Hey! So, I don't actually remember how much I've talked about this project on the TR Discord specifically since I feel like the art for it may be too gory to post in a PG-13 server, but it's something I've worked on for... a few weeks, maybe?
What it is is a pilot for a potential longer story set in the Pokémon world where a mysterious new type of Pokémon suddenly starts appearing - the Flesh type. You know, blood, muscle, bone, skin, neural tissue, everything. These new Pokémon are weird and creepy, but that doesn't stop our hero from wanting to protect them. Whether that'll work out would be answered in the full story.
Right now, though, this is just the pilot for the first chapter. I make no guarantees it'll continue as while this concept does speak to me, it feels like a concept that speaks to very few people, and the thought of putting in countless hours of work into a longfic to not only write it but make it meet my standards and then get virtually no readership or feedback is pretty discouraging. So, if you do enjoy this, please let me know, because it will seriously factor into my decisionmaking.
As this story is still deep in the planning or even just the brainstorming phase, I don't know what content warnings it will have. I have some idea of what they might be, but really it's kind of pointless to even try and predict that when all I have right now is a pilot and if I end up doing more I'll have to make edits to this thread anyway, at which point I might as well add the full content warnings. Right now, the content warnings for just this pilot should suffice, and they are: blood, body horror, strong language. This pilot is rated mature, though really mostly for the language, as the blood and body horror are at teen levels.
Okay, enough yapping, let's get to the chapter. Enjoy.
Nora loved the forest. She loved to hear the leaves rustling in the wind, the cooing of the pidove, the crunch of detritus underneath her sneakers. The best thing about it, though, was that there was no one else there. No one to annoy her or order her around or insult her. She could just exist in peace.
Simply put, the forest was her safe haven.
Except, well.
It didn't seem safe anymore.
Nora kept staring at the large, dark red blotch that marred the ground beside the trail. She drew in a breath and sighed it out.
Well, she thought, so much for a calming walk.
She turned around to leave, then took out her phone and snapped an image of the large stain. Something to talk about in chat later, maybe.
Later, though. Right now, she should head straight home. She did not want to run into the thing that had caused that.
She pocketed her phone and walked back the way she'd come, ears perked for any noises and eyes peeled for any movement. A liepard encounter needed to be handled properly from start to finish. And if it was a dragon… well, she'd hate to miss her own death.
Eventually, she stepped out of the woods and onto her home street. She figured she was slightly safer now, especially with the stronger winds messing with any predator's sense of smell, but stayed vigilant until she'd reached her front door. She unlocked it and slipped in before sighing again.
I better call the rangers, she thought. Never called them before for anything, so I hope I don't make an ass of myself.
She pulled out her phone and went to sit on the couch, where she searched up 'rangers unova'. She reached their site and found the number she should call before dialing it and bringing the phone to her ear.
After a while, the other side picked up.
"Unova Rangers' Association, how can I help you?" a friendly female voice said.
"Uh, hi, this is Nora Teahan," Nora said, scratching her nose. "I'm calling to report a possible dangerous pokémon near a residential area."
"Alright, what makes you think there might be a dangerous pokémon around?"
"I saw a really big blotch of blood in the woods, not too far from my home street. Like three feet across. It wasn't there yesterday."
"Understood. And what area would this be?"
"Patrat Lane, in Accumula."
"I see." Nora could hear the clacking of a keyboard in the background. "Thank you for your report. Anything else?"
"No, nothing right n- oh, wait. I did take a picture of the blood. Do you guys want that?"
"Sure, just text it into this number after your call."
"Got it. And, um, that was everything."
"Alright. We'll assess the image and come back with further instructions if any are necessary. In the meantime, keep yourself and your family indoors and safe, okay?"
"Okay."
"Good. Have a nice day."
"You too. Bye." Nora hung up. That went well enough, I think.
She then promptly sent the photo she'd taken to the number she'd called. There was no reply at first, but a few minutes later, one arrived.
'Thank you for the image. Our rangers will look into this. Continue to stay indoors.'
Wasn't going anywhere anyway, thought Nora.
She thought about what to do next. Post in the chat about her situation? Well… that could spiral into a longer convo. And even with her daily walk cut short, she needed to study. She couldn't get caught up in silly things like actually having herself a good time.
She could, however, eat something. She hastily shovelled down a cup of razzberry yoghurt from the fridge. A bout of thirst got her to down a glass of water, too. But that was it for her lunch break. Bullshit awaited.
Nora made her way to her room upstairs and closed the door behind her. There was no reason to lock it now that she was home alone. She walked over to her desk, where that wretched book awaited, and picked it up with a sigh.
Glorious Economics was exactly what it sounded like. A book all about touting the importance of the field of economics and how it was actually the most important field of all. A book that Nora disagreed with so furiously that she couldn't get through more than a few paragraphs at a time without wanting to throw the thing across the room.
Yet it was the very first book that her father needed her to read that summer, because it would, according to him, show her how wrong she was to reject the field and make the rest of the assigned reading much more fun and interesting. It was not doing that. If anything, it made her dread it even more, knowing what kind of people's opinions she would have to be subjected to for the remaining summer.
But what choice did she have? She was eighteen now, so nothing stopped her parents from throwing her out if she didn't obey. And that had been implied as a possibility.
It wasn't as if she was particularly good at any other subject, either. Sure, she'd gotten straight A's so far, but that was hardly difficult. Mom and Dad made sure to tell her that things would get a lot tougher in college. And when the only subject she knew she was truly interested in - biology - was also one she knew she wasn't that good in, she might as well go for a subject that would get her work that paid.
She swallowed her disdain and began to read.
An unknown amount of time later…
THUD!
