Storm the Castle
by MalwareBirb404It was the middle of the night when Char decided to go outside for a bit. Aimlessly wandering up and down the dirt paths that lined the town of Timberglade. However the silver ninetales soon found himself sitting on a hill just outside of town, staring up at the night sky. “So this is where you’ve been.” A familiar voice behind the fox said.
“You know we have a big day tomorrow. And it’d be a shame if I had to carry your tired ass the whole way there.” Thorn said with a smirk. “Think about how emabassing that’d be. I have a reputation as “the cool one” to uphold.”
“That’s weird… I’ve only heard others call you “the dumb one”. A tired Mist replied.
Char smiled and rolled his eyes. “Both of you come up here.” The ninetales’ two friends made their way up the hill and sat on either side of him.
“The biggest moment in our career as explorers starts tomorrow…” Char said, looking back up at the sky.
“Alright, where are you going with this?” Thorn asked.
“ I was just thinking… It was a night a lot like this when we decided to become a team… ”
“So you’re gonna get all sentimental on me now huh?” Thorn said, nudging the ninetales. “ But really though… that does take me back… ”
…
“So, we’re almost at Timberglade…” Char said. The vulpix staring down into the group’s campfire.
“You really are dead set on joining the guild, huh.” The grovyle sitting next to him said.
“ Yeah, I guess you could say that… ” Char replied, glancing back at Cinder who was sleeping behind him.
“So what about you two? I know you said you’d help us get to Timerglade and-”
“Hold on a second.” Thorn said, raising up his clawed hand. Both he and the eevee gave each other a look before turning back towards Char. “Let’s just say you’ve inspired us. We’re going with you.”
“ What…? ”
“You heard me, just the three of us against the world.” The grovyle said as he waved his arm out.
“ You… really want to do this…? ”
“Sure.” Mist said, walking up to the vulpix. “Besides, I kinda want to see where this’ll go.”
“And we’re all friends now right? After all this, I wouldn’t feel too great just leaving you guys there… ” Thorn remarked, putting a hand on the back of his neck.
“Also I came up with a few team names if you want to hear ‘em!”
…
“ I thought you forgot about that part… ” Thorn groaned.
“ Those names were pretty bad… ” Char said, glancing off to the side.
“ It’s kind of hard to forget them… ” Mist remarked.
“Yeah… I guess…” Thorn said, standing up. “Come on, let’s head back. We gotta meet with Vernal pretty early. And with how long you take to get ready-”
“ Yeah, yeah… ” Char said walking past the sceptile, brushing some of his tails across the lizard’s face, causing him to sneeze.
“ I hate you… ”
“Hate you too.” Char jokingly said, as he kept walking.
Early the next morning, Cinder woke up to a crashing sound. The vulpix got out of bed and looked out her window, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. She was about to make her way back to bed when she noticed that Crash was gone. “ Son of a-… ”
Another bang made Cinder look up at the ceiling. “So that’s where it’s-…” She thought. The fire type headed for the door, and as she stepped outside she could see Crash headbutting a nearby tree. And every few times the scraggy smashed into it, a few branches would fall.
“I’m not even gonna ask…” The agitated vulpix thought, walking down the stairs.
Crash was frustrated, the events from yesterday still fresh in his mind. This unfamiliar feeling had kept him awake longer than he would’ve liked, and it wouldn’t go away. So the scraggy had gotten up early to try and take out whatever this was on the tree outside. While this wasn’t an uncommon thing his kind did to relieve stress, it was also something Crash hadn’t found himself doing for quite a while.
The dark type kept at it until he felt something press down on his tail. Crash turned his head, and saw Cinder biting the loose skin, before looking up at him and letting go. The scraggy looked like he was about to say something, but instead just glanced off to the side instead.
“Cin? You’re up?” A familiar voice asked from behind the vulpix.
“No thanks to Crash…” Cinder thought. “ Yeah… What are you doing here…?” The tired fox asked, turning around.
“Just wanted to see you before we left.” Char said, walking up to his sister.
“ Right… team raiders… ” Cinder groaned, looking down.
“Hey…” Char said, lowering himself closer to Cinder’s height. “Everything’s gonna be fine…” The silver fox said with a slight smile.
Cinder hesitated for a bit, before finally looking Char in the eyes. “ Just… make sure to be careful… Alright… ”
Crash couldn’t help but listen to the fire types’ conversation. But he merely turned and gave the tree one last headbutt, before walking back to the treehouse. “What’s with him?” Char asked.
“Honestly I couldn’t give a rattatta’s ass right now…” Cinder thought. “ I don’t know… ” She halfheartedly said.
