Mother Tyrantrum POV:

  Leaving my sweetheart behind was always difficult, even before those disgusting things tried to touch her. I would have loved my child no matter what, my first especially, but she’s special. Much smarter than any hatchling I’d seen, smarter than I had been at that age at least. Talented as well, she learned much faster than I had expected to.

  Not that I’d expect anything less from my offspring, still though. Daring to lay a finger on my only heir is too far. As soon as she’s old enough to protect herself I’ll be eradicating them for good, if they hide in those tiny accursed caves again I’ll just upend the whole mountain…

  Walking through a denser bit of forest quickly, I’d smelled something very enticing earlier in the day. It wasn’t often that Coalossal left their caves up north, unfortunately their lesser forms were always too fast and their caves too small. But the big ones were a treat, perfect taste. Just wish they were bigger maybe, hopefully its a group.

  Breathing in the overpowering sulfur smell again I licked my lips, there was another smell there though. Humans maybe? I was far north, this is around their territory. I’m far enough away from their nests though, it shouldn’t be an issue really. If I got too close they’d chase me off and that’d be that. I’d heard stories of Pokemon being caught or relocated back down south after venturing too far. But I wasn’t too worried, I only know one other stronger than me in my own mother.

  Still morning, I have more than enough time to get there and back by afternoon. I won’t ever be going out at night again though, no matter how much my sweetheart says she can handle it. I saw how rattled she was… Poor thing, maybe I should bring back the Coalossal for her instead…

  I slowed as I came to a fairly large clearing, slowing down quickly right outside of it. I peered through the brush careful to conceal myself. Seeing one lone Coalossal collapsed out in the thick grass, twitching on the ground. Is it… paralyzed? Here? I don’t think there are many electric types in the area?

  I sniffed the air carefully, being very particular about it. No… There is a small electric type nearby, but… Also humans? Multiple humans, very close, near the clearing. Iron? From the Coalossal? No, a steel type with the humans…

  A trap? But why? Was it set for me or something else?

  I padded around, circling around the clearing in a wide enough arc that I’d be behind the group. I spotted the two humans quickly, gray outfit things pulled over their bodies and heads. Not too unusual but usually they all looked different, these two had identical clothes. I noticed a tiny angry looking Morpeko on one of their shoulders. So that was the offender behind the paralysis.

  Next to the other crouching human was another familiar Pokemon, and not a very friendly one either. Bisharp, dark types always felt wrong, their attitudes and proclivities usually disgusting or horrid from what I’d seen. I paused as I heard the Morpeko’s human speak. Straining not only to hear from my hiding place, but also to parse out the humans strange tongues.

  “Are you sure the alpha will come? She has a hatchling now right? It’s been a week man…”

  “And it’ll be another week if you don’t shut your trap Carl. The wind should have carried the smell down south already. If it doesn’t come we’ll have to take it on at the nest, but you know I’d rather not.”

  “Can’t we just pick up the hatchling, it should be an alpha too when it grows…”

  “Of course not, the rangers will figure out what happened and investigate the nest with a rampaging Tyrantrum about. We need to go all or nothing so we don’t alert those damn officials. How many times have I told you this you fucking meathead?”

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  “Sorry…”

  Bubbling anger, simmering, threatening to have me out and tearing them to shreds in an instant. They dare talk about taking me on like that? Catching me? Let alone MY sweetheart?! They’d dare touch my little bundle of joy? The gall of these humans, and it sounds like they’re going against whatever weird hierarchies those human territories have as well…

  How do I go about this… If I don’t do something they’ll attack the nest itself, I can’t risk a fight near my little sweetheart. I do, however, have the drop on them now… Even if they prepared for me I doubt it was much. How dumb do they think I am, going for a paralyzed Pokemon in the middle of a clearing.

  I almost scoffed, I would have if it wouldn’t give me away. I sniffed the air again quietly, simultaneously stacking curses over and over again. I smelled one other human on the other side of the clearing, no Pokemon but humans are always tricky with those weird ball things. Actually speaking of smell, the stronger smelling human sounded like it knew my kind have a good sense of smell. Why wasn’t it worried about me smelling them, are they stupid…?