Nora jumped at the noise. She looked to her northward window, but whatever had made the noise was no longer there. Except for, on closer inspection, there was a greasy stain smack-dab in the middle of the glass.
Nora bit her lip.
If she wanted to help that bird - it was probably a bird - she'd have to go outside. With the liepard or the dragon or whatever around.
But, well, if she didn't, that bird had an even worse chance of survival. And it would be her fault, both as an individual and as a member of the human race which was guilty of making clear windows to crash into in the first place.
She put down the book and went downstairs. She took some rubber gloves from the cleaning cabinet and put them on before grabbing one of Dad's cardboard boxes he never threw out - much to Mom's annoyance - from the foyer. After that, she took a shaky breath and slipped out of the front door.
The walk to the northern side of the house from the western exit felt ten times longer than usual, but no beast attacked her during it. She arrived at the spot underneath the second-floor window…
…though what was there was absolutely not a bird.
On the ground lay a strange creature. It looked like a large, lidded eyeball with batlike wings and a tail. Its body was dark pink while the wings were bright orange, and its tail was banded with deep purple. The eye itself was yellow-irised and slit-pupilled, but its gaze was unfocused. The creature, as a whole, wasn't moving. Nora didn't know if that meant it was dead or if its kind simply didn't breathe in general.
She knelt down, lowered the box onto the ground and cautiously poked one of the creature's wings. No response.
Well, whatever it was, it was still a pokémon. Probably. Regardless, she should bring it inside in case it wasn't dead. She scooped up the creature in her gloved hands - it was cold and a little slimy - and placed it in the box which she then brought back inside… and upstairs to her room for good measure. If her parents were to come home all of a sudden, they wouldn't be happy to see this thing.
Having placed the box on the floor, Nora took off her gloves and dropped them into the trash. She took a moment to stare at the still-immobile mystery mon before deciding she should just check her Pokédex app. That thing had data on almost every mon there was, so surely it would tell her the species of the creature.
She pulled out her phone, opened the app and tapped the 'Identify' button while aiming the camera at the creature. The overlay showed a frame around the creature, so it at least knew it was looking at something. After a full minute of it showing the 'Identifying…' text, though, the app finally gave up, displaying a message of 'Unable to identify'.
"Damn," said Nora to herself. What exactly did this mean, then? She'd shown the creature at a good angle and in good lighting, so she doubted the identification had failed because of a poor visual. The app just hadn't been trained to recognize this thing in the first place. Which meant…
This thing's either a previously undiscovered species, an alien or a lab experiment.
All three were things that had precedent in history. New pokémon were discovered every now and then in remote parts of the world, many pokémon had documented or speculated extraterrestrial origins, and genetic engineering technology had given rise to multiple artificial pokémon species in the past few decades.
Accumula wasn't a remote part of the world, though, so that ruled the first option out. Alien or lab experiment, then. In practice, an alien probably wasn't really all that different from a terrestrial species as far as reporting a new species went. But a lab experiment…
There was, perhaps, one way to gain more information. If this mon had been created by someone, it had surely been registered to a pokéball somewhere.
Nora dug into her desk drawers, unsure where that one pokéball of her own was, but eventually found it. It was empty and had always been empty as her parents had never let her catch any pokémon, only having allowed her to buy one with her own allowance as a curiosity and nothing else. Well, now it would see some use.
She took the ball to the creature and tapped it lightly. A red light sucked the creature in, and the ball became a smidgen heavier. After a moment, it rejected the creature and spat it out.
Nora was about to conclude that it did belong to someone before remembering that unconscious mon couldn't be caught by regular balls in the first place. Oh. Was all that pointless, then?
Well, maybe not. Now I at least know it's enough of a pokémon to be contained by a pokéball, even momentarily.
Suddenly, an annoying buzz reached Nora's ears, tearing her attention away from the still-immobile creature. She knew what it meant - that fucking fly was still here. She thought it had died off, not having made a sound since noon. She sighed. Whatever. Not important.
She got up and made her way to her bed to sit down. What should she do about the creature? Report it to the rangers just like she'd done with the blood in the woods? Was it rude to call them twice in one day? No, surely not.
But what if this thing really was a lab experiment? Would the rangers just give it back to whichever company owned it so that they could lock it back up in some facility and poke at it for the rest of its life? That wasn't right for the little guy. Sure, he was a little creepy-looking, but surely it was just a mon like any other. It deserved to fly free or at least be kept by someone who actually cared about its wellbeing.
Before she could commit herself to any kind of plan, though, she heard the creature stir in its box. Quickly, she sprang up and looked inside. The creature's eye was now moving, looking around, its pupil dilating and contracting. It noticed Nora and stopped to stare.
"Uh, hi," Nora said, waving a hand.
The creature squeaked in response. It didn't sound too dissimilar to a patrat. Nora, though, had to wonder how it had even made that sound. The creature didn't have a mouth she could spot. She wasn't even sure where one would go.
"You, um, crashed into my window," Nora continued, knowing that the thing probably couldn't understand her, but maybe her voice would be calming. "I brought you inside so a liepard wouldn't eat you."
The creature squeaked again, then rolled over to its belly and turned back to Nora. It continued to stare at her.
"...Do you want some food?" Nora asked. "I don't… know what you eat, or how you eat, but --"
Another buzz cut her off. The fly was back. Fuck's sake, she thought, I'm trying to talk h-
A zapping noise split the air as a beam of yellow light shot out from the creature's eye and hit the fly hovering next to Nora. The insect dropped onto the floor, and the creature scrambled out of the box with the help of its wings to make its way to the bug. It stood up straight on its tail, and a pink proboscis extended out from the underside of that tail, snatching the fly and drawing back, disappearing underneath some manner of slit. The creature then turned back to Nora and squeaked in a way that somehow sounded pleased.