“Hey, Char! Let’s go!” Mist called out from a distance.
“Hold on!” The ninetales shouted back. “I gotta get going…”
Cinder practically jumped onto Char, embracing him as much as her pawed limbs would allow. Crash watched from the slightly opened door. He soon closed it before going to his bed.
The vulpix would soon enter the treehouse as well. And after getting the scraggy’s attention, gestured with her head for him to follow her as she then turned and walked back out the door. Crash sighed and did so, following Cinder into what would certainly be a long day…
Scorch stood in front of the many pokemon that made up Team Raiders. Most of which were talking amongst themselves. But then there was Hunter, who was sleeping sprawled out on the ground, snoring like the beast he was. The fire type shook his head, but decided to let the land shark sleep. Scorch instead walked past the crowd and debris, and towards the cargo his gang had brought with them.
He began to rummage through the crates, before carefully taking out and opening a smaller box. Inside was a golden band with a small, capsule-like space on it’s side. A faint, light blue glow came from the space as Scorch stared at it. The emboar gave a devilish grin as he put the band around his arm. “So is this a special occasion?” He could hear Bella ask.
“Don’t think I’ve ever seen you wear that before…”
“…I guess you could say that.” Scorch said, looking back down at the trinket.
“Get everyone ready.” The fighting type told Bella as he walked past her. “ And I expect you to pull your weight this time… ”
“ Yeah, sure… ” The salazzle halfheartedly said, adjusting her belt of vials. Scorch stopped walking, and the flames around Scorch’s neck began to burn more intensely after hearing Bella’s response.
The salazzle closed her eyes and gave a slight sigh. “Yes Scorch…” The emboar simply gave an annoyed snort, and continued walking.
Scorch made his way over to a large pile of wreckage, getting everyone’s attention. “The Crimson Eye Rouges thought they could get away with targeting us… Today… We show them just how big of a mistake they made!”
Bella watched as all of the pokemon around her cheered. The salazzle crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. “Let’s just get this over with…” She thought, watching everyone get ready to go.
“Gloomy Marsh… I can already tell I’m gonna hate this… ” Bella said to herself while looking at a map. The salazzle once again sat on the crate filled cart, while she and the rest of Team Raiders continued their trek through the valley.
“Hurry it up you bunch of ingrates!” Scorch yelled.
“ Yeah, what he said… move faster, we don’t have all day.” Bella said. Scorch slowly turned around and glared at the poison type.
“ Alright, alright… ” She said, getting off the cart.
When Bella got off, she turned towards Hunter. She noticed that the garchomp was a bit twitchy and on edge. Bella then looked down at the vials on her belt, namely one vial in particular that had a pinkish-red liquid inside. She hissed to herself before continuing to walk alongside the cart.
As they all journeyed further down the valley, The overall atmosphere bagan to change. The ground had become notablacy softer, but at the same time everything looked more… lifeless. “ Damn this place is creepy… ” Bella muttered, as she glanced around.
“ Couldn’t these guys have just picked a nice cliffside or something… ”
Gloomy Marsh: Floor 1
As the group of bandits wandered into the marsh, they were met with little resistance from dungeon pokemon. Most of which were either run off, or swatted away by Hunter and Bella. “This place is fucking discusting!” Bella exclaimed.
The atmosphere of the dungeon around her was… unpleasant… The water almost appeared to be black, and the only thing that was more dull and lifeless than the grey, soft ground were the trees that the salazzle could only assume were dead. But at the same time, each looked like they could spring to life and grab someone at any moment.
“There better be a…” The salazzle paused as she felt something under her foot. “I’m not gonna look down… I’m not gonna look down…”
However something else soon got the salazzle’s attention. Bella swore she could hear what sounded like laughing, the sound echoing throughout the dungeon. Bella started to look around for any signs of someone watching. “ Keh heh heh heh… ”
“Show yourself Umbral!” Scorch yelled.
“ We’re pretty good at mimicking the boss huh… ” The voices said in unison. Three haunter soon appeared around Team Raiders, as well as a few other pokemon that rose from out of the marsh. “ You know, what you did earlier wasn’t very nice… ” One of the ghost types said.
As the three ghost types closed in, Hunter and Bella readied themselves to attack. But before they could, each of the ghosts was hit by a small, but powerful blast of fire. They both looked over at Scorch. The emboar’s hands were set ablaze, and the fire around his neck was burning wildly.
“ Now you’re starting to piss me off… ” Scorch grumbled.
Gloomy Marsh: Floor 10
As Scorch continued to lead Team Raiders though the marsh, he began to think about the rogues’ leader, Umbral. “That damn smile…” The emboar thought as his fists clenched, and the flames on his neck danced wildly. He huffed angrily and grumbled profanities under his breath. He never really did like that gengar.
