The Legendary Beast Pack

[....]

Out of breath and out of time.

This was what Leo was thinking as he was running. He was running towards this group, full of strange pokemon, who called themselves the Legendary Beast Pack.

Maybe I can help them. Maybe they'll actually want me.

As he skidded to a halt in the meadow of Route 1, he said, "Hi. I'm a nutcase who goes berserk whenever the heck I'm mad. So who are you?" to the strange group.

He was truly panting now. After all, he'd been running for two years.

 

[Exo-Raikou]

Frollo had been hovering through the pathway, using his telekinetic "enhancement" ability to run if he felt that hovering would be unnecessary. After Arceus knows how long of alternating between hovering and running, he reached the meadow where several other pokemon were gathering. Moments before this, a Quilava had joined in the group and said something about going berserk whenever angry. The Alakazam paused to see if anyone would introduce themselves, and when nobody did, he started to speak up, but thought better of it.

Why should I get myself too involved with this group? I have no idea as to the extent of their battle skill... he shaped one of his spoons into a hammer, I, a judge among pokemon as to their worth... why should I have to be the one that would do what they might call "take the initiative?" The idea is very... disheartening.

He reshaped the hammer into a spoon. I suppose that I'll wait to see the results of this all....

 

[Blastoise Fortooate]

Hoss grunted, a rumbling, gruff sound from deep in his throat. It would have once reverberated in his helmet, but since his evolution that simply wasn't a problem. It was the marowak's turn at guard duty, not a job that he particularly resented. It gave him time to himself, mostly, and he got to scare away random wild ratatta and such. Of course, this one was a tad too large, slender, and on fire to be a ratatta.

On first sight of the pokémon, transparent flashes swam across Hoss's vision; a typhlosion spinning across a burning landscape, another locked in heavy, thudding close combat with a rival. As quickly as they came, these visions faded into the very background of his mind.

For now.

Hefting his heavy, spiked club, Hoss straightened up and took a few steps towards the tiny quilava. His voice crackled with the energy and slight insanity of a young pitbattler, and his cream chest was heaving with a lack of breath. His flames flared in the darkness of the night, outshining a pale moon.

Once again, a grinding noise escaped Hoss's unseen lips, this time in the form of words. "I am on guard duty, little one. And there might be those among us who would not take so kindly to an intruder, even such a young one," He held up a finger. "Excuse me, do not move,"

With this, Hoss hefted his heavy club and marched at a quick pace towards an... alakazam? A woodland fire-type was one thing, but a fully-evolved psychic floating in midair? He would have to deal with this quickly.

Quashing down the images of powerful psychic assaults that flooded his mind, Hoss once again begrudgingly spoke. "You, Psychic One. What business do you have here, of all places? State your purpose or you will have to be..." Here Hoss hefted his thick, ancient weapon. "..expunged."

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

There were many shadows within the shadows.

Shadows within the night. Lurking and creeping about, the pale moon revealing them into the ground. But these shadows were nothing more than illusions. Things that you could look at, things that would intimidate and cause fear, but things that could hurt no one.

But then there were those shadows that crept around, mysteriously and unknown. Were they malicious? Weren't they? One couldn't really set their bets on this one...

A moving stalking shadow, black as the night, yet the moonlight ruined her stealth. She was never really too stealthy and graceful and lithe anyway; she was built for power and power only. Pure power never could have such grace.

The awkward shadow's red glimmering eyes spotted a pack of Pokemon gathering in the distance. Hmm...

She quickly wiped her paws on the ground, cleaning off a dark red shimmering liquid on it. For a moment, she gazed at it in the light. It made her think of him... of the confused thoughts he gave her when she left him...

No. Forget about him. Focus. There was something interesting going on in the distance, she couldn't miss this.

When she finished her wiping, she ran towards the group and then stopped some distance away as she heard voices speaking. Something about a... Psychic One? And there was light too... flames and fire. The first thing her eyes spotted was a young Quilava, babbling idiotically about berserkery. Then her eyes went to the other voice's source... an Alakazam (obviously the Psychic One, she thought) and a rather peculiar-looking Marowak... although both did look a bit unusual from how their species normally looked...