Oh, thought Nora. That's not a tail. It's got a mouth. I suppose, then, it has to contain the rest of its organs…?
The creature began looking around, apparently searching for its next snack, but couldn't find anything. It looked up at Nora and began chirping like a baby bird.
"Uh… I'm not actually in control of what bugs come in here," Nora said. "I guess I could open the window to let some more in, but…"
The creature would surely fly away. And maybe get caught by whoever created it, if that was its origin story. And put back in a cage in a lab.
Nora hummed, unsure what to do, until the doorbell suddenly rang.
"Ah, fuck," Nora muttered. "Stay here."
Despite the creature's protests, Nora slipped out of the room and closed the door behind her. Hope it'll be fine on its own for a minute, thought Nora as she made her way down the stairs and to the front door.
She peered through the peephole. Standing outside were two men in the familiar red-black uniforms rangers were known to wear. The one on the left was black with a clean-shaven narrow jaw while the one on the right was white with a stubble on a squarer face, but both seemed to be in good shape, as was expected of rangers. Between the two sat a herdier.
What do they want? Nora thought. More information on the blood in the woods?
Nora opened the door, and the men gave her a coordinated smile that already put her off.
"Hey there," the ranger on the left said with a wave. "We're from the Rangers' Association, doing a neighborhood checkup. Have you seen any out-of-place mon lately?"
Nora glanced between the two men. "You weren't told about the bloodstain?"
"The… what?" the ranger asked, still trying to smile.
"The bloodstain in the woods that I reported to you guys," Nora continued. They really hadn't heard about it? Was the communication inside their organization that poor? Or…
Were these really rangers at all? She'd never heard of rangers doing unsolicited neighborhood checkups. What if these guys were from whatever lab the creature had originated from, trying to find their escaped product?
"Ah, sorry, we hadn't heard about that yet," the ranger said. "Must be an internal communications issue. We've been having those. Could you tell us more?"
"Yeah," Nora said. She'd only arouse their suspicion if she refused. "There was a big stain of blood in the nearby woods when I took a walk there around 3 PM. I made a call about it and even sent a picture."
"Could we see the picture?" asked the other ranger. There was a less friendly air about him, but at least it was less deceptive as a consequence.
Nora dug out her phone and showed the picture.
"Oh, that's big," the first ranger commented. "Where was this, exactly?"
"If you walk to the end of this street, you'll see a trail leading into the woods. Follow that, and you'll find the place."
The first ranger looked like he was about to thank her, but a sudden thud from upstairs cut him off. The herdier's ears perked.
"What was that?" the other ranger said, tensing up.
"Uh…" Nora scrambled for an explanation. "It's just my purrloin doing some bullshit again, don't worry."
"Hmm." The stubble-jawed ranger eyed Nora, which made her feel like a bug under a magnifying glass. His next words seemed to imply he'd bought the story, though. "Was there anything else of note about the bloodstain?"
"Only that it wasn't there yesterday," Nora said. "I take the same walk every day, so I'd know."
"Well, you'd better not take any walks before we've made sure the area is clear," the first ranger said. "Stay inside and stay safe."
"Got it," said Nora. What gall to be giving her orders when they weren't even real rangers…
The ranger dug out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Nora. "If you happen to see anything more or anything else, call this number, okay?"
"Sure," Nora said, taking the card. She glanced at the number. It was not the number she'd called earlier today.
"Well, we'll get out of your hair now, then," said the ranger. "Have a nice day!"
"Yeah, you too."
As the men and their herdier left, Nora closed the door and sighed.
Good thing that herdier didn't smell the creature on me, she thought to herself. Must have been thanks to the winds. Or some other reason, I don't know.
After her pulse had gone down a bit, she pocketed the card, made her way back upstairs and entered her room. She was met with the sight of her lamp toppled over onto the floor, its shade crooked against the carpet and currently acting as a perch for the creature.
"Bad creature," Nora said, and the creature actually shrank a bit. She felt a little bad for it, not even sure if the creature understood why she was angry at it.
She sighed again and shooed the creature off the lamp in order to upright it. The bulb inside had luckily not broken, and the shade was easy enough to right again. She wouldn't have to explain anything to Mom.
She turned back to the creature, and the creature began chirping again.
"Sorry, buddy, but I can't open the window now," Nora said. "You'll fly away and get caught by those weirdoes."
The creature let out a deflated noise, apparently understanding Nora enough to know it wouldn't be getting more food.
Nora grasped her chin. Was there something else she could do for the creature…?
"Okay," she then said, "how about this? I can take you downstairs and give you some water. I could try feeding you something else, too, in case you're not a strict insectivore."
The creature chirped excitedly.
"Alright, nice! But, uh… gotta do something else first."
Nora went around her room to pull down the shades on both her windows. She then slipped out of the room, leaving the creature behind, to pull down the shades on all the other windows as well. She then returned to her room to fetch the creature, which she was hesitant to touch without her gloves, but figured that a lab creature would probably be safer to touch than a wild one. She got it to perch on her hand - it was heavier than she expected - and carried it downstairs and to the kitchen. She placed the creature down on the counter while she cleared the dirty dishes out of the sink, then tapped the bottom with her fingers until the creature jumped in.
"Hope you like this," Nora said before turning on the water.
At first, the creature flinched at the sudden stream of water in front of it and the splashes that reached its body, but then its curiosity seemed to take over. It leaned towards the stream, then plunged its body in, eyelids closed. It chirped and began making motions similar to those of a bird in a birdbath. Nora couldn't deny that it was kind of cute.
Once it was done playing, it crawled out of the stream and stood up straight. Its proboscis extended again, drinking the water.
