Chapter 10: Silk and Swing

After some doors, the duo of fox and jumping spider reached the backyard. The backyard was kinda big, it was surrounded by a tall wooden fence, it was covered by steel splinters, there was a pool with some sort of weird-shaped beach chairs, and lastly, there was a training dummy in the shape of a Snorlax.

“Wow… it looks… like a normal human backyard…” John noted and Claire smiled at him.

“Of course!” She said. “We have to thank the humans for everything that they brought over from their world! In the past, our houses were like huts or cabins, and they were so small, I don’t know how any Pokémon lived there.” She added. John jumped out of her back and onto the grass.

“Understandable… so I assume you’re gonna use that training dummy, right?” He asked while looking at the big and fat-looking dummy.

“Yep, I didn’t ask for it on my birthday for nothing. Although, I was thinking… why don’t you use it first? So you can try to do a move?” She suggested it and John frowned.

“Look… I don’t know if it’ll work. I don’t even know how to do a move or even just weave silk. Like, do I have a special orifice on my butt just for that?” He asked as Claire giggled a little.

“No silly, bug types of your species shoot silk from your mouth. Actually, why don’t you try doing that? Try shooting a String Shot on the dummy, or what I like to call… Snormmy!” John stared in silence at Claire for a moment before sighing and muttering.

“At least it has a cool name.” He turned to the dummy and walked closer to it, stopping in front of it. He looked up, towards the face of the dummy, its big size was intimidating, sure, but it had a smiley face drawn on it, which made it a little funny. John inhaled deeply, closing his eyes, keeping oxygen in his lungs for a moment. He then exhaled while spitting out saliva, trying to shoot silk out of his body, but nothing came out except for his inhumanly long tongue. He opened his eyes to see if anything was happening, stopping as he saw it wielding no results. “…” He heard a regal laugh coming from behind him, he turned around to find Elsa laughing next to the door.

“As expected from a pathetic bug like you.” She said running a paw on her hair.

Claire, clearly having none of it, spat back at her. “Give him some time! He’s still getting used to his body!” She growled at her.

John was getting a bit annoyed from being called a bug everywhere he goes. Especially coming from a thot like her. Something inside him told him to give everything he got, to show that stupid fox what he is made of, what it is to be a human in any situation like this. He needed to show his superiority to her no matter the cost. He turned back to the Snorlax dummy (or Snormmy) and steadied his body once again.

Claire looked at John and got close to him, standing next to him. “John, it’s okay, you can try another time when you’re more used to your body.”

John turned his head towards her. “I’m gonna prove your thot of a sister a point… that I’m not a pathetic bug… I’m a human!” He turned to the Snormmy once again, inhaling a lot of air in the process. Suddenly, a rush of energy he never felt before started flowing through his body, it focused more around his mouth. The energy started to get physical as his cheeks puffed a little. He then exhaled, releasing the energy from his mouth in the form of strands of silk coming out of his mouth hitting the head of the dummy, its face was now covered with sticky silk. John opened his eyes to look at Claire who was with excitement on her face, he then looked at the dummy to see its face covered with small cobwebs. “… I… I did it…”

Claire approached John and jumped up and down in glee. “You did it John! You used String Shot!” John, still in disbelief, looked down at his nubs, blinking with his four eyes.

“Holy shit… I actually did it…” He quickly turned around extending a nub forward. “Hah, in your face you brat-…” Elsa was nowhere to be seen, likely gone back inside. The Joltik stood silent for a moment as he slowly lowered his nub. “… A revenge plan is in order it seems…” He muttered. He seemed to have developed quite a rivalry with the snow fox, although he hadn’t realized that yet since he had some hate towards her.

“Um… she went inside…” Claire affirmed.

“… I could tell…” He agreed as he turned back to the training dummy, its face still covered with silk. “Um… can we take turns? Now that I know that I can use a move, I wanna try to master it as best as I can.”

Claire nodded smiling. “Of course, we can! Since we need to be prepared as possible for our first time in a dungeon!” She was already imagining them in a fight, John on her head while shooting silk at wild Pokémon while Claire burns them away along with the web John shot. Outside of her imagination, she was drooling, looking at the sky.

“Um… something wrong Claire?” She snapped out of her daydream and shook her head.

“Oh, nothing, nothing. Was just thinking about the move I would use for the dummy.” She lied while putting on a smile.

