limply from his crotch.
Buneary let out a small, absentminded huff and went back to looking for traps. She nearly stumbled over herself in sheer surprise and doubled back. W-What!?
Sure enough, the kirlia was completely nude! She could even see his nipples and bellybutton through the split in the white cover thing that made up most of his body! What the absolute heck!?
She stumbled backwards, face flaring. She bumped into another pokémon, who grunted lightly in response. When she turned around to apologize, she was greeted by the sight of a flaaffy lying on her back, legs spread to reveal an obvious slit, and large breasts out for all to see.
Yelping, Buneary stumbled away from her, too, face steaming hot. She looked around herself and saw that most of the sunbathing pokémon were completely naked, unlike the ones in the earlier fields!
"Uh..." Buneary mumbled, her ears both completely upright in surprise. What did one even say to something like this!?
"Oh yeah... I forgot they, um... like their indecent sunbathing further in this place," Grumpig muttered awkwardly.
"N-N-No kidding..." Buneary replied, eyeing up a darmanitan's erect penis and nearly fainting.
"Teehee, yeah, I completely forgot, too!" Maractus giggled. "These guys have the right idea! Woohoo!"
Before Grumpig could even sigh, Maractus had already torn open her chest covers, letting her humongous breasts hang free. She let out a big, relaxed sigh. "Ohhh, that's better...~" she groaned.
"... Huh," Umbreon muttered when he saw them, as if a question had been answered for him. He let out a breath through his nose, shrugged and just carried on walking.
"You really just don't care, do you, Maractus?" Grumpig asked sassily.
"Nope!" the cactus replied, hopping in Umbreon's direction and causing her breasts to flail about wildly from the force. "And why should I? Everyone else is doing it! Besides, you guys already saw it, so whatever, right?"
Grumpig shook her head in exasperation. "Well, it's not like it's unusual here. I guess."
"Y-Yeah..." Buneary muttered. She certainly didn't plan to join Maractus. She'd had enough 'nudey parties' for the week, thank you very much. Especially since Umbreon was here, who, uh... hadn't seen Maractus naked before, but whatever.
She and Grumpig continued on behind the two pokémon in front. The pig seemed to be trying to ignore everyone, but Buneary... well, she was pretending otherwise, but she couldn't stop stealing glances!
She felt a certain itchiness begin to build between her legs as she saw all the naked sunbathing men. She saw many penises, both hard and soft... she saw many sacks... and she saw many back muscles and bare bums.
She felt her breathing grow a little shallow. She could feel her nipples softly pressing against her chest covers from hardening. Ohhh, this wasn't a safe place for her to be...!
The rabbit tried to suppress the urge to grin giddily and avoid embarrassing herself. Boy, was she glad Breeding Chaser Elgyem wasn't here. She really wanted her thoughts to herself right now.
She stalled. Wait, but Mimikyu was here... He couldn't read minds, as far as she could tell, but he sure was eerily perceptive!
... Actually, where was he right now? Had he left entirely?
"Yo, Umbreon," Grumpig started, catching Buneary's attention, as well as Umbreon's. The pig smirked. "I'm surprised that you're so calm, everything considered. Not enjoying the view?"
"Huh?" he murmured questioningly, looking back at her. "View?"
"'Cos all the girls are all nakeeed~" Maractus chimed with a giggle.
"Oh... right," he replied. He shrugged. "It's alright, I guess, yeah."
Grumpig's head lurched back, as if she wasn't expecting such a lukewarm response. "Huh... well, you're not as lecherous as Hoopa, at least," she said.
"You're, uh... not interested in that sort of thing, Umbreon?" Buneary asked. She shivered when she saw an ursaring man on his front, his muscular bum in the air with the legs spread to let in more sun. It was very hard to keep her mind on the conversation after that. O-Oh man...!
Umbreon let out a breath through his nose. "I guess... I don't really care," he replied. Buneary couldn't see his face from where she was, but she could see the muscles on his shoulders tense. "Because... Because it's not M-... Mi-..." He let out a guttural noise of anguish and heavily shook his head. "... I-It doesn't matter. I'm just not interested..."
Buneary frowned sadly. Gosh, it was good he was so devoted, but aww, poor guy...
"Uh... jeez, sorry I asked," Grumpig muttered, awkwardly rubbing the back of her head.