The Marowak sounded hostile and she grinned. A fight seemed about to break out. She wanted to watch, but she knew the boned weirdo would probably notice her. If he noticed her... he'd maybe get into a fight with her. At the moment, she didn't really feel in the mood for fights... that odd feeling from before... with the red liquid... it still lingered. So she decided to speak up.

"Hey, Boneass. What's your deal, huh? Not like you own the place, what are you guarding anyway? Probably something stupid, really. I mean, what could a pile of bones like you guard anyway?"

 

[Zora of Termina]

In the dark of the night, under a tree to the west... all you might see is shadow. It was quite dark, after all. In fact, you might be quite shocked to see the bright yellow eyes open from under there, locked onto the Quilava with interest. An ear flickered, and the black Ninetales rose up from her position, spraying a few flames as she yawned out.

...Going berserk when he's angry. That kid has no idea...

Sheila knew. Far be it from a rumor to her what an angry rage felt like. But did the kid know... what it was like to not even be in control? She snorted. He probably didn't. But she knew.

Wonder how Ed's gonna react to this one... the loveable asshole. she smirked as well as a Ninetales could, looking around for the cat. That golden fur wouldn't be too hard to spot... she wondered for a moment, how it would look in the moonlight...

...Don't be silly Sheila. He wouldn't be interested. At all... wait, why the hell am I thinking about this?

Oh? Now what was this? That tough Marowak guy... he was interrogating an Alakazam. Probably a good idea. If he somehow wound up being a spy... she could roast him to death and be done with it... and now an Absol. Acting a bitch. This looked to be the beginnings of something interesting.

 

[see ya]

Pali closed her eyes and smiled, stepping along the path and occasionally letting the breeze lift her and push her forward towards the group of pokemon. Sure, the night was dark, but there were stars and fresh air and the gentle chirping of crickets all around. Much better than the dank, stale air and pitiful moans and screams of abused and battle-scarred pokemon.

Really, it would have been fine if she could have walked like this forever. But she too had agreed to meet up with the group, and she had nowhere else to go. The wind picked up and she gave a little hop into it, drifting gently near the outside of the group of gathered pokemon.

"Hello..." she said, her voice slow and deliberate, yet warm. "I guess you're the ones, huh... Okay... that's okay... you all seem nice... Have to be if you wanted to get out of there..." She smiled calmly.

 

[Stormecho]

Basaina had dealt with pain before - many, many times before. One couldn't survive long in the pitfights if they weren't used to being hurt. But the whip weals on top of her wounds from the fight hurt with more than just physical pain, and she hated herself for feeling so betrayed. No one could accuse her of liking her trainer. She never had. He had been boastful, a braggart with a tendency to gamble and enough luck to usually come out on top. She had been one of those gambles - she had no enhanced abilities, nothing risky and dangerous to make her different from any other Arcanine. She could have been a failure. But he had trained her well, and brought her to love the feeling of triumph when her jaws closed on a leg and snapped the bone, or the moment of victory when her opponent staggered and fell in a pool of his own blood.

That had always been the important thing. She had been the victor, and he had treated her relatively well. She had considered herself superior to those that were beaten at every battle, that feared and hated any human. She had thought herself naturally better, luring herself into a trap of her own devising.

Her muscles reminded her that she had stupidly decided to escape - she was already regretting it - right after a battle where she had been badly injured and exhausted, and she could feel the bone-deep fatigue building up. Her head felt heavy, weighed down by the helmet that she hadn't gotten rid of yet. Now, at least, she knew she was no better than the other Pokemon, caged and beaten and treated as lesser beings. This sudden revelation tormented her. She couldn't go back, could she? Nothing would be the same, but where did she think she was running to anyways? She had no life outside the pits, that was for certain. And maybe no life inside them as well, now.

Her stride shortened as a complex tangle of scents struck her, and she didn't bother to pick apart all of them. Coming to a stop, she tried to catch her breath, hating how her legs trembled. She had pushed herself too far, of course. How typical of her. Why were there so many Pokemon out here anyways? Some reeked of the arena, but others didn't, and for once she considered that story of escaped Pokemon forming a pack. She had laughed at that and ignored it - but maybe it was true. There few other explanations she could think of.