“Uh… fine then…” He said as he stepped out of the way for Claire. “As they say uh… in my world… go wild. But like… not literally, okay? It’s just an expression.”

She giggled. “Don’t worry, I know. Now for you Snormmy…” She got in front of the dummy. “Time for ass roast!” She jumped and shot three small fireballs towards the dummy, getting a direct hit on it. Two had hit on the belly while the other one hit the head, burning away the silk that John spat on the dummy.

“Goddamn…” He muttered between breaths. Claire landed on the ground, with a smirk on her face.

“That’s how you do it!” She said while sitting on the ground.

“Question… how’s the dummy not burning right now?” John asked while pointing at the still training dummy, that wasn’t burning after receiving three fireballs.

“It’s simple, this dummy has a material that is not flammable, so it can survive fire attacks!” She answered, then shooting another fireball towards the dummy, hitting it again while it did not burn. “See? Although it can’t stand stronger attacks that stronger Pokémon have.”

John nodded. “I see… alright my turn again. I need to practice my shots.” Claire nodded and stepped away from the dummy while John walked in front of him. ‘I need to use this new ability for something useful… I noticed that I can only shoot limited amounts of silk before starting to feel a bit sore in my insides.’ He thought for a moment, what could he do with a move like that? He knew that he couldn’t constringe giant Pokémon with the low amount of web he was shooting. So, he needed to use it to make some sort of trap, as spiders do. Wait… he was a spider… with the mentality of a man… Spider-Man… “Holy shit, I got it!” He shouted for himself.

Claire, a bit taken aback by the sudden shout, asked while recovering. “Got what?”

“I don’t know if it’ll work.” He said looking back at the dummy. “But I’ll try something that might look cool and also really stupid.” He prepared himself while Claire looked at him in confusion.

“Okay…?” She said confused. John stepped back a bit from the dummy and breathed deeply. Claire leaned in, curious as to what the Joltik was about to do. The Joltik puffed up his cheeks once again, he was starting to get a hang of forming his silk from his mouth.

‘This is gonna hurt a bit…’ John thought as he released the silk from his mouth again.

It latched onto the Snorlax dummy a bit more firm now. This time, John didn’t let go of the silk, instead he held it firm in his mouth, closed his eyes, and pulled it with his teeth. The silk that was latched onto Snormmy still held firm, and since John was so light and small, he was launched towards the dummy and impacted the dummy with a lot of speed. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings, he was on Snormmy’s face, above his own web. A couple of seconds after the scare, John grinned and he started to chuckle. “I did it…” He then started laughing in that high-pitched voice, making him sound crazy but cute at the same time. “I really did it! I recreated Spider-Man on this small body!”

Claire was watching in shock and excitement as she saw what John had done. “John… what was that? How did you do it!?” Her eyes started to glimmer in amazement. John looks at her and rubs the back of his head while grinning.

“Well, I just tried to use this move a bit differently than I think it’s supposed to work…” He crawled to the lower part of the dummy and jumped on the ground. “I remember how grappling hooks work. Since I noticed my silk is a bit sturdier than I imagined it to be, and combined with my small size and lightweight… I figured, why not just zip away rather to just use it to trap opponents for a short amount of time? And holy hell, did it work wonders…”

Claire just continued smiling amazed at John, before gasping and speaking with excitement, her tail (tails?) were wagging rapidly. “That was incredible John! I don’t think there was a single Pokémon that thought of using string shot this way!” She ran up to him. “You truly are a smart human!” John blushed and looked away.

“It- it was nothing… I just thought it was cool and useful.” He muttered that last part to himself.

“Wait…” Claire thought for a moment. “Maybe you can use that move to grab small Pokémon and pull them into you!” Claire suggested. It would also be really useful, but the main issue was… he would be pulling bugs close to him.

“Erm… maybe it’s better to just um… stick with Grappling Silk for now. You guys name your moves right?” Claire nodded. “Then it’s decided, I’m calling it Grappling Silk from now on.”

“That’s a badass name!” She confirmed. “I can’t wait to see it in action!”

“I hope I use it right and don’t mess it up… but I guess, it’s your turn training, right?”

The Vulpix nodded. “Okay, I’ll not fall behind!”

And so the two trained for the rest of the day until the Ninetales couple eventually returned from their work. Claire and John went to greet them at the front door. “Ah, hello you two, how was your day?” The red Ninetales asked.