"Yeah, ehehe, um..." Maractus replied just as awkwardly. Her eyes lit up when she saw someone. "Ooh, look, Mimikyu's over there!" she exclaimed, pointing in a direction.
Buneary looked over and saw the spinda-costumed pokémon in question. He was somewhat close by, walking past a row of naked lopunny ladies, adjusting his heavily fogged up glasses which sat above his reddened belly. Even from here, Buneary could hear his usual snickers.
When he spotted the girls and Umbreon - likely because Maractus was calling him over loudly - he quickly came over. "Why hello there, again. I see you're enjoying the sunshine," he said, making no attempts to look away from Maractus' giant breasts.
"I see you are, too," Grumpig said, raising a sassy eyebrow.
There was a glint to his blue lenses, despite how fogged up they were. "I guess you could say that..." He produced a clawed hand made of shadows from under his cloak to point over the hills. "Anyway, explorers, I saw another one of your kind loitering further down the field, spending time with a smoochum. Do you know her?"
"I'll bet that's Banette," Umbreon muttered.
"And I'll bet that's our cliiieeent~" Maractus chimed. "Great work, Mimikyu!"
She suddenly reached down to grab him and pull him into a hug, getting a cry of surprise out of him. He yelped in pain as he was sandwiched between Maractus' breasts, practically disappearing within them.
His belly began to glow an even brighter shade of red. Wait... was that where his face had been the whole time? His real face? She'd thought it had been where the puppet-y head part was! Whoops.
Either way, Mimikyu's usual smarmy demeanor completely gave way to awkward spluttering. "W-What the-!? I, uh, I-I mean...! Think... Th-Think nothing of it...!" he managed, clearly very flustered.
Buneary giggled and Grumpig snorted out a chuckle, while Umbreon just huffed with a light smirk. Well, as cool-headed as Mimikyu was, even he couldn't handle a girl's attention, it seemed!
After a fair amount of time, the group - having said goodbye to a very embarrassed Mimikyu, earlier - were finally getting closer to their objective. Buneary could tell, because their badges had started flashing, and were flashing faster as they came closer to what was likely their goal.
After taking a second to smile in satisfaction at the badge pinned against her chest, Buneary continued her journey. It was a lovely trek through the hills for every wonderful reason she could have ever imagined. The sun was shining, she was with good company, and there were so many naked men!
This was certainly a contender for the best dungeon, no question about it. Even with the snowy hijinks from earlier!
Maractus was just about finished explaining the glowing Pin Missile attack she'd performed earlier - it turned out she'd kept them tasseled with the bug-type energy - when they came across a bunch of bushy trees, with a load of large bushes next to them. They seemed like a great way to escape the sun for a bit, though Buneary couldn't imagine why someone would want to!
"Guess she's in there," Umbreon said, looking down at his badge, which was flashing far faster than before.
"Either her or the smoochum we're looking for, anyway," Grumpig suggested. "Maybe both, if Mimikyu's right."
"Yeah! I hope it's boooth~" Maractus chimed amusedly.
"Heehee, yeah," Buneary replied. "That would be really... helpful...?"
She stopped as she heard something weird from the direction of the bushes. It was like... grunting? And the smacking of lips? What could it be? She extended her rolled ear to listen better.
"Ohh, yeah, you're doing good...!" a girl groaned. It sounded like Banette's voice. "Told ya those lips were good for more than kissing...! No, don't get shy, now, just keep it-... Oh, there we go...!"
Buneary creased her brows. That's... uh...
"You okay?" Umbreon asked, giving her a curious side glance.
"Um... uh..." she muttered, face heating. She didn't know what she was hearing, but... "She sounds... busy. Um, Banette, I mean. I think she's in there, but..."
"Busy? Banette-?" His eyes widened. He glared in the direction of the bushes. "Aww hell."
Before anything else could be said, Umbreon dashed off in the direction of the bushes. He reached inside with his paw and then, suddenly, the groans turned into cries of surprise and protest.
A second later, Banette was hoisted into the air, butt naked and panting with only her natural cloth 'mask' remaining. An equally naked smoochum was pulled into the air with her, held up by her large lips wrapping around Banette's crotch.
Buneary stared in shock. Holy moly, she'd known it'd sounded a bit lewd, but... oh dear.