Padding forward slowly, she tried to even out her breathing, head tilted but knowing the dim light from moon and stars would catch on the metal anyways. "Well, this is interesting..." she drawled, eyes narrowed and trying to figure out just how many there were.

 

[Exo-Raikou]

Frollo turned his cold gaze toward the Marowak. For a moment, he considered agreeing with the Absol, that this "Boneass" didn't have any authority to ask of what his business was.

But that... would not allow me to see how worthy this "ally" might be.

"If you must know, I am known by the name of Claude Frollo, though most refer to me by my surname. As for my business here, what else could it be but this 'liberation' quest that you've set up. I was rather unaware that there are those opposed to liberation, and if you consider me to be part of that sect..."

He began to gather psychic energy in his spoons.

"Then by all means, show me what you are capable of. You could be the first of this grouped to be judged of worthiness."

The Alakazam focused necessary energy into the spoons, so that the moment the situation turned... sour, he could shape them into a weapon of choice. He guessed that things would go bad; this Marowak didn't look like it would take his words too well.

 

[Blastoise Fortooate]

An absol, a vaguely familiar erufuun, an arcanine, so many newcomers. Hoss shut his eyes for a moment, willing the now-jumbled flashes of insight to just disappear. A decapitation from an absol, dancing cotton spores, flaming charges against unseen enemies, it all meshed together into a messy spiral before it winked away.

'Boneass?'

Hoss shrugged, burying the small anger that filled his chest. Loudmouthed absol, more a harbinger of annoyance than anything, apparently. And this Frollo character, so smug and... smug. But, of course, reacting with anger would be unprofessional.

"I'm sorry if I sounded... terse, Claude Frollo. As you can see, outsiders to our group have arrived en masse and I'm a bit pressured right now," Here, Hoss raised his voice. "All of you, please gather by that stump over there (here he pointed) and wait for the rest of our Pack, if that is indeed why you are here. If you are not here to join, go there anyway and we will sort you out," Hoss lifted his club and placed the heavy end in his other hand.

He turned once again to Frollo. "If you want to, erm, judge me, then I will be more than happy to do so later, Frollo." Hoss's throat hurt slightly; he wasn't used to speaking this much, especially not on guard duty of all things.

 

[Arylett Charnoa]

"Heh. Heh heh." The Absol chuckled.

He was pretending she hadn't bugged him... how cute. Although a display of anger might've been more amusing, well, that also might've lead to him fighting with her and she definitely wasn't in the mood for that either. She figured from the beginning he would take no consequence from such negative comments... wasn't man enough. She had seen those little prisses before, skipping around, pretending like she hadn't annoyed them! They were amusing too.

"Damn, I thought there was going to be a show..." She was also disappointed that it didn't seem as though the Alakazam and the Marowak were going to fight, but she was interested in the Marowak's words. Pack...? Hmm.... was this the Pack she had often heard talk of? That Pack that tried to stop the Pit Fighting?

Personally, it was none of her business whether it stopped or not. If the humans wanted to continue, they could continue, she had gotten away from that... but... then again... she had nowhere else to go. Traveling alone would be dangerous; she was no fool.

"...But I guess I'll stick around for this less amusing show. I mean, what we got here? We got some hyperactive annoying kid, great, Boneass who's trying to hide his angry face, Claude Spoono, and uh, some other insignificant quiet nothings. Should be fun, should be very fun."

And with that, she went to sit by the stump, grinning a bit to herself. Ah, that felt good.

 

[see ya]

Pali flinched a little as she noticed the Marowak who had spoken up. After all, that very bone club he held once came down right over her head and nearly fractured her skull... but she didn't want to think about that. He was here to help her and all of them now. It was those kinds of things she wanted to put behind her.

Calmly she stepped over to the group and seated herself by the stump the Marowak had pointed at, casually picking at the ground.