Nora wondered what the typing of this strange mon was. Flying was pretty likely with how it had wings and was clearly able to fly, but what other type could it be? Nora hadn't seen it use any move outside that strange eye-beam it used earlier to kill the fly. It had been yellow. Was it an electric move? This creature didn't really seem electric-type otherwise. Then again, a mon didn't have to be electric to learn electric moves.
The creature's external appearance, just based on color and the whole slime thing, could have hinted at poison. Though that would not have been a great thing if Nora had handled the thing without gloves. She decided to rinse her hands right away. Out of habit, she closed the tap afterwards, and the creature made a strange chuff.
"Oh, sorry," said Nora. "Were you still drinking?"
But the creature's attention wasn't on her. Instead, it closed its eyes and seemed to concentrate, and then…
Oh.
The creature had just dropped a splat of a white-black substance from the back-end of its tail onto the bottom of the sink. Nora didn't have to guess what that was.
"Well, at least this way it's easy to clean," Nora sighed. The creature punctuated her words with another chirp.
After lifting the creature out of the sink and cleaning up its crap - using plenty of soap - Nora took some berries, vegetables and lab-ham out of the fridge and pantry and cut them into little pieces to see if the creature would like any of them. The berries and vegetables weren't the creature's thing, but it certainly vacuumed up the ham. Nora had to hope its diet normally included meat and that it wouldn't have any complications.
Once the creature had eaten its fill, Nora had to decide what to do next. Was she going to try and keep this thing overnight? How would she keep it a secret from her parents, who wanted absolutely no mon in the house?
Well, getting it into a pokéball was probably the first thing she should do, if by chance it happened to not be registered to any existing one after all. After fetching and putting on another pair of rubber gloves, Nora brought the creature back into her room and closed the door behind them. She picked up the ball from before off her table and showed it to the creature still perched on her hand.
"Do you know what this is?" Nora asked the creature.
The creature trilled inquisitively. Nora got the feeling it had never seen a pokéball before. That's odd. Maybe the ball they had it in at the lab looked different…
Before she could do anything else, though, the creature reached out a wing and tapped the pokéball. It activated, sucking the creature in.
Nora expected the mon to scramble out as soon as it could, but to her surprise, it stayed inside long enough for the thing to let out its signature catching click.
So it wasn't registered, she thought. Did it really come from a lab, then? If not, what were those fake rangers after…?
The ball wiggled, and the creature then reemerged. It did so upside down and had to roll over on the floor until it was rightside up again. It'll need some practice, thought Nora before stopping herself. Wait. I can't really keep a mon of my own, can I?
She took a look at the creature, which stared back, unblinking. Strange as it was, the mon had already become quite endearing to Nora. She certainly couldn't just let it fly off and try to fend for itself in a world of predators and fake rangers…
"Alright," said Nora, "I'll keep you around. I don't know for how long, but at least overnight."
The creature shifted, as if tilting its head. Its understanding wasn't quite there to comprehend this comment, it seemed.
"I guess I should come up with a name for you, then, too," Nora continued. "Okay, let's see. You're… a flying eyeball, essentially." She paused, then nodded to herself. "Fuck it. Flyeball. Your name is Flyeball."
Flyeball chirped again, unsure what was going on.
Nora pointed to it. "Flyeball." She pointed to herself. "Nora." She repeated this a few times, not knowing if it would do anything. She'd never raised a mon, after all.
Flyeball scratched its body with a wing. Then it began wandering the room.
Nora took a deep breath in and went to sit down on her bed. She wondered briefly if she ought to take a picture and tell the chat about this, but decided against it. After all the breaches of privacy Chatavia had been accused of, posting about a possible lab-escapee mon wasn't necessarily safe. Even in an allegedly private chat, the wrong eyes might see it.
So, she'd keep Flyeball a secret from everyone. It wasn't as if she had anyone in real life she could trust, either. Downside of having no social life.
She leaned back. Maybe, though, this would all work out. Maybe Flyeball itself might turn into a confidant someday. With enough training and love, could it even evolve into exciting new forms? The thought of it made Nora's heart flutter.
Until she realized something.
Fuck. I need to get back to studying.
Chris let out a quiet sigh. The rumbling of the car's motor masked it. Good. Jason wouldn't ask about it.
He glanced at the man in the passenger's seat, still in red-black garb just as he was. Jason was leaning on his fist, elbow on the window. It seemed like he was stuck in thought.
Chris turned his attention back to the road, which streetlights had started to illuminate a while ago. The sky was still twilit, but the last light of day would soon disappear.
"Chris," Jason suddenly said.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think they'll be fine?" his friend continued. "With… a sarc that dangerous running around?"
"That girl with the glasses had already told the rangers," Chris said. "They've probably given a warning to the area by now. Everyone will stay indoors."
"I hope you're right."
"And it wasn't necessarily a sarc," Chris continued. "Could have been a dragon. A herdier would be spooked by a dragon, too."
"Ozzy does know Play Rough."
"A haxorus' tusks are still sharp."
"Mm."
Jason said nothing after that, leaving Chris to focus back on his driving. Not that it took long before his mind began to wander again.
A sarc as deadly as a dragon - or worse. It almost made all the other ones they'd heard of so far seem harmless. Not that there could be such a thing as a harmless sarc. Every single one of them was a biohazard.
He could only pray that Lucy would never cross paths with one…
No. He could do more than that. He would do more than that. He would come to work tomorrow, just like every other day, and do all that he could to get those abominations locked away.
That was the only way his daughter would grow up in a safe world.
What it is is a pilot for a potential longer story set in the Pokémon world where a mysterious new type of Pokémon suddenly starts appearing - the Flesh type. You know, blood, muscle, bone, skin, neural tissue, everything. These new Pokémon are weird and creepy, but that doesn't stop our hero from wanting to protect them. Whether that'll work out would be answered in the full story.