"... Huh," Grumpig said with a large, exasperated exhale. "'Course."
"Oh, what do ya know, they were together, haha..." Maractus mumbled sheepishly.
Just as shocked as them, the bright faced smoochum - an adult one from the looks of things - covered herself and fell from Banette's unmentionables with a loud smack that made the currently cloth-less girl flinch with a hiss.
"I fucking knew it!" Umbreon shouted. "You've been roping girls into doing gross things for you again!"
"Butt out, Umbreon!" Banette angrily retorted, flailing about in irritation, which made for an interesting sight. "I charmed her, actually! And it's none of your business who I'm doing 'gross things' with!"
"It is! I'll bet that poor girl's traumatized because of you!"
The smoochum let out an embarrassed squeal from within the bushes, but didn't add any additional comments.
"She is now, no thanks to you, and-" She turned to address the others while covering her purple body. She stopped, however, as she locked gazes with Buneary. Her face brightened, instead. "Ooh, hey again, sweetheart!"
"Uh... h-hello?" Buneary replied, still extremely weirded out by the whole situation.
Banette grinned, eyes half-lidded. "Say, why don't you... come over here, and help me convince this jerkwad that I'm not traumatizing any-"
Balancing on his hind legs, Umbreon grabbed the golden zipper on Banette's face and pulled it closed, cutting her off, much to her chagrin.
"No!" he shouted, landing on his third paw again. "No more, you crazy dyke!"
Buneary let out a breath. She wasn't sure exactly how Banette wanted her to help, but...
Grumpig let out a loud, amused huff. "What, Banette. You're not even gonna invite us over to your little orgy?" she asked, indicating to herself and Maractus. "We're shocked and appalled."
Maractus giggled. "Yeah! Don't leave us out!" she joked.
Still struggling with her zipper, Banette frowned and dismissively waved them off while still trying to cover herself.
Grumpig turned to Buneary. "See that, Buneary? She lost interest and wants us all to skedaddle," she joked.
Buneary blinked. "She... She does?" she murmured.
Maractus laughed. "Yeahhh, fuhgeddaboudit! Let's goooo sunbathiiing~!" she sang, excitedly shaking her whole body as she did. She let out heavy rattling sounds as her chest heavily swayed.
Buneary blinked again. "... Huh?"
Banette's eyes widened and she changed her wave from a dismissive one to a more desperate one, shaking her head at the same time.
"Uh... but Smoochum...?" Buneary asked, getting more and more flustered by the second. Everyone was being really flipping strange right now!
"It's okay. I'll handle her when we're done, here," Umbreon said. "It's just a rescue, right?"
"I want to change the mission to kill me...!" the smoochum's voice rang out from the bush, mortified. Buneary didn't blame her.
Grumpig awkwardly cleared her throat. "You guessed it, Umbreon. Thanks," she replied. She turned to Buneary, who looked back at her, completely befuddled. "If there's more than one team handling the same mission, we can all share points and rewards and what have ya."
"Yeah, that's right. I'll let 'em know," the fox reassured. "You can have most of the rewards and stuff. I don't even care." He gave Banette a side glare. "... I got what I came for..."
Banette crossed her arms and fumed at him, her zipper only partially open.
"You're so great! Thaaaanks!" Maractus chimed, hopping away as cheery as can be.
"Yeah, appreciated." Grumpig said with a simple wave, following after her. "We'll, uh... put those 'gravel rocks' to good use."
"Um... bye, everyone, I guess..." Buneary added, pulling a face as she waved and followed after the girls. Well, at least they were being compensated, she supposed.
It still felt a little hollow, though. She'd wanted to officially finish the mission and feel cool about it...
She pouted to herself for a minute before stopping with a sigh. Well... sunbathing in such a lovely warm place filled with such 'wonderful sights' was a reward in its own right, she supposed~
"Oh, finally, a berry bush," Grumpig suddenly said.
Buneary looked and saw a large one that had an assortment of different berries on it. "Ooh, nice!" she said.
"For sure," the pig replied, going over to it to pluck some. "Walking around in this heat's gotten me all hungry."
"Yay~ Picnic time~" Maractus sang, quickly going over to help.
Smiling, Buneary also went over to help the girls. But not before sneaking a glimpse of a yanma's throbbing penis.