"Okay...I'm ready to listen now..." she said, "Please... I hope people don't fight too much... I think we've done enough of that... But maybe you need to talk about things... that's okay too...."

 

[RespectTheBlade]

Hate...running...can't...run...anymore...

Xenon collapsed to the ground, gasping for breath. He checked over his shoulder, making sure he wasn't being followed. When all seemed clear, he stood up and dusted himself off.

Where are they? they said they'd be coming this way. I knew I shouldn't have taken that last turn.

Xenon was about to give up hope until he heard a familiar voice.

"I'm sorry if I sounded... terse, Claude Frollo. As you can see, outsiders to our group have arrived en masse and I'm a bit pressured right now. All of you, please gather by that stump over there and wait for the rest of our Pack, if that is indeed why you are here. If you are not here to join, go there anyway and we will sort you out,"

Oh, so Hoss is with them. Though I've no clue who this Frollo guy is.

Xenon waited a bit, and then walked up cautiously. He saw an Arcanine, an Erufuun, an Absol, and an Alakazam were waiting by a tree stump. He stepped up to the Marowak, blades raised just in case he decided to try something stupid.

"Hello, Hoss."

 

[Zora of Termina]

Well, the new kids looked like they checked out... Sheila stepped out into the open, still surveying them and looking out for her comrades. Oh, now what was this...? A Gallade? Oh, it was that Xenon guy.

"...Whatever." she huffed. Indeed, Sheila was getting impatient. She wanted to head out already. Her siblings... They were out there somewhere. She didn't know where, but they were there... maybe there was other family. Maybe Frost was out there looking for her.

"When is everyone going to get here...?" She looked up to the moon. There seemed to be a... buzzing, in the back of her head. That presence... It talked sometimes. She didn't know what it was... but it was there.

 

[Exo-Raikou]

A small smile played across Frollo's face, if only for an instant.

"Well then, I look forward to that opportunity."

He then floated over to the tree stump, where several others have gathered. hese were all pokemon that he'd never seen before, much less battled with (which made sense, considering how he'd executed anyone that he'd beaten in the past fifty years, and he never forgot about those that had bested him; these pokemon were none of them.)

His gaze drifted to the Absol. As a psychic, he had a natural dislike for darks, and there was something... further unsettling about this one.

I will have to keep a close eye on her, he thought, turning his attention again to the Marowak, a very close eye on her.

It was then that the Gallade entered the group. As with the rest, Frollo did not recognize him.

It's going to be very interesting to see which ones of these are worthy, and which need to be... dealt with.

 

[Blastoise Fortooate]

'trying to hide his angry face'? Hoss blushed imperceptively.

Hoss kneaded his brow as Frollo floated off like a good twat, an entirely psychological action seeing as his entire head was encased in thick, white bone. He felt a stir in his mind, a flicker, as Sheila stepped into his peripheral vision. She was another quiet one, mostly, although more social around some than he was. He didn't mind her silence in the slightest; he had too much to deal with right now.

"Hello, Hoss."

Hmm? Oh, yes, here was the obnoxiously-purple gallade (another light flicker) he had met before. For some reason he was in a defensive posture, armblades raised. Hoss couldn't fathom why.

"Oh, yes, Xenon," Hoss grunted not unhappily. "Nice to see you," It wasn't a lie, not really.

 

[Stormecho]

Basaina was no stranger to oddities - she had become as accustomed to weirdly coloured Pokemon or ones that seemed too unearthly to be real. Such was the life of the freaks humans constantly experimented on. She had considered herself lucky to not have her sanity whittled away, but sometimes a particular Pokemon would still make her hackles rise out of pure unease at the wrongness of what she was seeing.

It seemed that at the moment, half of the Pack, or the newcomers who wanted to join the Pack, according to the conversation, were such oddities, and if she hadn't been so tired she might have tensed up and bristled. But she couldn't spare the energy. To think that exhaustion would keep her from losing face and betraying how nervous she was at the moment. Tilting her head, she didn't hide her amusement as the shadowed Absol - there was more than a tinge of shadow to her, an inky subtlety to her scent that was interesting to note - strolled over to the stump after effectively insulting everyone nearby. The Alakazam and Marowak were far more dour, serious enough for her to guess that they were veterans of the pits. Their stances were readied, watchful. A Gallade and a Ninetales, the latter almost familiar with the scent of a Fire-type, all ashes and the sting of flame. She was coloured oddly too, but in this mixed company it seemed to be almost the norm. Made sense that those experimented on would be the ones most likely to try to flee - and succeed.