For most of the time the two knew each other, Something about Umbral had always rubbed Scorch the wrong way. They had worked together a few times in the past, the ghost type usually coming to Scorch for some kind of favor. Usually it was nothing too big, but that was until he found out about something the emboar was hiding.
…
“Here’s the deal… Lotta folks out there don’t know what those are, or what they do… ” The gengar said, casually floating through the air on his back.
“ What… Do you want…? ”
“ I want… something… Not sure what yet. But I’ll be sure to let you know… ” Umbral said, with a wide grin on his face.
…
That exchange was years ago, and Umbral still hadn’t called in any kind of big favors. But he always made sure to hold it over the emboar’s head as much as he possibly could. Each time with that big, unsettling smile.
“ Don’t worry… I’ll keep my mouth shut… ” The gengar’s words echoed through Scorch’s head, as his slow, heavy breathing began to grow louder.
Gloomy Marsh: Floor 20
This continued on for the next several floors. But Scorch was soon brought out of his thoughts as fast, muddy orbs were shot around his team’s feet. He looked up, trying to find the source of the attack. Seeing something sink down into the dark and murky water, Scorch walked up to the edge. His body erupted in flames, using a stationary form of the move flare blitz. The large orange and black pig then waded into the shallow water, causing a massive amount of steam to rise.
He quickly reached down into the water, yanking a swampert out from their cover and tossing them onto the semi solid ground. The swampert slowly sat up and stared back at Bella, giving her a sharp glare as she stared back. That was until the limbed fish gave a sinister grin.
Bella’s eyes widened, before she frantically looked around the marsh. “ Hey… Scorch… ”
“ Hm? ”
“ Mind if we take things from here…? ” Bella said as she slowly lowered her hands towards her belt.
As Scorch got out of the water, he glanced around his surroundings and back at Bella. “… Fine.”
The atmosphere was tense as everyone watched Scorch walk off. Once he was out of sight, several members of the Crimson Eye Rouges as well as pokemon from the dungeon stepped out into the open and surrounded Team Raiders.
“ So I assume you’re still mad at me… ” Bella said in a somewhat provocative voice.
“ What was your first clue…? ” The swampert said in a raspy voice, putting his hands on the ground. A series of powerful vibrations pulsed though the ground towards Bella and Hunter. The garchomp then grabbed a hold of Bella and tossed her behind him, before rushing the swampert.
But the now much softer ground made it harder to move, as Hunter’s feet began to sink a bit deeper with each step. The blue mud fish quickly looked to the side and made some kind of gesture with his head. He reached up to catch something, before jumping back into the water. There was a bright glow coming from the water that faded just as quickly as it started.
“Did you just let him get away?!” Bella yelled. “Where the hell is Brine when you need him…?” She thought. But her thoughts were interrupted by the all out brawl around her.
“ We may as well deal with this… ” Bella said under her breath, as Hunter was getting his feet free.
The salazzle glanced at Hunter and held out her hand. “Shall we?” The garchomp gave a toothy grin and nodded as he held his claw out for Bella.
“The rest of you guard the stuff, and pick off the runners!” Bella called out. “We’re gonna show these losers just who they’re dealing with!” She said walking forward with Hunter in tow.
While a few members of Team Raiders fell back to guard the things they had brought with them, the salazzle and garchomp made their way towards the crowd of pokemon. As they charged towards the two, Hunter tossed Bella into the air before attacking two trevenant with dragon claw. As Bella descended she began to twist her body around, using flamethrower while doing so on her surrounding adversaries. Hunter soon caught the salazzle in his claws before he lowered her to the ground in a dip, almost as if the two were dancing.
The garchomp then tossed Bella on his back to keep her from getting hit by an attack whilst countering with dragon rush. At the same time, the poison type used Hunter’s back to leap straight into the air once again. This time removing vials from her belt and throwing them at her assailants.
As a pinkish-purple mist surrounded them, the attacking pokemon began to feel violently ill. Deciding this had gone on long enough, Bella used venoshock to finish each of them off. Firing off globs of purple liquid from her mouth in rapid succession. That is until Hunter stormed in and took out the last few.
“ Now where’s that damn fish…? ” Bella said to herself. But her question was answered as a large, blue mass erupted from the murky water.
