The Hunter and the Hunted
by MalwareBirb404Crash watched as Cinder walked up to her brother and gave him a berry. But the scraggy couldn’t help but continue to think about what happened last night. “ Something’s up with that damn box. And I’m gonna find out what… ” Crash thought, as Cinder returned.
“But maybe not just yet…” The scraggy thought, as he saw Cinder giving him the side eye as she walked past.
Crash rolled his eyes and followed the vulpix inside towards the job board, leaning up against it. As he did, all of the postings flew off the board and on to the scraggy. “Ah!” Crash yelled, stumbling backwards.
“ Will you quit screwing around? ” Cinder groaned.
“Look, I would. But these things won’t. Come. Off!” Crash grunted in annoyance, before all of the postings flew off his body, and throughout the room.
Cinder raised a brow before looking down at a posting that now laid in front of her. Dismissing this all as another one of Crash’s pranks, remembering the “TM incident”.
“ I’m really not in the mood for your crap right now… ” The vulpix said before grabbing the paper with her mouth, and putting it in her bag.
“ I-… ” Crash sighed. “ From what I’ve seen you’re not in the mood for anything… ”
Crash and Cinder waited in the lobby of the guild for their newest client to arrive. The former looked over at the job board, and some of the scattered papers around it.
“What the heck was that…?” Crash thought, staring at his hands.
After a while a pikachu later approached the two, the yellow mouse stopping dead in their tracks upon noticing Crash, looking him right in the eye as he did. The pikachu then nervously rubbed their arm before hesitantly walking towards them.
“ H-hey… So I guess you two are the ones I’m going along with… ” They said, giving a somewhat nervous laugh.
“Hey…” Crash thought, narrowing his glare. “Do I know this guy from somewhere…?”
“ Knock it off… ” Cider said under her breath, jabbing Crash in the side.
“ What…? ”
“Don’t mind my… partner… ” Cinder said, walking up to the pikachu. As the two began to talk about the job, Crash once again narrowed his glance at the yellow rodent before looking over at the job board.
“Seriously? Nothing…? Figures…”
Cinder, Crash, and a pikachu made their way to Windswept Plateau. “Thanks again for this…” The yellow mouse said to Cinder in a worried tone.
“ I just hope they didn’t do anything to him… ” They said before glancing at Crash and quickly looking away.
“So it’s gonna be “that way” huh…? ” The scraggy thought, glaring at the pikachu. “What’s with this guy…?”
“We’ll get your friend back, I promise.” Cinder responded with a comforting smile.
“That is If Crash doesn’t fuck this up…” The vulpix thought. Sure, their first job together had gone fairly well. But after that, it felt like everything had been one disaster after another. The Basin Hounds, those creeps Crash owed money to, and not to mention “the stunky incident” from yesterday.
“Just focus on finding this pokemon Cinder…”
Windswept Plateau: Floor 1
Cinder kept telling herself to focus, what Char might do, and that everything would go right for once. But the vulpix was soon snapped back to reality when she heard loud rustling coming from behind. Cinder whipped around and saw Crash’s tail slipping into the bushes.
“Hey!” Cinder said, running over towards the scraggy and grabbing the loose skin on his tail.
“Where do you think you’re going?!” The vulpix said, after tugging Crash backwards.
“Look, this is gonna sound weird… But I think I know where the stairs are… ”
Cinder simply stared at Crash with a frustrated, yet somewhat deadpan expression. “Crash… we don’t have time for your crap right now.”
“If I was joking I would’ve said-”
“We’re going this way.” Cinder said, turning around.
“ …Last I checked, you can’t leave me alone. ” Crash said with a smug grin before he kept going.
“Wait, what’s he talking about?” The pikachu asked as Cinder froze.
“It’s… You know what. Don’t worry about it. ” Cinder said, angrily turning around.
“Ha!” Crash said, leaning his hand against the stair shaped stone formation.
