“Hey, Johnny, come look at this!”

  John sighed, rolling his eyes as he walked over to the robot Weavile, crouched beside an old dusty altar. The monochrome Galvantula unamusedly asked. “What is it now? I was figuring out where I could sleep.”

  “You can do that later, I just wanna show you something quick. Look!” He pointed at the altar, specifically the cobwebs lying around under its crevices. And of course, it was being run over by an unidentifiable spider species. “It’s your relatives!”

  John stared silently at the crawling arthropods just wandering around, focusing on expanding their webs. As he stared at them, John just couldn’t stop thinking about something. He didn’t have that jerky backward reaction he always had when he saw those tiny little legs move around. Sure, he did flinch subtly, but it wasn’t the same reaction he always had when he spotted one of those in his old apartment room or something.

  This time, he was hit with a reflection.

  Physically, he felt the same as those things. He had 8 limbs, he could crawl onto walls and ceilings, could make webs, and… the way humans looked at them in disgust…

  The woman suddenly pulled a pistol as she spoke. “W-what the hell are those things!?”

  As that memory flashed through John’s head, he winced back a bit. Cassidy noticed this and inquired casually, putting his claws on his hips. “What’s wrong, Johnny? The family has too much drama ya can’t handle?”

  “Hey, Cassidy…” The Galvantula turned his head to the Weavile and shot him a question. “Do you think that humans will only look at us like we’re deadly monsters, just because of our very unnerving appearance?”

  Cassidy stared at John for a few seconds before tilting his head lightly. “I see that you can’t let those things from earlier this morning go, right? That’s what this lil’ drama’s all about? Those looks of horror in those humans?”

  That caught the glitchy tarantula by surprise. “How did you…” John looked aside and sighed. Well, in hindsight, it was already kinda obvious from the way he just stood silently like he was thinking of some deep stuff. “I know you told me already to let my humanity go and all that stuff before. I know that I’m no longer human, but still, I can’t help but think about how humans view me. I just… don’t want to be seen as an aberration to them, a monster.”

  Cassidy hummed in thought before he spoke. “Ah, simple conflict, simple solution of course!” That got a confused look from the Galvantula or as much of a confused expression he could muster. “If you don’t wanna feel like a monster, just don’t be a monster, at least not actions, of course.” The Weavile crossed his arms as he leaned his side on the altar. “After all, gotta teach all those racist people that appearances don’t mean you ain’t the coolest ‘mon out there nor that these horns of yours,” he poked John’s horns playfully, “mean that you’re a demon.”

  He rubbed one of his backhands on his horn, feeling how sturdy they were as he grimaced. Even if Cassidy was right, one thing’s for certain, humans would never look at him in the same way. They’d look at him like he was some sort of monster, a savage creature out for blood with no mercy for who it kills… however, that’s when they look at him at first glance. There’s a chance that… if he plays his cards right, he might stop getting seen as a monster by other people.

  John, after a small bit of thought, smiled at the robot. “Thanks, dude. This has been bothering me for a bit and I just didn’t know what to do about it...”

  “Heh, sometimes you gotta knock some sense into those people for them to see it your way! It’s something I learned while doing lotsa stuff back in the Pokémon world. Same rule applies here, not with brawns but with other actions!” Cassidy giggled a bit as he put his claws on his cheeks. “Ohohoho, I can’t wait to try and scare them just for them to see how badass we are later.”

  “I guess so…” John scratched the side of his head, not agreeing much with the last part of the Weavile’s idea.

  “Hey, guys!”

  The two former humans looked at the source of the voice and found Claire, having come out from one of the rooms behind the seats. “Can one of you two come here for a second? There’s something here that I’m confused about and wanna know what it is.”

  John and Cassidy looked at themselves for a moment before the Weavile shrugged. “You should go with her, I already got bored of this place so I’ll see what stuff I missed outside in the area. See ya!”

  With that, the metal Weavile ran out of the building, the sounds of clanking footsteps being left behind. Only Claire and John were in the building now, the tarantula crawling towards the Vulpix. “So… what is it that you wanted to show me?” He asked.

  Claire gestured with her head. “Well, it’s in this room here. It’s… a bit creepy, like, horror movie stuff, but I just wanted some answers as to why is this here...” She said with a bit of a nervous grimace, upon further inspection, John noticed her fur was on edge. “Follow me.”