There were even more that she hadn't examined yet, but she so desperately wanted to lie down, and she could feel the ebb of energy as her wounds throbbed. This wouldn't do. "I wouldn't really call myself an insignificant nothing," she declared, voice seemingly relaxed and lazy - as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening - "But I suppose I'll watch the show for now too." And with that she walked slowly over to the stump, sprawling on the ground and feeling another surge of exhaustion hit. It would be so easy to fall asleep, but reflexes honed by so many fights kept her eyes from closing. She needed to be alert, even now. Especially now, surrounded by strangers.

 

[....]

A purple gallade, a black absol, and a black ninetales.

Such peculiarities were normal to him; after all, he was pitted against many hybrids and discolored ones.

His paws glowed a very pale blue color. Leo swiftly gazed about and focused his gaze upon the absol. Something in the very back of his mind told him to stay away from her.

He then locked his eyes upon the stump. It seemed to have an aura of its own.

But that wasn't possible.

Shaking off the strange feeling, Leo wandered over to the stump, lips sealed this time.

 

[Coloursfall]

thudthudthudthud.

The sound of rapid footfalls on the forest floor, one sounding different from the other three. The owner of the feet was quite fast, the falls speeding up a bit as he neared the exit of the forest, the meadow. Leaping over logs and rocks, the golden Persian made sure the little Riolu he was carrying by the scruff was safe and secure, before leaping out into the grass.

He placed her down gently on the grass and stepped his front paws in front of her to shield her is need be. He looked at her for a moment, purring, and began surveying the group from afar. There were quite a lot of them there, he noted. So this was the group...

He snorted, plopping down on the grass where he stood, a good few metres away from the rest, and keeping the little Riolu under his front legs. His tail was swishing and his gold eyes seemed to shine in the night, as felines tended to do.

"I've seen more organized groups of fleas in the pond after a bath," he snorted, mostly to himself, and then laughed a bit. "I wonder how long it'll take for them to notice me?"

He pawed at the ground a bit, before looking down at the Riolu.

"So how're you doing, kid...?"

 

[Sylph]

"Likely a vhile, Cat. They aren't the most observant pokemon around." Slurred a voice from a tree. Shifting his postion, the shadowed shape of a Lucario turns his pale blue eyes down at the cat below. He lets out a soft chuckle when he notes that he has found something on his trip. "And what did ve find now, Edvard? A child in vhich you are playing daddy too? How cute...now if only they knew your leetle veakness for children. No one vould take you seriously...though, I am the same vay vith kids."

The Lucario slips off the branch and lands next to him, sitting down and pulling his bag closer to his side. He glances down at the small pokemon in Ed's grasp and frowns a bit. "A Riolu? Vhere did you ever find her...she looks to be a baby too. Sure you know vhat you are doing?"

He then glances back up at the group before them, shaking his head and sighing a bit under his breath. "And there is Shelia it seem. Vonder vhat she's up too...hmm...there is other pokemon too....even a Arcanine is here-...is that blood I smell?". Halan shifts a bit, watching the Arcanine silently as she rests near a stump.

 

[Zora of Termina]

"I wouldn't trust Ed with a kid if my life depended on it."

Sheila finally diverted her attention from newcomers now that she'd spotted those she was looking for. Trotting up to them and tilting Ed's chin up with a tail, she smirked. "I've been waiting for you two... oh, and what's this...?" the sight of the Riolu immediately caught her eye. "The poor dear..." She curled a tail around the child to keep her warm. An amputee, injured... lord only knows what other fates had befallen this poor little pup. And she looked a bit... familiar...

"Ed, I hope you know what you're doing, taking this one in..."