Before Bella stood the swampert, but their appearance had drastically changed. He was… bigger. Not just in height, but his arms and upper body seemed to have swelled with muscle. And his black fins and orange whisker-like gills had grown in size. Bella stared in disbelief before hissing to herself an annoyance. “This is gonna be a problem…”
The mega swampert slammed both his fists on the ground as a torrent of water appeared underneath him, before giving a loud roar and charging forward. Bella felt herself being thrown out of the way, leaving Hunter to take the full brunt of the attack. The salazzle turned around as she heard a loud crash. As she got up, she saw that the two pokemon had obliterated the cart. Bella then looked down at her belt and reached for a vial containing reddish-pink liquid.
Laying in the remains of the shattered cart, Hunter looked up at his attacker and growled. He kicked the mega swampert in the shin before using stone edge. Large, sharp pillars of rock shot out of the ground, jabbing the water type in the stomach. Hunter got up and wasted no time striking back, a red and purple aura surrounded the garchomp as he charged forwards. Smashing through the stone pillars and right into the swampert.
Hunter then went into a fury as he unleashed a barrage of swipes with claws, pushing the mega swampert back before using dragon rush once again. He then lunged forwards to get in closer to the water type, planning to sink his teeth into their face. The swampert guarded with his arm, yelling once he felt Hunter bite down. He used his arm to slam the garchomp into a nearby tree before repeatedly bashing him over the head with his other large hand.
But the garchomp refused to let go, and the mega swampert swore he could feel Hunter bite down even harder. Moving away from the tree, the water type lowered his arm and opened his mouth. A torrential blast of water hit Hunter square in the face, not only prying him off the swampert’s arm, but also pinned him to the tree. However it didn’t last long as the tree began to crack, and soon snapped in two and Hunter was sent flying into the water.
Hunter slowly rose up from the murky water. The garchomp was dazed and breathing heavily, having a look of pure rage on his face. “I’LL TEAR YOU APART!!!” He yelled as he darted forwards, using dragon rush again. But this time he seemed to put all of the power he could into this one attack. At the same time the mega swampert used waterfall, charging forward as well.
Bella watched as the two collided, the result being an eruption of water in which Hunter and the swampert were both sent flying out of. The swampert got up and made his way towards Hunter, who was sprawled out on the wet ground. He soon stood over the snarling garchomp and smiled, raising his fist. But to his shock, Hunter lunged up with dragon rush one last time, causing the water type to stagger back.
As the two stared at each other, they soon heard what sounded like glass breaking. Both Hunter and the swampert glanced at the source of the sound, and saw a shattered container. What looked like a reddish-pink puddle sat beneath it, and a matching colored mist was spreading through the air. The large mud fish turned his attention back to Hunter, who seemed… off. His breaths were heavy, but quick. His eyes were dilated, and his mouth was heavily salivating.
“ What the hell did you- ” The swampert said before Hunter jumped on top of him. The garchomp had a feral look on his face, and a deep purple aura radiated from his body. No sooner had Hunter leapt on his opponent, he began to repeatedly slam his clawed arms into the swampert as hard as he could. The mega then thought to use hydro pump to push Hunter off him, but as he did the water type felt Hunter’s claws dig into his sides.
Even as the torrent of water blasted the garchomp in the face, he pushed through the attack and headbutted the swampert. Repeatedly. This was followed by a series of slashes that continued even after the now unconscious water type had reverted back to normal.
Bella’s heart was racing as she watched the spectacle in front of her. However, something inside of the salazzle was telling her to put a stop to this. “This might get too messy if I don’t…” She thought, trying not to gag.
“Okay Hunter, that’s enough!” The salazzle yelled. But the garchomp wouldn’t listen, as he continued to unleash his attacks on the swampert.
“Hunter! I said stop! That’s enough!” Bella yelled again, as she took off her belt and slammed it on the ground to break all of the vials she had. A massive cloud of pink mist filled the air, as the salazzle took a few steps back.
As the mist of pheromones started to clear, a dazed and bloody Hunter slowly stumbled out and collapsed. Bella looked down at the dragon type and sighed. “ Arceus dammit… ” The lizard said to herself as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temple with her fingers.
Scorch glanced around as he exited the dungeon, as the environment seemed to be a bit more alive, and the ground more solid than the dungeon of Gloomy Marsh. The emboar soon approached a more open area of the swamp, and in it’s center was what looked like the remains of some kind of temple, as well as a number of pokemon standing in front who seemed to be waiting for him. Among them being a krookodile with a gash over their eye, and a tangrowth who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else at this moment. “ Maybe we should just Umbral deal with- ”
“Hell no!” The ground type yelled back.
“You forget what his pet did to us…?” He growled, pointing at his eye. “ And it’s just as the old saying goes… ” The krookodile said, gritting his teeth as he marched towards Scorch. The striped crocodile’s march soon turned into a full on charge, but before he knew it he was in the iron grip of the emboar. Scorch had both arms wrapped around the ground type’s body as he began to crush him against his own.