Right now, though, this is just the pilot for the first chapter. I make no guarantees it'll continue as while this concept does speak to me, it feels like a concept that speaks to very few people, and the thought of putting in countless hours of work into a longfic to not only write it but make it meet my standards and then get virtually no readership or feedback is pretty discouraging. So, if you do enjoy this, please let me know, because it will seriously factor into my decisionmaking.
As this story is still deep in the planning or even just the brainstorming phase, I don't know what content warnings it will have. I have some idea of what they might be, but really it's kind of pointless to even try and predict that when all I have right now is a pilot and if I end up doing more I'll have to make edits to this thread anyway, at which point I might as well add the full content warnings. Right now, the content warnings for just this pilot should suffice, and they are: blood, body horror, strong language. This pilot is rated mature, though really mostly for the language, as the blood and body horror are at teen levels.
Okay, enough yapping, let's get to the chapter. Enjoy.
---
AN EYE FOR THINGS
Synopsis:
Nora, having graduated high school recently, spends her summer days reluctantly studying in preparation for college. Once new, grotesque species of Pokémon start to appear in her home town of Accumula, though, she may find herself fighting for their future as well as her own.
Genre:
Drama, Horror
Status:
Pilot only so far
Length:
TBD
---
CHAPTER ONE
Pilot
---
AN EYE FOR THINGS
Synopsis:
Nora, having graduated high school recently, spends her summer days reluctantly studying in preparation for college. Once new, grotesque species of Pokémon start to appear in her home town of Accumula, though, she may find herself fighting for their future as well as her own.
Genre:
Drama, Horror
Status:
Pilot only so far
Length:
TBD
---
CHAPTER ONE
Pilot
---
Nora loved the forest. She loved to hear the leaves rustling in the wind, the cooing of the pidove, the crunch of detritus underneath her sneakers. The best thing about it, though, was that there was no one else there. No one to annoy her or order her around or insult her. She could just exist in peace.
Simply put, the forest was her safe haven.
Except, well.
It didn't seem safe anymore.
Nora kept staring at the large, dark red blotch that marred the ground beside the trail. She drew in a breath and sighed it out.
Well, she thought, so much for a calming walk.
She turned around to leave, then took out her phone and snapped an image of the large stain. Something to talk about in chat later, maybe.
Later, though. Right now, she should head straight home. She did not want to run into the thing that had caused that.
She pocketed her phone and walked back the way she'd come, ears perked for any noises and eyes peeled for any movement. A liepard encounter needed to be handled properly from start to finish. And if it was a dragon… well, she'd hate to miss her own death.
Eventually, she stepped out of the woods and onto her home street. She figured she was slightly safer now, especially with the stronger winds messing with any predator's sense of smell, but stayed vigilant until she'd reached her front door. She unlocked it and slipped in before sighing again.
I better call the rangers, she thought. Never called them before for anything, so I hope I don't make an ass of myself.
She pulled out her phone and went to sit on the couch, where she searched up 'rangers unova'. She reached their site and found the number she should call before dialing it and bringing the phone to her ear.
After a while, the other side picked up.
"Unova Rangers' Association, how can I help you?" a friendly female voice said.
"Uh, hi, this is Nora Teahan," Nora said, scratching her nose. "I'm calling to report a possible dangerous pokémon near a residential area."
"Alright, what makes you think there might be a dangerous pokémon around?"
"I saw a really big blotch of blood in the woods, not too far from my home street. Like three feet across. It wasn't there yesterday."
"Understood. And what area would this be?"
"Patrat Lane, in Accumula."
"I see." Nora could hear the clacking of a keyboard in the background. "Thank you for your report. Anything else?"
"No, nothing right n- oh, wait. I did take a picture of the blood. Do you guys want that?"
"Sure, just text it into this number after your call."
"Got it. And, um, that was everything."
"Alright. We'll assess the image and come back with further instructions if any are necessary. In the meantime, keep yourself and your family indoors and safe, okay?"
"Okay."
"Good. Have a nice day."
"You too. Bye." Nora hung up. That went well enough, I think.
She then promptly sent the photo she'd taken to the number she'd called. There was no reply at first, but a few minutes later, one arrived.
'Thank you for the image. Our rangers will look into this. Continue to stay indoors.'
Wasn't going anywhere anyway, thought Nora.
She thought about what to do next. Post in the chat about her situation? Well… that could spiral into a longer convo. And even with her daily walk cut short, she needed to study. She couldn't get caught up in silly things like actually having herself a good time.
She could, however, eat something. She hastily shovelled down a cup of razzberry yoghurt from the fridge. A bout of thirst got her to down a glass of water, too. But that was it for her lunch break. Bullshit awaited.
Nora made her way to her room upstairs and closed the door behind her. There was no reason to lock it now that she was home alone. She walked over to her desk, where that wretched book awaited, and picked it up with a sigh.
Glorious Economics was exactly what it sounded like. A book all about touting the importance of the field of economics and how it was actually the most important field of all. A book that Nora disagreed with so furiously that she couldn't get through more than a few paragraphs at a time without wanting to throw the thing across the room.
Yet it was the very first book that her father needed her to read that summer, because it would, according to him, show her how wrong she was to reject the field and make the rest of the assigned reading much more fun and interesting. It was not doing that. If anything, it made her dread it even more, knowing what kind of people's opinions she would have to be subjected to for the remaining summer.
But what choice did she have? She was eighteen now, so nothing stopped her parents from throwing her out if she didn't obey. And that had been implied as a possibility.
It wasn't as if she was particularly good at any other subject, either. Sure, she'd gotten straight A's so far, but that was hardly difficult. Mom and Dad made sure to tell her that things would get a lot tougher in college. And when the only subject she knew she was truly interested in - biology - was also one she knew she wasn't that good in, she might as well go for a subject that would get her work that paid.