“Alright, fine. You found the stairs.” Cinder huffed. “Let’s just not waste any more time.” The vulpix said, as she and the pikachu began to climb.
Windswept Plateau: Floor 10
“This is the floor where we were split up.” The pikachu said, looking around frantically. “ I just hope they didn’t move further into the dungeon with him… ”
Cinder glanced at the pikachu and took a deep breath. “Alright… stay close, and keep your eyes open…”
As the three continued to make their way through the stoney forest, Crash repeatedly glanced around his surroundings. After seeing a series of rustling in the nearby bushes, the scraggy soon quickly walked up to Cinder’s side.
“ Hey… Do you feel like we’re being watched…? ” Crash quietly said, leaning close to the vulpix.
“We’re in a dungeon.” Cinder responded, in an annoyed tone. “ Pretty sure dungeon ‘mons are always watching. ”
“ Listen, that pikachu has been acting all weird around me, and- ”
“ Well maybe that’s because they know you’re with Team Raiders. ” Cinder loudly whispered, as she turned to face Crash.
“ Was… ” Crash said, holding up his hand. “And-”
“ No. You listen here you thick-headed, saggy skinned, oxygen thief. I’ve- …I’m not letting you mess around with another job-”
But before the vulpix could continue, the two saw a bright flash, and could feel a surge of energy hitting them. The two were sent flying back, landing face first on the ground. As Cinder steadily got up she looked at the pikachu, whose body was crackling with electricity.
“What are you doing?!”
“Whatta think I’m doing?” The rodent said with a shit-eating grin as they prepared another attack, but were instead hit in the face by a small stone.
“Listen fuckface. If it’s a fight you want, then let’s go!” Crash said, drawing back his slingshot. “And when we’re done, maybe I can give you some acting… lessons… ” The scraggy’s stance then wavered as a staraptor, and electabuzz appeared on either side of him and Cinder.
“ Team… Breakneck… ” Crash quietly said as he raised both of his hands.“ Okay… How about we talk about this for a bit…? ”
“ Crash, shut up… ” Cinder angerly muttered.
“L-Like, do you want something…? Cause I think we have… s-some stuff you might like…” Crash nervously said as he inched over towards Cinder.
“ What the hell are you doing- ” Cinder whispered loudly.
“ Just go along with it, and aim up at the tree behind them. ”
“Heh, I didn’t think any of Team Raiders’ members would puss out this quickly…” The staraptor said with a grin.
“ H-how’d you know I was here…? ” Crash asked, as he dug though Cinder’s bag.
“We didn’t. But we do know you’ve given our little buddy a hard time before.” The electabuzz said, crossing their arms. “Now quit messing around in that thing and give us the damn bag!”
“Alright, alright! Fine!” Crash hastily said undoing Cinder’s bag, taking it off the vulpix and putting it on the ground. Crash soon stepped back, he and Cinder watched as the electabuzz walked towards the bag. As Crash watched them get closer, the scraggy quickly turned away and pointed.
“ Holy shit, what is that?! ” He yelled in a panicked tone. Before quickly spinning back around towards Cinder and using fire punch, hitting the vulpix in the side as hard as he could. Cinder felt a rush of power, and responded by using flamethrower at the staraptor. The bird dodged the stream of fire, with Cinder’s attack instead hitting a medium sized tree behind them.
As the now burning tree began to fall over, Crash quickly grabbed Cinder’s bag and made a break for it. Cinder immediately followed, chasing after the scraggy.
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!!” She yelled.
“What, no thank you for saving both our asses?! Just do your badge thing, and get us out of here!”
“DON’T THINK YOU’RE GETTING AWAY YOU LITTLE BASTARD!”
Crash turned his head, and panic immediately set in as he saw the staraptor flying after them. “Shit- Run, run, run, run, run!”
As the angry bird started to close the distance. Crash began to frantically dig through the bag, searching for anything that could possibly help their situation. The scraggy felt around the bag, grabbing what felt like an orb. Crash quickly pulled it out and held it in the air… Nothing.