She smiled harder.
Delcatty mentally groaned in frustration. It was Monday, and she and Manectric were watching Pikachu from afar again, hoping to document everything they could about him for the other explorers.
Except... there wasn't much else to learn! He either mugged pokémon with the exact same strategy each time, or he was out of view, because of the caves or the many rows of giant, spiky rock hedges. They hadn't wanted to risk catching his attention, so they'd decided not to follow him. As much as it pained her.
It was becoming rather aggravating. She wanted to stop this man so badly... but she had to keep telling herself that it was for the other explorers to handle! She had to be good and avoid doing anything herself!
She watched as Pikachu fought a machoke. They were partially hidden by rocky hedges dotted about, but they could still see bits and pieces of the fight. The mouse started by filling the air with a heavy amount of static electricity, paralyzing the big lizard man. It seemed to work in the machoke's favor, though, as it made his muscles bulge with an electrical aura.
"Oh, I know zat ability... Guts!" Manectric said excitedly. "Like in ze book, Free On Ze Fourth!"
"Ooh! The one where Taciturn Minccino escapes her evil space home, lands on an alien planet and joins the dodgy space guild?" she asked in intrigue, though while keeping her eyes on the ongoing fight. She hadn't read that book in a while! She'd have to give it a go again, soon!
"Ja! Locked Shinx's Guts made his veins fill with flames vhen he got burnt, giving him ze strength to fight ze star mercenary houndoom."
"Meowie, that really powered him up, yeah!" she replied as the machoke slowly, but cautiously, inched towards Pikachu. "I hope it helps the machoke, too!"
The machoke continued stumbling forwards, though he seemed a little unsteady on his feet because of the paralysis. Before he could reach the mouse, however, the machoke disappeared behind some rocky hedges, obscuring him from Team Shire's view. Oh for meow's sake...
However, they could see Pikachu pull out some sort of orb before he could be attacked. He used it and immediately turned invisible. Before anyone could blink, the machoke went flying out from where he'd been hidden from sight, and slammed into the spikes of the rocky hedges. He fell back out of view, clearly unconscious.
"Vow, zhere's a new vun!" Manectric said in surprise, an air of excitement to his voice. "Using ze items to get in a sneak attack! Ve haven't seen zat tactic, yet!"
"No kitten! Wow..." Delcatty replied, staring at the spectacle in complete surprise. "We knew he was fast, but that was... fast! It was like the meower had two of him, or something!"
"Ja... Did ze kotzbrocken use anozer item?"
She giggled at his random use of German. A cute trait of his. "Well, aside from the invisify orb, I'm not sure..." She took out her kitty pen and scribbled down some notes. 'Used an orb to turn invisible and attacked extremely quickly, like he warped, or something. Is he that skillful, or did he use another item? Further research required.'
As she wrote, she wondered how someone like that could even be beaten. He seemed fairly smart... but it was strange. His strategies didn't seem to incorporate thinking outside the box, much. His methods were usually pretty 'blunt', actually. So why was this the exception? Had he been trying something new for kicks? It didn't make much sense!
She watched the scene, even though the machoke was still obscured by rocky hedges, as well as the pikachu, presumably. Tsk... there had to be some kind of method to his madness... but what was it?
She had to figure it out, so that they could fight him.
... That is, so that their fellow explorers could fight him.
Yeah...
Her brows furrowed as she watched the area the mouse had been fighting in. Even though she knew she shouldn't be thinking about it, her mind raced with strategies as she continued.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Finished: 01/04 (April)/2024
Word count: 12,042
VGS2's sausage notes: Happy belated Easter, everyone! I hope you had a great one! :D
... Yeahhhh, I know. you pulled a face at the 'belly button' comment, didn't you? XD Fuck it, sure, they already have a bit of the ol' T & A, so why not? I'll explain the biology behind it some other time, though!
Today's shameless promotion: Mystery Dungeon: Bugs
Author: Princess Cut Diamond
Universe: Original Mystery Dungeon universe
Main species: A wurmple, a caterpie and a surskit
Summary: In the vast and expansive world of Pokémon and its plethora of different species, one particular type finds itself dead last against the crowd. A feeling no one knows better than self-appointed explorer Silkie: A Wurmple stuck in the depths of a forgotten village who rapidly finds her grumpy self rapt in an unruly chaos when she encounters a mysterious Surskit in her forest home.