She swallowed her disdain and began to read.
An unknown amount of time later…
THUD!
Nora jumped at the noise. She looked to her northward window, but whatever had made the noise was no longer there. Except for, on closer inspection, there was a greasy stain smack-dab in the middle of the glass.
Nora bit her lip.
If she wanted to help that bird - it was probably a bird - she'd have to go outside. With the liepard or the dragon or whatever around.
But, well, if she didn't, that bird had an even worse chance of survival. And it would be her fault, both as an individual and as a member of the human race which was guilty of making clear windows to crash into in the first place.
She put down the book and went downstairs. She took some rubber gloves from the cleaning cabinet and put them on before grabbing one of Dad's cardboard boxes he never threw out - much to Mom's annoyance - from the foyer. After that, she took a shaky breath and slipped out of the front door.
The walk to the northern side of the house from the western exit felt ten times longer than usual, but no beast attacked her during it. She arrived at the spot underneath the second-floor window…
…though what was there was absolutely not a bird.
On the ground lay a strange creature. It looked like a large, lidded eyeball with batlike wings and a tail. Its body was dark pink while the wings were bright orange, and its tail was banded with deep purple. The eye itself was yellow-irised and slit-pupilled, but its gaze was unfocused. The creature, as a whole, wasn't moving. Nora didn't know if that meant it was dead or if its kind simply didn't breathe in general.
She knelt down, lowered the box onto the ground and cautiously poked one of the creature's wings. No response.
Well, whatever it was, it was still a pokémon. Probably. Regardless, she should bring it inside in case it wasn't dead. She scooped up the creature in her gloved hands - it was cold and a little slimy - and placed it in the box which she then brought back inside… and upstairs to her room for good measure. If her parents were to come home all of a sudden, they wouldn't be happy to see this thing.
Having placed the box on the floor, Nora took off her gloves and dropped them into the trash. She took a moment to stare at the still-immobile mystery mon before deciding she should just check her Pokédex app. That thing had data on almost every mon there was, so surely it would tell her the species of the creature.
She pulled out her phone, opened the app and tapped the 'Identify' button while aiming the camera at the creature. The overlay showed a frame around the creature, so it at least knew it was looking at something. After a full minute of it showing the 'Identifying…' text, though, the app finally gave up, displaying a message of 'Unable to identify'.
"Damn," said Nora to herself. What exactly did this mean, then? She'd shown the creature at a good angle and in good lighting, so she doubted the identification had failed because of a poor visual. The app just hadn't been trained to recognize this thing in the first place. Which meant…
This thing's either a previously undiscovered species, an alien or a lab experiment.
All three were things that had precedent in history. New pokémon were discovered every now and then in remote parts of the world, many pokémon had documented or speculated extraterrestrial origins, and genetic engineering technology had given rise to multiple artificial pokémon species in the past few decades.
Accumula wasn't a remote part of the world, though, so that ruled the first option out. Alien or lab experiment, then. In practice, an alien probably wasn't really all that different from a terrestrial species as far as reporting a new species went. But a lab experiment…
There was, perhaps, one way to gain more information. If this mon had been created by someone, it had surely been registered to a pokéball somewhere.
Nora dug into her desk drawers, unsure where that one pokéball of her own was, but eventually found it. It was empty and had always been empty as her parents had never let her catch any pokémon, only having allowed her to buy one with her own allowance as a curiosity and nothing else. Well, now it would see some use.
She took the ball to the creature and tapped it lightly. A red light sucked the creature in, and the ball became a smidgen heavier. After a moment, it rejected the creature and spat it out.
Nora was about to conclude that it did belong to someone before remembering that unconscious mon couldn't be caught by regular balls in the first place. Oh. Was all that pointless, then?
Well, maybe not. Now I at least know it's enough of a pokémon to be contained by a pokéball, even momentarily.
Suddenly, an annoying buzz reached Nora's ears, tearing her attention away from the still-immobile creature. She knew what it meant - that fucking fly was still here. She thought it had died off, not having made a sound since noon. She sighed. Whatever. Not important.
She got up and made her way to her bed to sit down. What should she do about the creature? Report it to the rangers just like she'd done with the blood in the woods? Was it rude to call them twice in one day? No, surely not.
But what if this thing really was a lab experiment? Would the rangers just give it back to whichever company owned it so that they could lock it back up in some facility and poke at it for the rest of its life? That wasn't right for the little guy. Sure, he was a little creepy-looking, but surely it was just a mon like any other. It deserved to fly free or at least be kept by someone who actually cared about its wellbeing.
Before she could commit herself to any kind of plan, though, she heard the creature stir in its box. Quickly, she sprang up and looked inside. The creature's eye was now moving, looking around, its pupil dilating and contracting. It noticed Nora and stopped to stare.
"Uh, hi," Nora said, waving a hand.
The creature squeaked in response. It didn't sound too dissimilar to a patrat. Nora, though, had to wonder how it had even made that sound. The creature didn't have a mouth she could spot. She wasn't even sure where one would go.
"You, um, crashed into my window," Nora continued, knowing that the thing probably couldn't understand her, but maybe her voice would be calming. "I brought you inside so a liepard wouldn't eat you."
The creature squeaked again, then rolled over to its belly and turned back to Nora. It continued to stare at her.
"...Do you want some food?" Nora asked. "I don't… know what you eat, or how you eat, but --"
Another buzz cut her off. The fly was back. Fuck's sake, she thought, I'm trying to talk h-
A zapping noise split the air as a beam of yellow light shot out from the creature's eye and hit the fly hovering next to Nora. The insect dropped onto the floor, and the creature scrambled out of the box with the help of its wings to make its way to the bug. It stood up straight on its tail, and a pink proboscis extended out from the underside of that tail, snatching the fly and drawing back, disappearing underneath some manner of slit. The creature then turned back to Nora and squeaked in a way that somehow sounded pleased.