He tried again, holding the orb slightly higher this time… Still nothing. Huffing profanities under his breath, and without looking. He tossed the apple back at the staraptor, who swooped to the side to avoid it.
“You’re not getting away from me!” The staraptor yelled, weaving through the trees.
Eventually, Cinder and Crash were chased into a more open area in the dungeon. There were less trees, and several boulders were littered across the hard ground. The scraggy and vulpix watched as the staraptor began to rapidly circle in the air. With a predatory gleam in their eyes, he didn’t give the two a chance to rest as they began to dive-bomb at the pair.
As the two rolled around on the ground, Crash pulled out a blue orb from the bag and tossed the ladder to Cinder. But before he could use it, the staraptor came back down and grabbed the scraggy with their talons.
“OW, OW, OW, OW, OW, OW!!!” Crash yelled, as could feel his assailant’s talons starting to dig into his body.
“ Son of a-… ” Cinder said, as she watched as the brown and white bird carried Crash up into the sky. While the vulpix tried to think of a way to get Crash down, a mass of thick, dark clouds emerged from where the straptor was flying, as it then began to rain. Much to Cinder’s displeasure.
“I should’ve just sold that rain orb… ”
However this now meant that Cinder couldn’t see exactly what was happening. She waited for any sign of the two coming back down, but instead saw two electrical blasts strike the ground beside her. Cinder turned and saw that the electabuzz and pikachu had caught up to them.
“Really had us earlier with that attack.” The electabuzz said, cracking their knuckles. “But you’re not such hot shit in the rain, now are ya?”
Cinder stepped back and growled, before using energy ball and diving behind a large rock. “If he’s not dead I’m gonna kill that scraggy, I swear to-…”
But Cinder’s thoughts were soon interrupted when she could hear screaming coming from above. The vulpix and her two attackers looked up to see the staraptor plummeting in a spinout. Giving a closer look, one could also see a bleeding Crash using whatever strength he had left to hold onto the bird’s back for dear life.
“Get the hell off me and die already!” The staraptor yelled, trying to shake the scraggy off.
Regaining some control, the staraptor finally managed to shove Crash off their back. But as he did, they felt a sharp pain in their back. As the dark type had ripped out a handful of feathers in the process.
Crash’s mind was racing faster than his descent through the air, as the only thing the scraggy was able to bring himself to do was close his eyes. “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die-”
But to Crash’s surprise, he could feel his rapid descent start to slow. “What the…?” The scraggy thought, hesitantly opening one of his eyes. Crash found himself, Cinder who had been rushing over to try and catch him, and everything around them was levitating a few feet above the ground… Before it all fell.
With their seemingly dazed attackers not doing anything, Cinder took the opportunity to get between them and Crash. The vulpix used energy ball on the ground in front of her, before grabbing the guild badge on her scarf with her mouth. A bright light enveloped both her and Crash as the two disappeared from the dungeon.
“ Heh… This is kinda like when we first met… Except I’m actually bleeding this time… ” Crash said with a tired laugh, as he and a soaked Cinder made their way back to Timberglade.
“…”
“Look, if this is about-”
“Shut up… Just… just shut up… ” Cinder groaned, before trying to shake herself dry.
“ I thought it was a spurn orb… ”
By the time the two made it back to the guild, Beacon was waiting for them. “Uh-”
“Look, if Guildmaster Vernal wants to talk to him. Fine. I just need a bit… ” Cinder said, before walking inside. The ampharos watched Cinder sit down and sigh before turning back to Crash.
“Ar-”
“ Yes, I’m actually bleeding this time. ”
Vernal walked into the infirmary behind the guild, and looked around the wooden interior. He soon saw Crash was sitting on a straw bed, his chest and back wrapped in bandages. The scraggy didn’t move, and looked like he was deep in thought. That is, until he noticed Vernal.
“Oh… I guess we’re talking now huh…” Crash hesitantly said, having a feeling of where this was going.