  The fox led the Galvantula to the same room she came out from. It was dark, only having a broken stained-glass window letting some sunlight at the end of the room. However, it didn’t take long for Claire to stop and point at a table at the end of the room. On the table, there was something that made John’s eyes widen. “What the hell!?”

  The object was a small ceramic bowl surrounded by 4 red candles, however, what really caused the glitchy tarantula to flinch was a human skull. It wasn’t a prop or anything like that, from the very faint smell and the texture made the skull an actual thing.

  Claire looked back at John and tilted her head. “So… I’m guessing from your reaction that it isn’t normal to put human skulls in bowls, right?”

  The Galvantula stuttered. “O-of course not! This is heavily messed up!” He walked closer to the table and jumped on it, inspecting the skull closer. He then looked around the interior design of the room once again. Even though there were no tools or objects, the state of the room spoke miles. “The broken and dusty wood walls, the holes in the ceilings… yep, this place must’ve been built between 16 and 1700s…”

  The Vulpix sat on the ground and asked with a frown. “What does that mean, exactly?”

  John looked at Claire and responded a bit sheepishly, rubbing his pedipalps between themselves. “It’s… very complicated, honestly, and it heavily involves the most accepted human religion. But to make things quick, at that time, they used that religion to literally kill people that they believed were under the influence of a very bad deity. So they went after those people and mercilessly killed them without proving that they were actually under the deity’s influence. And let me tell you now there was no deity involved.”

  Claire blinked wordlessly, in utter shock at everything she just heard. She just looked aside and spoke.”Well, not too dissimilar from what happened with Giratina supporters after the Antimatter War four thousand years ago in our world which caused a bunch of other stuff afterwards with Giratina and Arceus.” She then looked back at John. “But the difference here is that this was caused only by humans since this massacre happened because of blind belief, right?”

  The former human nodded. “Yes… but well, humans thankfully grew past that… mostly.” John looked at the bowl. “Still though, the past lingers physically, as you can see.”

  “So that’s why I can sense…” The Vulpix muttered before shaking her head, causing John to look at her in confusion. “Anyway, let’s move on from this. We should see what Cassidy is doing since, uh… we all know what he’s like.”

  “Yes, indeed.” With that, John jumped out of the table, one of his backhands knocking over the ceramic bowl out of the table as it broke on the floor. John winced as the loud sound rang over the room, and for some reason, an ominous chill passed over his body. He watched the skull as it stopped rolling on a wall before turning to Claire. “Anyway, let’s go. Can’t keep that robot away or else he’ll only cause trouble.”

  Claire smiled sheepishly as the two of them walked out of the room. “Do you really don’t trust him enough?”

  “It’s… not that I don’t trust him, it’s just… well…” John sighed as he thought back on how brash the Weavile acted and his fun ideas. “Yeah, I don’t trust him. But not because he was our enemy once.”

  “Hmm, yeah, I get what you mean. It’s kinda the same with my sister.” Claire said as she lowered her tails. “It’s a bit complicated but I don’t trust her enough with anything because of how worse she makes situations and not because she’s a huge dick to me.”

  “Oh really? For me, it’s both when it comes to her.” John snorted amusedly.

  Claire giggled. “I know she can be quite a pain to you. But at least she won’t bother you anymore once she sees that new form of yours!”

  John had forgotten about it, but it’s true. Elsa has never seen his new Galvantula body so she probably would, well, do the obvious and flip or throw more insults at him. Oh well, at least he could flip her off now with his new hands! “Yeah, I can’t wait for that.” He chuckled.

  The two Pokémon went outside the church from the same entrance as before. They looked around for a moment, observing the trees until Claire decided to take a step forward and call out. “Cassidy! Where are you!?”

  “Right here, earthlings!”

  The duo looked up and saw Cassidy standing on top of a cross, supporting himself with only his hands while his legs were spread and touching the air. The pose reminded John of something but he couldn’t place his finger on what. Instead, he asked a bit loudly. “What were you even doing up there!?”

  Cassidy decided to jump and land on his legs again, finding equilibrium on the top of such a narrow spot. He looked around while responding. “Just taking in the view! You should definitely come here to check it out Johnny, you can almost see the whole city from here!”