Oh, thought Nora. That's not a tail. It's got a mouth. I suppose, then, it has to contain the rest of its organs…?
The creature began looking around, apparently searching for its next snack, but couldn't find anything. It looked up at Nora and began chirping like a baby bird.
"Uh… I'm not actually in control of what bugs come in here," Nora said. "I guess I could open the window to let some more in, but…"
The creature would surely fly away. And maybe get caught by whoever created it, if that was its origin story. And put back in a cage in a lab.
Nora hummed, unsure what to do, until the doorbell suddenly rang.
"Ah, fuck," Nora muttered. "Stay here."
Despite the creature's protests, Nora slipped out of the room and closed the door behind her. Hope it'll be fine on its own for a minute, thought Nora as she made her way down the stairs and to the front door.
She peered through the peephole. Standing outside were two men in the familiar red-black uniforms rangers were known to wear. The one on the left was black with a clean-shaven narrow jaw while the one on the right was white with a stubble on a squarer face, but both seemed to be in good shape, as was expected of rangers. Between the two sat a herdier.
What do they want? Nora thought. More information on the blood in the woods?
Nora opened the door, and the men gave her a coordinated smile that already put her off.
"Hey there," the ranger on the left said with a wave. "We're from the Rangers' Association, doing a neighborhood checkup. Have you seen any out-of-place mon lately?"
Nora glanced between the two men. "You weren't told about the bloodstain?"
"The… what?" the ranger asked, still trying to smile.
"The bloodstain in the woods that I reported to you guys," Nora continued. They really hadn't heard about it? Was the communication inside their organization that poor? Or…
Were these really rangers at all? She'd never heard of rangers doing unsolicited neighborhood checkups. What if these guys were from whatever lab the creature had originated from, trying to find their escaped product?
"Ah, sorry, we hadn't heard about that yet," the ranger said. "Must be an internal communications issue. We've been having those. Could you tell us more?"
"Yeah," Nora said. She'd only arouse their suspicion if she refused. "There was a big stain of blood in the nearby woods when I took a walk there around 3 PM. I made a call about it and even sent a picture."
"Could we see the picture?" asked the other ranger. There was a less friendly air about him, but at least it was less deceptive as a consequence.
Nora dug out her phone and showed the picture.
"Oh, that's big," the first ranger commented. "Where was this, exactly?"
"If you walk to the end of this street, you'll see a trail leading into the woods. Follow that, and you'll find the place."
The first ranger looked like he was about to thank her, but a sudden thud from upstairs cut him off. The herdier's ears perked.
"What was that?" the other ranger said, tensing up.
"Uh…" Nora scrambled for an explanation. "It's just my purrloin doing some bullshit again, don't worry."
"Hmm." The stubble-jawed ranger eyed Nora, which made her feel like a bug under a magnifying glass. His next words seemed to imply he'd bought the story, though. "Was there anything else of note about the bloodstain?"
"Only that it wasn't there yesterday," Nora said. "I take the same walk every day, so I'd know."
"Well, you'd better not take any walks before we've made sure the area is clear," the first ranger said. "Stay inside and stay safe."
"Got it," said Nora. What gall to be giving her orders when they weren't even real rangers…
The ranger dug out a business card from his pocket and handed it to Nora. "If you happen to see anything more or anything else, call this number, okay?"
"Sure," Nora said, taking the card. She glanced at the number. It was not the number she'd called earlier today.
"Well, we'll get out of your hair now, then," said the ranger. "Have a nice day!"
"Yeah, you too."
As the men and their herdier left, Nora closed the door and sighed.
Good thing that herdier didn't smell the creature on me, she thought to herself. Must have been thanks to the winds. Or some other reason, I don't know.
After her pulse had gone down a bit, she pocketed the card, made her way back upstairs and entered her room. She was met with the sight of her lamp toppled over onto the floor, its shade crooked against the carpet and currently acting as a perch for the creature.
"Bad creature," Nora said, and the creature actually shrank a bit. She felt a little bad for it, not even sure if the creature understood why she was angry at it.
She sighed again and shooed the creature off the lamp in order to upright it. The bulb inside had luckily not broken, and the shade was easy enough to right again. She wouldn't have to explain anything to Mom.
She turned back to the creature, and the creature began chirping again.
"Sorry, buddy, but I can't open the window now," Nora said. "You'll fly away and get caught by those weirdoes."
The creature let out a deflated noise, apparently understanding Nora enough to know it wouldn't be getting more food.
Nora grasped her chin. Was there something else she could do for the creature…?
"Okay," she then said, "how about this? I can take you downstairs and give you some water. I could try feeding you something else, too, in case you're not a strict insectivore."
The creature chirped excitedly.
"Alright, nice! But, uh… gotta do something else first."
Nora went around her room to pull down the shades on both her windows. She then slipped out of the room, leaving the creature behind, to pull down the shades on all the other windows as well. She then returned to her room to fetch the creature, which she was hesitant to touch without her gloves, but figured that a lab creature would probably be safer to touch than a wild one. She got it to perch on her hand - it was heavier than she expected - and carried it downstairs and to the kitchen. She placed the creature down on the counter while she cleared the dirty dishes out of the sink, then tapped the bottom with her fingers until the creature jumped in.
"Hope you like this," Nora said before turning on the water.
At first, the creature flinched at the sudden stream of water in front of it and the splashes that reached its body, but then its curiosity seemed to take over. It leaned towards the stream, then plunged its body in, eyelids closed. It chirped and began making motions similar to those of a bird in a birdbath. Nora couldn't deny that it was kind of cute.