“I need you to tell me about-”
“ I’m not talking about Hunter, okay ! ” Crash snapped. “ You should already know about what he can do anyways… ”
Vernal knew all too well what Crash was talking about. The incident a few months ago that gained the garchomp the title of “Hunter the Calamity”.
“Actually… It’s more so on Team Raiders’ location. ” Vernal said, glancing down. Crash just sat in silence, rubbing a hand over the scar on his forehead as he glanced away from the decidueye.
“I need an answer Crash…” Vernal firmly said. The scraggy slowly looked back up at Vernal.
“…”
“ Well…? ”
“ … Fine… ”
Hunter was starting to get agitated. The garchomp had gotten stuck with pulling a heavy cart loaded with crates. Not that he cared about lugging it around, to him it was nothing. And just that, nothing. He was getting bored, and Hunter made his frustration very clear as he let loose a deep, guttural growl.
Those who had heard the large garchomp immediately backed away, or hurried ahead. All except for Bella, who was casually sitting on top of the cart. The salazzle looked over at Scorch, who was walking behind them. She gestured her head at Hunter, mouthing: “I think he’s gonna blow soon.” But Scorch responded by scowling and slowly shaking his head.
By the time Team Raiders reached the outskirts of the forest, Scorch stepped ahead of his team and looked out over the terrain. “…This way.” The emboar said, pointing down a depression in the land that was a good walk away. There was also what looked like some kind of outpost made of wood and stone at the bottom of the valley.
As Scorch continued to look down at the fort, he stared at a banner displaying the Crimson Eye Rouges’ insignia. A red, glaring eye with scar sat on the purple banner as it was draped over the center of the wall. But then a loud growl rang out, breaking Scorch’s focus. The emboar turned around, and glared at Hunter. “Don’t get all pissy. I need to think.”
Hunter huffed and glanced down. “ I’m hungry… ”
Bella quickly got off the cart, and put her hand on Hunter’s side. “ Look… ” The salazzle said, slowly walking up to Scorch. “ I get you don’t want to waste time. But if he’s like this for too long, I don’t know if I can… you know… ”
Scorch looked up at Hunter and snorted in annoyance, before getting an idea. “Deal with that down there.” The emboar said, gesturing towards the outpost. “ Then you can eat. ”
It was at this moment that everyone noticed a sudden change in Hunter’s demeanor. The predatory gaze in his yellow eyes became more focused on the outpost, almost as if he was thinking where to strike first. That was, until his stomach loudly growled again.
“Screw it, it’ll all come down the same…” Hunter thought before crouching down and spreading out his arms, putting his wing-like fins on full display.
The garchomp then leapt high into the air before propelling himself forward with dragon rush. A reddish-purple aura enveloped Hunter as he took a more streamline posture. Barreling through the air, Hunter showed a toothy grin as he rapidly descended down the valley.
“This shouldn’t take too long…” Hunter thought as he continued to pick up speed.
“I swear, nothing ever happens here.” A croagunk said, leaning against the inner wall. He then turned to the tangela next to him.
“Like don’t get me wrong. I get that we’re-”
“Hey, what the hell is that?!” The two heard someone on the upper platform yell.
“ If it’s a pidgey again, I swear- ” The croagunk groaned looking up at the watchtower, before hearing a loud crash.
Hunter stood up, shaking off debris from his body. He had smashed clean though the upper wall as well as the upper platform, already taking out a few pokemon on impact. The garchomp looked around his surroundings and roared.
There was a mass panic amongst the pokemon of the outpost. Those that knew of Hunter immediately bolted away, while others mistook him for some kind of loose dungeon pokemon and weren’t sure what to do.
“Hey! Quit running and fight!” A druddigon yelled to his cowering subordinates. “Show ‘em what happens when you-”
“ERGGGHHH!” Hunter yelled, charging at the blue and red dragon.