  “Uh… yeah, I’d prefer to do that some other time.” John said while rolling his eyes.

  “We were actually looking for you since we pretty much explored everything about this place.” Claire responded, not sounding too cheerful about that. Makes sense with the thing they had just seen.

  “Oh, the house tour’s done? Sweet!” With that, the metal Weavile jumped from the cross and landed right on the ground in front of them. “So, now that we got all acquainted with our new home… let’s go to the town again to find something interesting! Oh, and also find a reliable place for you guys to get easy grub since we all know using the same trick with Claire repeatedly isn’t going to work.”

  “I mean, can’t we just hunt our food? There are a lot of woods here so we may find something.” Claire suggested. However, her suggestion was quickly dismissed when the metal Weavile shot a look at John, followed promptly by Claire’s own glance. Yeah, the Galvantula wasn’t exactly happy about that suggestion. “Oh, I see…”

  “Lil’ John over here definitely wouldn’t like feasting on another corpse now, would he?” Cassidy pressed while putting his hands on his hips. “Sooooo… all that talk back in the forest about accepting your new body or whatever was just a lie?”

  John shot back with an unconscious hiss. “No! It’s not like that it’s just…” His gaze softened as he looked aside, one of his backhands clenching. “I really don’t like it. Makes me feel a bit squeamish or something…”

  “Ah, so it’s just a taste of preference thing, I see.” Cassidy said as his ears robotically moved. “Yeah, I can see that being a thing.” He turned his head back to the fire-breathing fox. “Still though, now you know why we’re going to the city and not the forest to get the grub for you two.”

  Claire tilted her head confusedly. “But… what if humans see us? Wouldn’t that be bad?”

  “Let them see us.” Unexpectedly, John had been the one to say that, his face morphed into determination. Both Claire and Cassidy stared confusedly at the Galvantula. John glanced at the Weavile. “You told me that people were gonna stare at us with fear in their eyes. So we let them watch us so they see our actions to prove we’re not the monsters they think we are.”

  Cassidy slowly gasped as his mouth speaker just grew in light intensity. “Oh. My. Goodness!” He quickly went to John’s side and hugged the glitchy tarantula between his abdomen and head with one of his arms. “You listened to me! You legit listened! I knew you’d come around eventually since people can’t be this denying for long, but to think it’d be this soon!”

  “Don’t think too much about it, I’m just reasoning about it. The internet knows that Pokémon already exists, so why not ease their reactions a bit more and show that we’re not as dangerous as we may seem?” John suggested as he thought more about the idea. They had to play their cards right to get the masses’ view on their side. He needs to do this, he can’t be seen as a monster anymore.

  Claire hummed in thought as her ears flickered a bit. She then smiled as her tails started wagging. “I can definitely see that working. That means we wouldn’t need to scavenge for food anymore!”

  “Heh, you two are on the right mind!” Cassidy said before unwrapping his arm from John. “Unfortunately, however, we have a slight and very obvious problem when it comes to buying food…”

  John blinked once the problem registered in his mind. The glitch particles bubbled a bit more on the Galvantula facepalmed himself with frustration. “Fuck, that’s right, the money…”

  He promptly looked at Cassidy hopefully and the metal Weavile put his claws up. “Hey don’t look at me, before I was sent to the Pokémon world I was only twelve and studying. And in that world, the only job I took there was bounty hunting and Mystery Dungeon exploration.” The robot crossed his arms. “Guess what they don’t have here.”

  “Wait, humans don’t go after criminals themselves?” Claire asked confusedly.

  “Oh no, Foxy, in here, we leave that stuff to the police while the government insists that us,” Cassidy clasped his hands and made a mock voice, “poor and defenseless lil’ citizens to leave everything to the authorities. And it’s a huge 50-50 to see if they do their jobs correctly or not…”

  For some reason, John could hear the bitterness in the steel feline’s voice. Something was a bit off about that statement.

  “Oh…” Claire looked aside. “So that’s why the crime rate is way higher here.”

  John looked aside. “Yeah…” It was then that Alice’s words rang on the Galvantula’s head.

  “Can’t you see John? I’m healing the world, I’m creating a paradise. I’m making Wonderland… real!”