Once it was done playing, it crawled out of the stream and stood up straight. Its proboscis extended again, drinking the water.
Nora wondered what the typing of this strange mon was. Flying was pretty likely with how it had wings and was clearly able to fly, but what other type could it be? Nora hadn't seen it use any move outside that strange eye-beam it used earlier to kill the fly. It had been yellow. Was it an electric move? This creature didn't really seem electric-type otherwise. Then again, a mon didn't have to be electric to learn electric moves.
The creature's external appearance, just based on color and the whole slime thing, could have hinted at poison. Though that would not have been a great thing if Nora had handled the thing without gloves. She decided to rinse her hands right away. Out of habit, she closed the tap afterwards, and the creature made a strange chuff.
"Oh, sorry," said Nora. "Were you still drinking?"
But the creature's attention wasn't on her. Instead, it closed its eyes and seemed to concentrate, and then…
Oh.
The creature had just dropped a splat of a white-black substance from the back-end of its tail onto the bottom of the sink. Nora didn't have to guess what that was.
"Well, at least this way it's easy to clean," Nora sighed. The creature punctuated her words with another chirp.
After lifting the creature out of the sink and cleaning up its crap - using plenty of soap - Nora took some berries, vegetables and lab-ham out of the fridge and pantry and cut them into little pieces to see if the creature would like any of them. The berries and vegetables weren't the creature's thing, but it certainly vacuumed up the ham. Nora had to hope its diet normally included meat and that it wouldn't have any complications.
Once the creature had eaten its fill, Nora had to decide what to do next. Was she going to try and keep this thing overnight? How would she keep it a secret from her parents, who wanted absolutely no mon in the house?
Well, getting it into a pokéball was probably the first thing she should do, if by chance it happened to not be registered to any existing one after all. After fetching and putting on another pair of rubber gloves, Nora brought the creature back into her room and closed the door behind them. She picked up the ball from before off her table and showed it to the creature still perched on her hand.
"Do you know what this is?" Nora asked the creature.
The creature trilled inquisitively. Nora got the feeling it had never seen a pokéball before. That's odd. Maybe the ball they had it in at the lab looked different…
Before she could do anything else, though, the creature reached out a wing and tapped the pokéball. It activated, sucking the creature in.
Nora expected the mon to scramble out as soon as it could, but to her surprise, it stayed inside long enough for the thing to let out its signature catching click.
So it wasn't registered, she thought. Did it really come from a lab, then? If not, what were those fake rangers after…?
The ball wiggled, and the creature then reemerged. It did so upside down and had to roll over on the floor until it was rightside up again. It'll need some practice, thought Nora before stopping herself. Wait. I can't really keep a mon of my own, can I?
She took a look at the creature, which stared back, unblinking. Strange as it was, the mon had already become quite endearing to Nora. She certainly couldn't just let it fly off and try to fend for itself in a world of predators and fake rangers…
"Alright," said Nora, "I'll keep you around. I don't know for how long, but at least overnight."
The creature shifted, as if tilting its head. Its understanding wasn't quite there to comprehend this comment, it seemed.
"I guess I should come up with a name for you, then, too," Nora continued. "Okay, let's see. You're… a flying eyeball, essentially." She paused, then nodded to herself. "Fuck it. Flyeball. Your name is Flyeball."
Flyeball chirped again, unsure what was going on.
Nora pointed to it. "Flyeball." She pointed to herself. "Nora." She repeated this a few times, not knowing if it would do anything. She'd never raised a mon, after all.
Flyeball scratched its body with a wing. Then it began wandering the room.
Nora took a deep breath in and went to sit down on her bed. She wondered briefly if she ought to take a picture and tell the chat about this, but decided against it. After all the breaches of privacy Chatavia had been accused of, posting about a possible lab-escapee mon wasn't necessarily safe. Even in an allegedly private chat, the wrong eyes might see it.
So, she'd keep Flyeball a secret from everyone. It wasn't as if she had anyone in real life she could trust, either. Downside of having no social life.
She leaned back. Maybe, though, this would all work out. Maybe Flyeball itself might turn into a confidant someday. With enough training and love, could it even evolve into exciting new forms? The thought of it made Nora's heart flutter.
Until she realized something.
Fuck. I need to get back to studying.
---
Chris let out a quiet sigh. The rumbling of the car's motor masked it. Good. Jason wouldn't ask about it.
He glanced at the man in the passenger's seat, still in red-black garb just as he was. Jason was leaning on his fist, elbow on the window. It seemed like he was stuck in thought.
Chris turned his attention back to the road, which streetlights had started to illuminate a while ago. The sky was still twilit, but the last light of day would soon disappear.
"Chris," Jason suddenly said.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think they'll be fine?" his friend continued. "With… a sarc that dangerous running around?"
"That girl with the glasses had already told the rangers," Chris said. "They've probably given a warning to the area by now. Everyone will stay indoors."
"I hope you're right."
"And it wasn't necessarily a sarc," Chris continued. "Could have been a dragon. A herdier would be spooked by a dragon, too."
"Ozzy does know Play Rough."
"A haxorus' tusks are still sharp."
"Mm."
Jason said nothing after that, leaving Chris to focus back on his driving. Not that it took long before his mind began to wander again.
A sarc as deadly as a dragon - or worse. It almost made all the other ones they'd heard of so far seem harmless. Not that there could be such a thing as a harmless sarc. Every single one of them was a biohazard.
He could only pray that Lucy would never cross paths with one…
No. He could do more than that. He would do more than that. He would come to work tomorrow, just like every other day, and do all that he could to get those abominations locked away.
That was the only way his daughter would grow up in a safe world.
---