The garchomp came at him using dragon rush at full force. The impact sent the druddigon flying into the wooden legs of the watchtower, snapping them and causing the whole thing to collapse. Hunter then looked around at the other pokemon who were either running away or getting ready to fight back. The garchomp then began to rush pokemon after pokemon. Either smacking them away with his clawed arms, slamming them into (and through) what remained of the wall, or even just grabbing them with his jaws and tossing them like ragdolls, treating his rampage as nothing more than a game.
But of course, all games must come to an end. As Hunter later remembered exactly why he was doing this. He stopped and sniffed at the air before slowly turning around, his gaze focusing on a croagunk and tangela who were backed up against a pile of crates. Hunter walked up to the duo, with a twisted, almost feral look on his face. “ Food… ”
Scorch slowly approached the remnants of the Crimson Eye’s outpost, walking through one of the massive holes in the wall and surveying the damage. He then saw Hunter sitting amongst the rubble, and could hear what sounded like loud chewing. As the emboar got closer for a better look, Scorch saw Hunter with his head buried inside of a torn open crate, as well as two pokemon that were passed out beside him.
Scorch walked up to Hunter, who upon noticing the emboar, shifted the crate away and hovered over it. Scorch rolled his eyes and reached for the tangela and croagunk, lifting them by their vines and feet before violently shaking them. As the two awoke, they were face to face with the leader of Team Raiders. Neither said a word, and were too stricken with fear to try and resist the fire type’s grip. The emboar’s glare narrowed as he stared at the two pokemon before a slight grin crept onto his face.
“ I need you two to do something for me… ”
“ It’s not funny… ”
“Char, I’m sorry… But it was kinda funny. ” Thorn said, trying to stifle his laughter.
As the ninetales and his teammates were making their way back to the guild, they came across the lucario that Thorn claimed had their eye on Char, as well as her team. The blue and black jackal, and the silver ninetales spent what felt like a painful eternity staring at each other while trying to talk. At least, until the awkward silence was broken by Thorn bursting into a fit of laughter.
“The way you both just choked like that!” The sceptile said, unable to keep himself from laughing anymore.
“Fine, be that way.” Char huffed. “Just don’t be surprised when you mysteriously wake up tied upside-down. ” The ninetales said with a sly grin.
“ Really…? All of that just for laughing a bit. When’d you get so cold…? ” The sceptile said with a smug smile.
“ Will you two just make out already? ” Mist joked, as she walked past the two.
Upon reaching the massive tree serving as the guild, they walked inside and saw Cinder sitting in the lobby. The vulpix’s head was down, and she looked like she would sink down to the floor any minute.
“ Oohh… This looks bad… ” Thorn said under his breath.
“ Heeyy Cin… ” Char said, walking up to her.
“ Hey… ” Cinder groaned, not even looking up at her brother.
“Come on… talk to me…” Char said with a smile, as he sat next to Cinder. The vulpix stayed silent for a while, before she finally looked up at Char.
“ … It happened again… another pokemon faked needing help just to try and get to us… ”
“ Oh… ”
“ And I think Crash may have caught onto it before I did too… That’s what sucks the most about it. ”
“…Hey. Do you remember that time, years ago when I bought those counterfeit items?”
“ Yeah… ”
“ Welllll… I haven’t told you this, but… that kinda wasn’t the only time… ” Char said, glancing off to the side.
Thorn and Mist watched for the next few minutes as the two foxes talked. As they did, after a while Cinder seemed to have a bit more energy than before.
“He’s pretty good at this, isn’t he.” Thorn said, leaning against the guild’s entrance.
“Yeah… he is…” Mist answered with a slight smile.
“You think I’d be-”
“No.” The vaporeon said, giving her head a slight shake.
“…You sur-”
“Yep…”
“Look, it’s like I said to you before… You just need to be more careful, alright . ” Char said, giving his younger sister a slight nudge.
“ Alright… ” Cinder said, nodding. Char put his front paw to Cinder’s head, messing up the fur on top of it. But he then stopped as he noticed Vernal enter the lobby.