  I threw another glance at the two humans, it looked like the weak one had a ball thing on it. The other had two, so one unknown probably. The human across the way doesn’t smell very strong either, so they shouldn’t be a problem. I’m more worried about the Bisharp, this one was clearly strong. Though still much weaker than me so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Are they just under prepared? I guess this isn’t as bad as I thought.

  As soon as I had stacked as many curses as I could I got ready to pounce. Muscles tense, I pushed off the ground and in one leap I had a human and Pokemon in my jaws, shredded to pieces. Ignoring the taste I scowled at the Bisharp who had darted in to push his human out of the way, I was glad the human got cut bad by the steel type in the process though. Taking some glee in the vile things pain.

  Before either of them could react I bashed my rocky head into the Bisharp with a super effective brick break. Sending the much smaller Pokemon flying into a nearby tree. Copying my sweethearts little ideas was fun, surprisingly effective too. The Bisharp’s bladed body now stuck, sharp edges lodged in the tree, I turned to the strong human. One stomp should have been easy enough, but an unfamiliar Pokemon appeared in a flash of light, taking the brunt of it instead to protect the human.

  I’ll never understand why some Pokemon became subservient to them like this, what’s even the point?

  Taking a moment to look at the wincing Pokemon before I retreated a bit. Blue hunched over body, it was about half my size but that meant it was still fairly big and bulky. It had two big mound things of light blue like its stomach on its head then two on its shoulders and hands respectively, each circled by a dark ring. It’s eyes and grating smile looked perpetually creepy, like it could only think bad thoughts. Water dark type maybe?

  I sniffed the air lightly. No, Water ground, with a hint of poison. Maybe they prepared more than I’d thought, unfortunate but it wouldn’t stop me. I slammed into the water type with a head smash, sending it flying out into the clearing, tumbling like a balled up Golem. Leaving the human still on the ground pitifully alone, in less than a second the human was but a splatter stomped into the ground.

  A screeching sound came from the Bisharp in the tree as it screamed at me, unintelligible really, even for a steel type. It struggled even harder to free itself but I ignored it. The unfamiliar Pokemon was clearly more dangerous. Stepping out into the clearing, towering over the thing as it quickly rushed to stand up.

  Before it could move too much I smashed into it again with another head smash, suddenly surprised by the unfamiliar recoil of it. I looked around confused, spotting the last human with a Weezing. Ugh, this is probably about to get a whole lot less fun huh? I would rather another strong Pokemon like the water type than this tricky thing.

  Light green gas was already covering the ground around them, I realized I had to deal with this thing and its human quick. Subservient Pokemon often seemed slower without orders. The human's high pitched voice screamed something out as I sprinted at them, fire started to sprout from the poisonous Pokemon. I would have laughed at the fire type move if I didn’t realize what it was, will-o-wisps shot towards me, I was already moving too fast to avoid them, singing my skin. I slammed into Weezing, stomping it out of the air and into the ground with one foot.

  The human shouted something else and I realized I should have gone for her first, thick green smog spread across my body and I felt my curses drop. I was already down though, jaws ripping the Weezing’s separate bodies apart. Crushing the smaller one between my teeth and the other further into the ground with my foot, its body cracking apart. Unmoving as the dazzling gleam it had tried to defend itself with petered out uselessly. Already having another curse up and working on the next I was on the human in an instant. One kick was all it took, its body falling apart under the force, pieces flying every which way.

  Before I could get a third curse up the water type was on me, surprisingly fast for its bulk, with a ring of water floating around it. Its fist slammed into to me, sending me reeling a bit. Drain punch hurt, and was dangerous. The worst part though, is that I could feel poison seeping from its skin into my scales where the punch had landed. The burn was already inhibiting enough…

  I needed to get out, back to my sweetheart, this fight had become too dangerous. I haven’t taken too many hits but I’m on a timer now and both of the Pokemon left even if weaker than me have type advantage and resist a lot of my attacks. As I turned to run something caught my eye from the forest, the Bisharp raging toward me, normal type energy coursing as a mean look wrapped my brain and thoughts in a tight hold. Stopping me in my tracks…

  Shit…