“It was really great! Mom, dad, guess what?” She teased as she chuckled.

“Um… you got free chocolate?” Izo tried to guess as he tilted his head.

“Nope!” Claire stated while smiling. “Tomorrow I’m gonna go on a Mystery Dungeon with John! And I guess Elsa too…” She frowned a bit, but her parents didn’t notice it.

Izo reacted with astonishment “Oh really? That’s great, you’re finally gonna go head first into one?” Claire nodded with cheerfulness. Reya put a paw on her head and started rubbing her fur.

“That’s great!” She said it with excitement. “It seems that this is your first step in completing your dream! I sure hope you enjoy it!” She stopped rubbing her head.

“I will mom!”

‘I’ll definitely hate every second inside that bug trap…’ John thought as he looked a bit away.

Claire then turned to John and pointed at him. “Mom, John also learned a new move!” Said mother Ninetales and Izo turned to look at John, who just looked away even more in a bit of embarrassment.

“Is that true?” Izo leaned in on John and the Joltik recoiled a bit from the sudden movement. “Can you show us?” He requested.

“Um… fine, but I’m still trying to control it a bit.” John said while stepping away and sighing. He prepared his silk on his mouth again, he shot it towards a wall and the silk stuck on the wall, sturdy. He then pulled the string and catapulted himself towards the wall like a stone from a slingshot, and landed on the wall, his nubs sticking on the wall. “Ugh… this makes me so dizzy…” He said as he put a nub on his head.

“Oh my… that was amazing John!” Reya said ecstatically.

“That’s definitely a trick that might be really useful sometime later. Nicely done Jonathan-  um… Jonny? Uh… small human!” Izo said grinning sheepishly

“Man, we need to come up with something to make you remember better.” The yellow Ninetales chuckled with Claire while John laughed sheepishly.

After dinner, the family had a nice small talk and they all went to bed, having a nice night of sleep.

---

“My darling! Where are you!?” A female Galvantula shouted through the woods, searching for her premature baby that hatched earlier than expected. She wandered through the woods on the night. Still, no sign of her little hatchling, where could they be? “My baby…” Suddenly, from the bushes, a small Caterpie came from it, and it flinched as they noticed the Galvantula. It curled on the ground, closing its eyes.

“P-please… don’t eat me! I tried to help you before, why didn’t you take it and call me disgusting?” The Caterpie shouted as it shook from fear. The Galvantula stayed silent for a second before speaking up.

“What are you talking about…?” The Caterpie opened his eyes and looked at the Galvantula.

“W-wait… you’re not the same one…?” It asked shakily, and the Galvantula shook her head in confusion.

“Elaborate… what do you mean not the same one?” She requested.

The Caterpie looked at her for some time before getting up again. “U-um…” It stuttered. “There was um… a Joltik before you… yesterday. He was… a bit weird… he said he had some kind of curse and said not to approach him. And… he just ran away… later I found him talking to a… Vulpix, I think… and um… she took him with her.” The Galvantula stared at the Caterpie, he crawled a bit back scared.

“Hm… fine.” She then turned away from it. “Thank you for the information, I’ll keep watch for that Vulpix.” She skittled away, leaving the Caterpie alone, sighing in relief. “Damn Vulpix… if you think you can just steal my baby away from me… you’re in for a shock…” Sparks came out of her as she crawled a tree, disappearing in the foliage.

---

It was morning again. The Ninetales gave goodbye to their daughters (and hidden Joltik) as they embarked on the bus, that was being carried by a Koraidon. When they arrived at school, they didn’t leave the bus, but instead, the teacher, Mr. Zeta the Porygon, embarked on the bus floating.

“Good morning [Ladies and Gentleman], are you ready for this thrilling and [extremely dangerous, you’re gonna di-] adventure?” The Porygon asked while glitching. The students all nodded their heads hesitantly. “Swe-eeeeEEEettt!!! Asher, we’re all ready [for our deaths]!”

“Understood Mr. Zeta, here we go!” The Koraidon puffed up his chest and stomach wheel and started walking slowly, then he started running. John peeked out of the bag since the bee student wasn’t sitting that close to them anymore. It was windy, his fuzz being blown by the wind. He felt scared of the dangers that this Mystery Dungeon would have, but no matter what, he would survive. This would be the first mission in a Dungeon full of bugs… but he would face them no matter what! (By hiding from their disgusting sight and never touching their stinky and ugly bodies.)