  A world where there are no crimes… no corrupt powers at play… was… was he wrong for not accepting Alice’s offer? Was she the one in the right for actually doing all of that and cleansing all the bad things from the world?

  NO! What was he even thinking? Alice may have been right on some things, but her way of solving the larger issue at hand was completely wrong! She wanted to be in power over everything while KILLING all the people who would oppose her or whom she saw as “evil”. Actually, who even knew what her depiction of evil really was? That cat would probably even think of the wrong people as evil.

  ‘I was sent back here for a reason and that was to train with this new power to go against her… I should be doing that. I have the power to make a difference in the world, just like her.’ He then clenched his hands, shaking a little bit as sparks of electricity and bubbling glitch particles coalesced around it. ‘No more of the easily frightened and weak John from the past. Unlike her, I’ll use this power to actually do good in the world and not subjugate people to my will!’

  After nodding to himself he looked back at the others, new determination found in his semi-compound eyes. “We could definitely do something about that, you know, do our best to lower that crime rate?”

  A bit of confusion was present on Claire’s face. But before she was about to ask what it was, Cassidy decided to speak first, barely contained excitement in his voice. “Am I really hearing that correctly? Is Spider-Johnny actually deciding to combat crime with his own six limbs!?”

  The monochrome Galvantula fidgeted a bit, hesitant thoughts appearing in his mind. However, he promptly squashed those thoughts after steeling himself. “Yes, after all, we need to show the good people that they can’t judge a book by its cover.”

  Claire swished her tails to the side as her nose scrunched with a sheepish smile. “Well, it’s great that you want to fight criminals but… what does that have to do with us acquiring food exactly?”

  John promptly reminded herself that this wasn’t the original discussion about how they’d go on with their days. Before John could say anything, the metal Weavile put a hand on Claire’s head and pat her. “Don’t you get it, Foxy? This could actually help out with our money problem! We gain people’s trust by being heroes the humans desperately need and then they repay us with food!” He stopped petting the Vulpix and spread his arms. “Boom! Two birds killed with one stone!”

  This got Claire humming to herself in thought before she eventually smiled with wagging tails. “Yeah, I could see that working very well!” She then turned to the Galavantula. “Besides, you’re right, John! This world clearly needs help, and we can help them while also going after outlaws!” Her excitement flowed through her as she squealed. “Oh my Arceus, I can’t believe it! We could very well be a team in this world too! Team Net persists, after all!”

  Cassidy curiously tilted his head and put his claws on his side. “Team… Net?”

  “It’s the name I gave the team.” John responded a bit amusedly. “I know, I know, kinda dumb but I thought it was clever given the whole-”

  “PERFECTION!” The robot loudly exclaimed. “Geez, you’re also good with names too? I see how it is, Johnny, you cooked well!” As the Galvantula blinked a bit, Cassidy asked Claire. “So, am I in this team? My old team kinda disbanded back in the Pokémon world once our objectives were finished and we defeated this bozo wanting to be king or something.”

  Claire excitedly replied. “Of course, you’re in! You’ve helped us so far so you’re a good teammate to have around!”

  “Sweet!” He turned to face the direction of the city. “Now with that established; Team Net, roll out!”

  Cassidy started to skate away on his rollerblade feet into the woods ahead, somehow the wheels going through the uneven grass and dirt just fine. The Vulpix turned to John and spoke. “Come on John, we’ve got crimes to search, and outlaws to catch!”

  As the fire fox started throttling after Cassidy, John wondered for a moment. ‘Am I doing the right thing…?’ He shook his head and grappled onto a tree with a String Shot, propelling himself up and forward. ‘Yes, I am doing the right thing. I have to do this. They have to know that I’m not a monster.’

  A quick photo was snapped from a phone camera of a rare bird on a tree before it swiftly flew away into the foliage of the trees above. The man with black shoulder-length hair sighed in relief, lowered his phone, and looked at his phone. He then frowned at the state in which the photo came out, a blurry image of the bird already flapping away. “Crap, another bust…”

  “Damn, another one, huh?” A second man, this one with a shaved head except for facial hair, spoke with his arms crossed. “At this point, you’re legit gonna leave this trail with nothing but blurry or nothing photos.”

  The first human groaned in annoyance. They’ve been at this trail close to the Oregon-Idaho border for a few minutes. The black-haired man, Paul, had been trying to get some nice pictures for him to remember this vacation. The tour guide with him, Thomas, has been accompanying him throughout the whole trail.

  “Geez, it’s like this trail strictly prohibited me from taking photos. The last trails I’ve been in were so forgiving with the photos…” Paul said with a frown.

  Thomas chuckled. “Who knows, maybe the trail will reward you with a single good photo you’ll never forget in your life.” He quirked his brow with a smirk on his face. “I’ll tell you what, though. For the sake of you having a desirable experience in this place (and for the sake of rating me a 5 star in the tour guide feedback of the trail), I’ll throw you a freebie and let you diverge off the path.” That caught the black-haired man’s attention, turning to the tour guide a bit confused and surprised. “Yep, I’ve been in this place many times before since it’s a part of my job, so I know a few spots off the trail that’ll get you some amazing photos.”

  Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

  “For real?” Paul asked with a bit of suspicion.

  “Yes, being legit here.” The bald man said before he pointed to a stack of trees surrounding a thick three. “See that thick tree over there? After you go past it and move forward a bit, you’ll find a tall tree with a slight groove underneath it. After you reach it, turn left and then you’ll get to a clearing. And trust me when I say this but that clearing sure has a lot of animals. No worries, no dangerous ones around the area, or else this trail wouldn’t be made.”

  “I see… you’re being legit about this, right?”

  “Duh, ‘course I am. Don’t wanna lose my job over an unsatisfied visitor after all.” Thomas promptly responded while rolling his eyes.

  Paul meekly nodded. “Yeah, fair.”

  “I’ll be waiting for you to return here. I’d suggest you record with your phone to find your way back in case you get lost. This trail is a bit thin so you might lose your way back. Don’t take too long.” The bald man said while leaning on a tree, his arms still crossed.

  “Got a point there.” Paul said as he activated his phone’s camera and started recording. He held out his phone and started walking to the thick tree. “Will be back shortly.”

  “Aight, good luck with the photos or recording, whatever you decide.” That was the last thing Paul heard before Thomas was out of earshot.

  Paul did as he was instructed. He walked for a small bit after passing the thick tree. The chirps of random birds filled the area along with the sound of a not-so-distant stream of water. To be honest with himself, Paul was a bit scared. This was the first time he ever got separated from a tour guide like this. Even with those vague directions, he felt a bit lost. “I’m glad it’s not night here… this in the dark would’ve been hella scary…” He muttered to himself.

  Eventually, he reached the tree with the small groove underneath it. He analyzed it for a moment and then looked to his left. “Now… left, I think?”

  He started walking to his left and looked around. At this point, the small and nagging feeling of fear was getting to him, making him forget where he came from. Fortunately, his phone recording would be the key to saving him if he ever got lost in the unintended path-

  Stchck stchck, stchck stchck!

  That strange sound stopped Paul right in his tracks, making him look around in confusion. ‘What’s… what’s that noise? That sounds like… scraping or something…’.

  Of course, curiosity got ahold of the human. His mind processed that it must’ve been some kind of cool animal or something. Sure, that was before the clearing he had been directed to, but still, he was going there to take pictures of the wildlife, something that this trail was famous for around the area. More opportunities for pictures, heck, maybe a recording.

  The sounds started getting closer and closer, drawing a bit of anxiety from the human. Paul started taking more careful and quiet footsteps as if to cloak his presence. He knew that he was approaching some sort of animal so he didn’t wish to scare it. After all, he had been granted to take a good photo and he would not waste it!

  Eventually, Paul caught some movement in the distance and once he approached a bit more, he couldn’t believe what he saw, making him silently gasp.

  Clawing at a tree, the human saw what appeared to be a lion with black and blue fur patterns with a tinge of yellow on its legs, big round ears, and a big mane that seemed to stretch backwards from its head. However, something that caught Paul’s interest the most was the 4-pointed star-shaped tail tip. He didn’t know what this kind of creature was, but something was nagging him about it. It looked… familiar in a sense.

  Paul looked at his phone again to check on the recording. Yep, his phone was recording the thing in front of him and he wasn’t hallucinating. What the fuck.

  He should have asked himself what the hell was this strange lion and what it was doing there, honestly, he definitely should’ve. The tour guide said that there were no wild animals here, hell, lions are found in Africa of all places. Something was incredibly wrong here…

  However, Paul simply did not care.

  That was the perfect moment for him to get a perfect recording and heck, maybe even a few pictures. His phone camera was focused, recording this big lion sharpening its claw while marking its territory. This was the perfect opportunity to record this gorgeous creature in nature and maybe snap a few photos!

  Paul recorded it for a bit more until the black and blue lion stopped scratching the tree with its sharp claws. As it started walking away, the human took a few pictures before something unexpected that, unfortunately, sealed the black-haired man’s fate.

  An alarm that was set for that specific time activated to remind him about some vitamin pills that he usually took at this time of day. Unfortunately, the human thought it wouldn’t be a problem to not deactivate it since in any normal circumstances, after all, he could just deactivate it when the jingle started playing.

  This was not any normal circumstance.

  The strange blue and black lion finally took notice of the human and started approaching him slowly, growling threateningly all the while. Paul started taking steps back after trying and failing to deactivate the alarm with his rapidly growing heart rate and panic. He put a hand forward, growing more scared as he gazed at those terrifying red and yellow eyes of the lion- no whatever it was. “No, p-please, I-I, didn’t mean to intrude and-”

  Paul interrupted himself when he saw literal electricity run through the lion’s fur for a second. He had no time to register until the creature enveloped itself in literal lightning and sparks and lunged at the man. He screamed in pain once the arcs of electricity enveloped his body, making him spazz for half a second before getting pinned to the ground. His chest got pressed heavily by the electrical lion’s claws as he tried to move, but to no avail, the electricity was making him gasp and contort from the pain.

  He tried to struggle but could only scream for a second as the big lion brought its fangs to his neck and bit down on it, ripping the man’s flesh and his throat along with it. Blood splattered to the side, staining the man’s phone. The man choked on his own blood, the hot liquid pouring down to his chin, for a few seconds as his limbs spasmed from the remaining electricity running through his body. He was losing consciousness, but he could hear the lion clearly munching on something, definitely on his flesh and entrails. As the lion went down to grab another bite…

  Paul was no more.

  “So…why are we on the top of a building? I almost can’t see anything here…” Claire complained with a frown.

  “Oh, you probably don’t know, Foxy, but in our world, superheroes usually stand on top of buildings to watch over the city to spot any suspicious lil’ activity while staying away from civilian eyes!” Cassidy responded while watching the city below, gazing at a few sets of humans before moving on to a few cars. “Don’t worry, this is the most boring part of being a hero.”

  Team Net was on the top of a tall building in Roseburg, overlooking the city below. Cassidy suggested they avoid any human contact for the time being and go look for any crimes to combat. And John, being blinded by his inner child liking so much being a fan of Marvel and DC while growing up, decided to follow the Weavile’s idea.

  And that’s what led the trio to this building while hiding away from most humans on the way. It wasn’t a pretty condensed area, but it was a commercial area which is where a lot of robbery usually happened in these kinds of scenarios. But, as the team of Pokémon would quickly see, it wouldn’t be an enjoyable experience to just look down and wait for something to happen.

  After a few minutes of nothing, Claire looked at John and asked. “Is it… normally like this in those “Superheroes” stories or does something eventually happen quickly? I thought the crime rate would be tremendously high everywhere.”

  John scratched his pedipalps a bit nervously with a hum. He didn’t want to look like he had lied to Claire, because this was just a single town and not the bigger picture. “Well, on superhero stories… they usually have some kind of intel to alert the heroes of any crimes going on…” It then dawned on John something that he had forgotten about, making him turn to the metal Weavile. “Wait a second, Cass, you’re a robot. You must have at least something at your disposal that could make this crime-searching go faster, right?”

  Cassidy turned to the Galvantula and said a bit sassily, almost passive-aggressively. “Oh. My. God. Johnny, you’re such a genius, and it’s definitely not like I haven’t been doing that since we came to the building!” He tapped his eyes with his claws, not blinking in the slightest once his sharp finger came into contact with it. “Heat vision, long zoom, 4K definition. Access to government database-” He giggled to himself. “Okay, the last one was a bit, but still, you get what I mean, right?”