“If I can have everyone’s attention please!” Vernal loudly said, flying to the center of the room. All of the pokemon present looked up at the decidueye, waiting to hear what he had to say.
“I believe we may have found the current location of Team Raiders. I need all of the teams selected to conduct the search come with me.” Vernal said, before flying outside.
“Well, I Guess that’s my que to go.” Char said as he turned to leave with his team. “I’ll see you later, alright Cin.”
“ Yeah, see ya… ”
Crash laid back in his bed in the infirmary and stared at the wooden ceiling. He raised one of his hands into the air. “What was that…?” Crash thought, thinking back to earlier in the day. He looked at it for a while before letting his arm drop back down.
“ Ah, shi-… ” The scraggy said under his breath, as he winced in pain.
After a while, Crash soon felt a wave of tiredness wash over him, as the action from the day’s events finally caught up to him.
???: Floor ???
Crash looked over his surroundings, the ground was covered in a white, cloud-like mist. The sky was blue, but everything seemed a bit hazy. All except for a silhouette of a large figure that stood off in the distance. The scraggy stared at the figure, as a pair of bright yellow eyes stared back.
The figure took a few steps forward before darting towards Crash. The dark type put up both his arms, and used bulk up to try and lessen the impact. But as quickly as the figure attacked, they disappeared. Crash put his arms down, and quickly glanced around. Nothing.
But before Crash could relax, he found himself being thrown into the air. As he rapidly ascended, the sky changed from blue to grey as it began to rain. Crash looked down and saw Hunter staring back up at him. The garchomp then jumped up, heading right for Crash who was now falling through the air. Hunter then swiped at Crash, before the scraggy’s eyes shot open.
Crash gasped for air as he fell out of bed, landing on his face. “ Owww… ”
Crash slowly walked out of the infirmary, and into the lobby where he saw Cinder about to leave. The scraggy soon caught up to her, earning him a side glance from the fox.
“So what, you were just gonna leave me there?”
“ Kinda. ”
“ And even after I saved us both. Nice… ”
“You stole my bag… again . You almost let it, and all my stuff get taken by bandits for some half baked plan! And you-”
“ And you didn’t notice you were getting duped again… ” Crash loudly said under his breath.
Cinder’s face slowly changed from one of anger, to one of sadness. The vulpix looked like she was about to say something, but instead just kept walking as they reached the outside of the guild.
By the time the two reached Cinder’s treehouse, the first thing the vulpix did was collapse face-first on top of her straw bed. “ Well today freaking sucked… ” A tired Crash said as he watched. Cinder gave no response.
“What? No shut up Crash…?” The scraggy thought, as he tilted his head in confusion. He wasn’t sure how, but something just felt different.
“Was it something I said…?”
After an hour or so passed, Cinder still hadn’t done much. Crash had been sitting in awkward silence, waiting for the vulpix to do something.
“Why don’t I just go…? She probably won’t stop me…” Crash thought. “Why do I feel like this…? It’s not like I did anything… Ggghhh, I can’t take it anymore…!”
Crash continued to think as he two sat around the treehouse. The scraggy couldn’t help but feel like something was eating away at him. It wasn’t a strong feeling, or one he could quite put a name to, but it’s mere presence was enough to bother him. That, together with the awkward tension in the room, formed something that made the dark type feel… unpleasant.
“ Sooo… what’s… going on…? ” Crash asked, trying to break the silence
“…”
“ Okay then… ” The dark type said, glancing away.
“ …You really don’t get it do you… ” Cinder said, still giving her back to Crash. “ I became an explorer so I could help other pokemon… and I can’t do that when ‘mons lie about needing help… ”
“ I feel like you’re implying something… ” Crash said, slightly narrowing his glare.
“That you’re a selfish asshole… Yes. Yes I am… ”
“…”
“…”
“…I’ve been called worse.” Crash said, before laying back in bed. But as he got settled, the nagging feeling from before began to creep in again.
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