Romance: Too early to tell! I'm hoping so, though!
Wackiness: A fair bit!
Lewdness: Not much!
Action: A lot! Plenty of fighting scenes!
Grittiness: A fair bit! Predator pokémon on the loose!
Length: Too early to tell, though it looks to be somewhat long!
Y'know, whenever bug-types appear in fics, they're almost always just treated as lesser creatures to beat and/or eat, aren't they? Well not in this fic! Here, they're fully fledged characters with personalities, dreams, and - most importantly - main character status!
For real, it's such a cute little read with a lot of heart! And the battles are really grand, too! I'm enjoying it a lot! :P And most certainly, the change in pokémon variety is a much needed break from all the fox pokémon everyone loves to use. XD Give it a read, why don't'cha?
Fun mistakes of the day:
#1: 'That was, Hobby DUckleet'
(Time for the return of l33t $pe3k!)
#2: "Man, now I really wish I could've met her! Man, Team Nebula, never change."
(Hey, maaan, why're you saying man so much, maaaan? (Also, beta dialogue, lol))
#3: 'Buneary was finding it extremely hard to fight off the urge to sunbath,'
(You can't just clean yourself with the sun, Buneary! Not unless you go to it directly. That'll get the grime for sure, as you burn to death!)
#4: 'Opening her mouth wise'
(I dunno... leaving your mouth hanging open all the time isn't what I'd call smart, you neanderthal!)
#5: 'a teddiursa - had gotten up to swipe at Grumpig at speeds fast enough to make his claws blur. [etc] Frowning, Grumpig blocked his attempts with an arm with barely a flinch.'
(I always forget to incorporate their height differences, so now I guess Grumpig's bending over to let the guy scratch her arm, or something. Either that or it's quite a tall teddiursa. XD)
#6: 'just in time for the buneary's ear ear to go'
(Here comes Buneareary!)
#7: 'which were huge by virtue of the snowlax being massive, herself.'
(The newest regional variant...)
#8: 'clamped her jaws on the fox's leg. Umbreon didn't even flinch. He threw him forwards'
(Oh shit, she was flung so hard she grew a penis!)
#9: "I've heard of this phenomon before...
(The newest digimon...)
#10: "The means to sue Pokémon moves"
(I still remember when Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter's Guile and the rainbow lesbian from My Little Pony tried to send a lawsuit to Game Freak over the move Sonic Boom...)
#11: "and then I came to feeling like complete shit, and fainted."
(I know how you feel sometimes, buddy. Hence why I forgot to give you a comma.)
#12: 'Most of the wild pokémon had scat'
(I was rearranging things, and was left with this. Uh oh... O,o I hope you mean singing!)
#13: 'Buneary couldn't see her face from where she was,'
(That's what a mirror is for, you nelly! Unless... you're trying to say that you're the dreaded Slenderbun...! O,o)
#14: 'Buneary was flabbergasted by the site.'
(Which, um... website did you find, there, Buneary...?)
#15: '"Nope!" the cactus sang, hopping along with Umbreon'
(They're both going for a jolly skip together through the flower fields!)
#16: 'but she could stop stealing glances!'
(That's a lie and you know it, Buneary!)
#17: 'And why should I? Everyone else is dong it!'
(Not you too, I hope!)
#18: "It is! I'll bet hat"
(Umbreon's getting desperate for things to bet on his game of binoculars-hide-and-seek...)
#19: 'Umbreon grabbed the golden zipper on Banette's face and pulled it close,'
(Umbreon: "B-Banette-chan..." Banette: "U-Umbreon senpai... b-baka..." *They lean in for a kiss just as soon as Minccino rounds the corner.* Minccino: "HORY SHIET! FUCKA YOO!" *Shoots him*)
#20: "No more, you crazy dye!"
(He hates getting it on his clothes!)
#21: 'She watched as Pikachu wandered out of view,'
(Somehow, even though he's invisible right now...)
Welp, that'll do it for another chapter! Like I said before, I'm hoping to do some chapter clipping and arc adding, soon! So I hope you look forward to it! :P (Maybe I'll end up posting another chapter at the same time, too, to sweeten the deal!)
Until then, though, my friend... tata for now! c: