Chimera Chronicles: Errands
VIII: Dark Claws and Fire Foxes

It was a calm, moonlit evening in the sprawling city of Andalusst, and most of the markets that were open at night were just beginning to open for business. Whether it was someone on a late night grocery shopping spree or just looking for something good to wear, these merchants were ready to serve whatever their nocturnal customers desired.

For one brown-eyed Charmander and his Absol accomplice, however, their business in this area was not to buy any sort of food or trinket, but to meet up with one of their guild’s proxies, a Pancham by the name of Kara, who had requested help in foiling a potential plot to wreak havoc on the local businesses. Having snuck out of their friend’s cavern home as she slept, the duo casually made their way through the market’s streets towards their meeting spot in hopes that they’ll be of some assistance and earn a little respect from their peers.

It wasn’t long before the two of them caught sight of a Liepard with a red velvet scarf tied like a cravat peeking around a nearby corner, his paw moving towards him in a beckoning manner, almost as if he knew they were coming. Certain that he was another member of the Hunters Guild, the two turned and nodded their heads at each other before approaching.

“Maverick and Arbiter, I presume?” he asked, only to chuckle for some odd reason, “Don’t bother answering that, Kara told me all about you two. Allow me to introduce myself; I am Stian of Team Red Velvet. You two are rather late, Kara’s already gotten started on the briefing, and I don’t want to keep Perdita waiting any longer for my return.”

As the Liepard motioned towards the two to come along down the dark alley they were supposed to meet Kara, the Charmander, Maverick, found himself unwilling to move, perplexed by the sense of déjà vu that had suddenly come down upon him. Though he and his Absol friend had been having some amnesia trouble as of late, he was certain he had seen this Liepard before, or at least someone that looked exactly like him. Upon asking the Liepard if he knew him from somewhere before, however, the purple feline merely laughed, saying that it “wasn’t possible for someone to have the same good looks as I do”, and that he had clearly never met Maverick before, and with a shrug of his shoulders, he followed his Absol accomplice to the end of the alley where a quartet of Pokémon were gathered.

The first of these was a Nidoran named Perdita, Stain’s teammate. While she had the looks of a typical female Nidoran, her body color was much like a male Nidoran’s, something that has lead to many misunderstandings about her gender. To her left was another Absol much like Arbiter, right down to the asocial personality, only female and wearing a pendant of some sort around her neck. Hovering casually above her was a Haunter, and from the looks of things he seemed to be quite the opposite in terms of personality. Last but certainly not least was the gruff, sash-wearing Pancham marching back and forth in front of the other Pokémon, the leaf in her mouth lit like an incense stick of sorts. This was none other than Kara, the guild proxy they had volunteered to help, and upon seeing Maverick and Arbiter arrive, she immediately stopped pacing and turned her glaring eyes at the duo.

“Where the hell have you been?” she growled, “I was about to finish my discussion of how we’re going to handle everything tonight! Now I have to get you guys caught up on what I just explained not a minute ago!”


Maverick flinched upon getting scolded by the Pancham. Though he had been warned by Arbiter that she was quite the bad-tempered type, he never imagined her to be this bad. Still, with another puff on her leaf, she sighed and quickly calmed down before explaining her reasons for calling them together.

While most high-ranking members of the three guilds of Andalusst were concentrated on preparing to explore a recently discovered dungeon, Kara had overheard rumors that a pesky gang of Sneasel and Pawniard known as the Dark Claws were planning an attack on the night markets. It was up to them to teach these thugs a lesson, just as long as they didn’t cause a commotion with any attacks like Thunderbolt or Flamethrower.

Maverick was somewhat surprised at the way Kara was handling the situation. While that gruff exterior was clear for all to see, he found it interesting that she seemed to still have a sense of justice and wanted to do all this without causing trouble. Perhaps this was just a side of her that most didn’t get to see, especially after the way that Sylveon had described her.

As soon as Kara finished her briefing, a collective yell from above caught the groups attention just a trio of both Pawniard and Sneasel leapt down from the roofs in ambush, their claws held in an intimidating manner as they surrounded the group.

“Well well, if it isn’t the famous Kara of the Hunters Guild,” snickered one of the Sneasel, whose ear feather was stubbier than the average Sneasel, “We couldn’t help but overhear your little conversation, but I have to ask because I think I might’ve heard you wrong: Were you saying that you’re going to stop us from having a little fun tonight?”

“Yeah, what about it?” the Pancham growled.

“Really?” he replied in an offhand manner, “And how are you going to stop us with two asocial Absol, a wimpy Charmander, an arrogant Liepard, a girly Haunter, and a some girl Nidoran that looks like a guy?”

Most of Kara’s companions paid little heed to the Sneasel’s taunts, knowing he was just trying to bait them into a fight. Perdita, however, had taken the idea that she was intentionally mistaken as a boy personally, leaping into the air with her hind legs ready to kick the Sneasel in the face.The Sneasel smirked as he sidestepped her attack, watching as she sailed past and crashed into the trash cans behind him. He then gestured with his right claws to signal his companions to tighten the circle around Kara’s group, hoping to force them to beg for mercy before tearing them to shreds for threatening his gang.

Kara and her Hunter allies were ready, however, and with a yell of “Now!” she threw a mighty punch to the face of the Pawniard standing next to her, spurring the others save for the Haunter to battle, literally biting and clawing their way through the grunts with little trouble, weakening them before Kara delivered the finishing blow to each and every one of the Sneasel’s lackeys and sending them into the wall behind him.

As the Sneasel panicked at the sight of his subordinates falling one by one, Maverick charged at the distracted Sneasel, his claws glowing with a silver luster as he delivered a mighty Metal Claw to his face, sending the gang leader straight into his own cohorts as they struggled to get up.

“What a shame,” the Haunter sighed as he floated up to the defeated gang members, “you could be doing so much of society yet chose to become a bunch of delinquents. Now why don’t you do us all a favor and think over what you’ve done over a little R&R, okay?”

The Haunter’s disembodied hands grew in size, surrounding the now frightened gang members as his eyes began to glow red. A strange, hypnotic energy began to emanate from the enlarged hands, and before long the gang members slowly began to close their eyes, drifting into peaceful slumber and putting an end to their threat.

Just when it seemed like the Haunter had finished the job, a loud and painful shrill rang out from another part of the alley, startling the Hunters into a panicked state. Had one of the gang members slipped past them and taken a civilian hostage? Before they could seek out the source of the screams, a trio of rainbow-colored leaves struck the Haunter on his right side, knocking him out of balance for a moment before shaking himself and drawing everyone’s attention to the way out to the main street.

Standing in their way was a Chikorita with a rather fatigued look on her face, sweat dripping off her face as she huffed and puffed, sure signs she had recently been in some sort of struggle. The strangest thing about her, however, was that her eyes were a dull, glazed over shade of red, and that alone was enough for Maverick to recognize the Pokémon standing before him.

“You’re that Chikorita from the day the giant statue attacked!” he shouted, “What are you doing here? You could’ve gotten caught in the crossfire!”

Rather than answer the Charmander’s question, the Chikorita swung her head leaf around, flinging more rainbow-colored leaves at the Haunter in an aggressive manner. Though the Haunter was once again able to brush off the attack just as before, it was clear that he was the target of whatever aggression she was displaying.

“I will not submit to your will, Haunter,” she growled, “I only obey His will.”

“Who are you talking about?” Kara growled, only for Maverick to put a hand in front of her face and tell her to be quiet for a moment.

“It’s okay,” Maverick spoke softly, slowly walking towards the Chikorita to avoid startling her, “we’re not here to hurt you, but we don’t know who you are and why you’re here, so if you could just calm down, we can work out whatever problem you’re having.”

Before the Charmander could put his hand on her cheek, several red embers of flame rained down from above, narrowly missing Maverick as Arbiter pulled him away by the neck at the last second. By the time the two recovered from the surprise attack, a wall of flames had built up, and the mysterious Chikorita was replaced by a new Pokémon.

Standing before them was a fox-like Pokémon that the two had come to know as a Braixen, a Pokémon well known for its usage of Fire and Psychic attacks and as an evolution of the many Fennekin that made Andalusst their home, but compared to the Braixen they had encountered before, this one was quite different. His fur was a purple color instead of the usual yellow, and the fur above his legs didn’t sweep out at all, but the most frightening features he had were the long, wand-like twig emanating a blade of energy that made it appear as if it were a scythe and the devilish, widening grin on his face.

“Well, isn’t this is a surprise,” he said, “I admit I didn’t believe that Chikorita when she said she saw you wandering around the wreckage of a residential district in some city we’ve never heard of, but it looks like she was telling the truth after all, and it also looks like that meddling Absol managed to survive the crash as well.”

“What are you talking about?” Maverick snapped, “Just who are you anyway?”

“Uh uh uh, I wouldn’t worry about any of that right now,” the Braixen mocked, wigging his finger at the Charmander, “just know that we’ve been looking for any sign of your miserable existence for quite some time, and now that we know you’re alive, you can look forward to us paying you a visit every now and then.”

As soon as the purple Braixen finished his sentence, a yellow Braixen emerged from the wall of flames cradling the Chikorita in her arms, her wand-like twig more staff-like in appearance compared to the average Braixen.

“We must go now, brother,” she spoke in an eerie whisper, “He will be pleased to hear about our discovery…”

“As much as we’d love to stay and chat, we’re in a bit of a hurry,” the purple Braixen snickered, “See you soon, Maverick Mandercloud!”

Before anybody could make an attempt to stop them in their tracks, the purple Braixen swung his wand-like twig around in the air, stirring up the flames and causing the Hunters to flinch, and by the time the flames dissipated, the Braixen pair and their Chikorita hostage were nowhere to be found.

Maverick cursed in his throat and punched the ground in frustration, angry that yet another opportunity to find out who that mysterious Chikorita was had slipped by. Worse, he had now encountered a pair of Braixen that seemed to know him and his Absol accomplice, and they didn’t appear to be the type of Pokémon that he would like to cross paths with again, and though they now knew that their amnesia likely caused by a crash of some sort, they came to realize that the road to truly knowing who they were would be fraught with danger…