| Rio POV |
Well, now that Groudon isn't actively trying to sink the region in lava, and whatever woke him up is buried miles under the ground...
Everything is fine.Mostly.
As long as Nemona stops trying to convince Kyogre to train her Milotic.And we figure out how to stop the current 'walker' infestation.
I glance around what's left of Sootopolis—burnt rubble, broken stone, and a few stunned cultists still screaming "Flame Bringer" like it's a battle cry or a new religion....Maybe both.
Blaziken (formerly Combusken, same attitude) walks beside me, arms crossed, eyes sharp. She's taller now. Meaner-looking. Definitely stronger. But somehow still looks like she's moments away from kicking me in the shins and stealing my lunch if given the chance.
"So how have you been faring lately, 'Lady Fire Plume'?"
My grin barely lasts a second before her kick sails past my face.
Damn, nice legs for a feather brain.
At least she started fighting how she was always supposed to.
Blaziken huffed, flames briefly licking around her wrists before fading. "I'm surviving. Your little vacation left me with a bunch of lunatics and a city full of walking biohazards."
"One of which you apparently turned into a fan club."
"Not my fault they decided I was their fire goddess or whatever."She side-eyes one particularly devoted cultist, who's currently trying to set a ruined Sootopolis sign on fire as a 'tribute.' "I didn't ask for this."
"You sound exactly like a protagonist in a bad isekai."
"Shut up before I isekai you into a crater."
I chuckle, dodging a jab as we pass another smoldering alley. The air still smells like wet ash and Kyogre breath. No signs of active threats, but I can still sense movement—lurking shadows just beyond where my aura pulse reaches.
Those Pokémon haven't scattered. If anything, they've just… gone still.
Waiting.
Blaziken notices too. Her stance shifts, warier. "They're not gone."
"Nope." I close my eyes, reaching out. "They're just hiding. Watching."
"Planning?"
"Doubt it. How can someone with teeth and claws for a head be that intelligent?." I frown. "But something's coordinating them. Or calling them."
We both pause as the ground rumbles again—softly this time, not Groudon-level, more like… footsteps. Lots of them.
"Correction," I mutter, already drawing another arrow. "Something's coming."
Blaziken cracks her knuckles, flames reigniting around her wrists. "Finally. I was getting bored."
The cultists behind us scream louder. Not in praise this time.
More like panic.
"Well," I sigh. "There goes 'everything is fine.'"
I turn back towards the shore, where Kyogre and Groudon are bickering, Nemona somehow managing to get in between them, and they listen to her quietly? How does... Never mind, I don't want to be associated with her.
"Nemona, get off Nue, I kinda need him right now!"
She looks back, grinning like she's riding a rollercoaster. Which, to be fair, she is—just one shaped like a 30-foot-tall lightning bird with world-ending thunder stored in its feathers.
Nue screeches, veering midair with a crack of thunder that blasts a poor boulder into pebbles.
Nemona whoops. "He does barrel rolls now!"
"Get. Off."
"But he likes me!"
"No, he tolerates you, only because I told him to! That's not the same thing!"
Behind me, Blaziken sighs like she's reconsidering her decision to evolve. "This is the team you left me behind for?"
"Technically, I took Nemona with me—so that's on me. The cult, though? That's all you. And may was the one that forgot you. You remember how I passed out when I knew we were going on a plane ride..."
She ignites a full flamethrower breath through her nose. "I am going to deep-fry something. Possibly you."
Another rumble cuts through the banter—closer now. Heavier. Like earth shifting under pressure.
I step forward, narrowing my focus. The aura fog clinging to the city's edge begins to ripple… and then part.
Something emerges from the soot and haze. At first, I think it's just a Pokémon—big, maybe an Ursaring variant—but then the shape unfolds. Splits. A single body with too many limbs. Too many heads.
The cultists cheer. Then scream. Then cheer again. I don't think they know whose side they're on anymore.
"Oh."
Blaziken leans closer, voice tight. "That's not one Pokémon."
"Nope."
"It's several."
"Yeah."
"Mashed together."
"Yup."
With a noise halfway between a shriek and a wheeze, the abomination lifts one malformed leg and takes a step. Then another. Bits of broken Poké Balls clatter out from its chest cavity like discarded ornaments.
"Well," Blaziken mutters, fire already climbing her arms again. "At least I don't have to listen to your lunch jokes now."
"I can multitask," I say, raising a brow. "So… lunch after?"
"You bring snacks."
Always.
"Nue, light them up"
We hear a faint screech, I say faint, but alone it can be heard from the next two cities over, but in this case, it's completely drowned out by the literal rain of lightning peppering whatever SCP file those things crawled out of.
Seriously, this is a kids' game. Why does that Eelektross have a penis for a head?
"They told me that several gym leaders are heading in this direction with whatever number of survivors they managed to gather, guess you and your cult were the one they sent to air the place out?"
"WHAT?!"
"I said— Goddammit, Nue can you tone it down for a second?! I can't hear myself think!"
SCREEEE!
Lightning spears down like divine wrath. An entire chunk of fused flesh-thing erupts in smoke.
"Right, as I said, Gym leaders, survivors, coming when?"
Blaziken deadpans, "I'm not an idiot, you don't have to speak like that..."
Pause.
Another bolt lights up the distant skyline in blinding white.
I squint at her. "Yeah, I'm not buying it. You were pecking at your own shadow last month. I'd sooner believe Nemona isn't crazy."
A chipper voice cuts in behind us. "Did someone say my name?"
I freeze. Blaziken groans.
Please no.
I turn. There she is. Nemona. Beaming like she didn't just challenge two legendary Pokémon to a sparring match before breakfast.
"Please," I mutter, "go back to bothering the kaiju. No one wants you here."
Nemona, unfazed, just grins. "Kyogre said my Milotic has potential! I think we're bonding!"
From somewhere behind her, an ancient, primal roar echoes across the bay.
"…Kyogre didn't eat your Milotic, right?"
"She dodged! Don't worry about her!"
Right…
I'm officially leaving the defence of the area to them—and my shadows. I need sleep. I've dealt with Nemona for a less-than-healthy amount of time.
I can leave taking care of the zombie infestation for tomorrow.
(To be continued)
I'ma be real, I've been dreading this moment.
MC: Why? what moment? what happened? Did I miss something?
I'm sorry little one. Its mandatory...
MC: You're scaring me...
Next chapter is chapter 69.
May Arceus have mercy on our souls.