The krookodile started to squirm around wildly as he tried to get free. His squirms only increased as Scorch’s body heat rose rapidly. Both pokemon were soon engulfed in flames as Scorch used his stationary form of flare blitz.
“ Keh, heh, heh, heh… You know, showing up unannounced like this, destroying my outpost, roasting my subordinates… It’s kinda rude… ” A voice both familiar, and annoying to Scorch echoed.
The pig scowled, and extinguished his flames before tossing the limp krookodile to the side. “Better…” The gengar said as he slowly became visible. The ghost then turned towards the other pokemon as he smiled and clapped his hands together. “Alright everyone, let Mr. Scorch pass and go make sure whatshisface is alright.”
Scorch then followed Umbral into the dilapidated temple. The emboar glanced around at the stone structures, and the wooden scaffold that held some of what remained together. “You know, that wasn’t really nice. What you guys did back there… ” Umbral said in an exaggerated sad tone as he floated ahead.
“ You destroy my stuff… beat my underlings half to death… And after I kept your big secret for all this time… And here I thought we were friends… ”
“ Just get to the point Umbral… ” Scorch groaned.
“Well!” The ghost type exclaimed as he perked back up. “I’ve noticed you brought something with you…” The gengar said with a sinister grin, pointing at the band emboar’s arm.
“ So I take it after all this time, you still haven’t found the other one… ”
“ Guess that explains a bit… How my guys were able to sack your camp like that. Hey, I didn’t tell them to do that stuff, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t kinda funny.” Scorch’s neck flames began to grow and whip around as he listened to Umbral’s comments.
“If you ask me, you’ve lost your edge ever since you lost your toy. It seems the big pig’s past his prime… ”
“So I’d like to propose a wager.” Umbral gleefully said. “ Show me the big bad boar’s still got it… and If you can’t, I get that.” He said, pointing at Scorch’s band. The fire type stared at him for a bit before reaching for the metal trinket, and undoing it from his arm.
Scorch kept staring at the ghost as he tossed the band to the side. “I win, the rogues are mine.” The emboar bluntly said.
“Keh, heh, heh… This is gonna be fun…”
An explosion soon grabbed the attention of the pokemon outside. They watched as part of their base was blown apart by a fiery blast. “The hell are they doing in there? One of them asked, stepping forward.
“Don’t.” The tangrowth said, sticking out his vine-like arm. “ This is beyond us now… ”
Inside the temple, Scorch and Umbral were going at it. The gengar would rapidly disappear and reappear at various positions and angles, trying to get the drop on Scorch. While he would get a few hits in, a good amount were blocked. That was until Umbral appeared directly in front of him.
“Boo.” The ghost type said, blasting the large pig with shadow ball.
After being knocked backwards, Scorch set his fists ablaze, and he violently swiped his arm to the side. A flaming projectile left his arm, and flew into the scaffold. “ That’s not good… ” Umbral said to himself, as the now burning structure soon began to collapse.
The gengar soon rose out of the floor to find that burning wreckage was littered throughout what remained of the ruined temple. And in the center of it all was him, and Scorch. Who was using the same technique as before to start more fires in an attempt to limit the gengar’s movement.
“ Just a somewhat straight path between you and me, huh? ”
“You talk too damn much.” Scorch said as he used hammer arm, sweeping his strengthened limb through the air to further spread the fire.
The rogues outside watched as another fiery blast shot out of the temple. And then everything went quiet. Soon Scorch could be seen dragging Umbral outside by one of the gengar’s pointy ears.
“Come on! Hustle!” The group then heard someone yell from behind. They turned around to see Bella and the rest of Team Raiders approaching. The salazzle was at the head, while the others were carrying an unconscious Hunter, as well as what remained of the smashed cargo.
Bella stopped and stared at the burning temple, and then at Scorch who was standing in front of it. “ Guess we’re right on time then… ” A couple of relieved sighs came from the pokemon behind her.
“I didn’t say you could stop!”
Brine was laying on a tree branch that overlooked what used to be Team Raiders’ grounds. Before leaving, Scorch had told the inteleon to stay behind for the time being, and deal with anyone who might try and follow them. So far, everything has been quiet. But Brine had to admit that he liked it. Peace, quiet, and time away from Bella and Hunter was a godsend for the blue lizard.
But at the same time, he wouldn’t mind some action ethier. But whether or not something happened, it didn’t matter. The water type had a job to do. Brine stood up, the cloak wearing inteleon got ready to change his position when something soon caught his eye.
“Explorers… I guess it was only a matter of time…”
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