  John blinked for a moment before looking aside, a bit ashamed for wanting too much from the robot. “I see…”

  “Hm… actually Johnny, you might be right though, I just remembered something when I was working for the furry!” The Galvantula looked back at the robot, his pedipalps rising with interest. “I remember hearing… conversations, long distant convos… oh yeah, that’s right, I remember now!” He ran a claw through his ears. “My ears… they’re antennas, I can tap into frequencies from radios and walkie-talkies.”

  “WHAT!? Legit!?” John asked in disbelief. Where did this come from? What more features was Cassidy fucking hiding in his arsenal!? “At this point, you’re gonna tell me you have a belly laser or something…”

  Cassidy’s lighter grey belly opened up, revealing a hole. “Might as well have it, hehehe.”

  Claire wagged her tails excitedly. “So many things! I’m glad you managed to free yourself from Alice’s control!”

  Meanwhile, the tarantula just blinked with his six eyes a few times and decided to scrub his face a bit with his backhands. “Please, just try and see if there are any criminal radio frequencies or something.”

  “Hehehehe.” Cassidy closed his belly opening and put his claws against the tip of his ear. “I’ll be surprised if some of these fools still use walkie-talkies nowadays. Anyway, I’ll be hopping between frequencies, and see if I can find anything juicy! Would be awesome if you kept your mouths shut since I need to hear the voices.”

  “Alright, we’ll do that!” Claire proudly declared with a nod.

  The two Pokémon just stared at the robotic Pokémon in silence as he did his work. John got a little put off by how lifeless and motionless Cassidy was while listening to radio frequencies. Actually, how was he even doing that? Did he have some kind of internal software or something that allowed him to listen to some frequencies? ‘The more time I spend with him, the less I understand his body… I forgot that I shouldn’t expect anything with Pokémon, hell, I don’t even understand my own powers… and I’m getting hungry again, sweet.’

  Eventually, Cassidy parted his finger away from his ear and crossed his arms. “Okay so, I didn’t find any criminal radio frequencies but I found an interesting one.” He looked at his partners. “The Roseburg Police Department!”

  “Wait, for real?” John asked the metal Weavile and approached him. “Managed to grasp something useful from them?”

  “Welp, that frequency was almost silent, until something came through the radio. And that message is why we have to hurry.” Cassidy extended his arms and grabbed Claire who blurted out a “Yip!” when the robot’s claws grabbed her. He retracted his arms and pressed the Vulpix against his torso as he held her in his arms. “Let’s put those cops to shame!”

  “W-what’s going on? Cassidy, what did you learn?” Claire asked a bit unsure and confused as the metal Weavile started activating his boosters.

  “Don’t worry about it, Foxy, I’ll explain it in the way.” The robot Pokémon looked back at the Galvantula. “Do your best to keep pace, Johnny!”

  With that, Cassidy started flying away and John had to follow, by grappling away from building to building. ‘Would’ve been better if you spoke about the thing before we started moving. Although, what was so important that he needed to rush?’

  The floor below became nothing but a blur as the glitchy Galvantula traveled on the air at high speeds by swinging and zipping from web string to web string shot from his mouth. He was starting to get the hang of balancing in the web-swinging movement with his new body, but still, doing it this way felt very awkward. After all, he no longer was the little and puny tik that zipped around, he was a full-grown bug now. ‘Maybe I can swing in a different way that would benefit me… but that’s labbing for later.’

  “Anyway, as to the thing I’ve heard on the radio…” John was snapped out of his musings when Cassidy spoke. It was a bit hard to hear him talking when he was moving like Tarzan across the city but he could still make out what the metal Weavile was saying. “Apparently, most of the police forces were patrolling on the city’s outskirts. And some funny band of bad guys decided it’d be a great idea to steal a bank or something. And now, while police officers are taking their sweet time going to the crime scene, WE will get there first and stop the robbery!”

  “Ooooh, so basically, we will snoop and steal their spotlight just to get humans to look at us with joy rather than fear?” Claire asked while looking down at the streets below, seeing them turn at a sharp angle as Cassidy changed direction.

  “Exactly, Foxy! Another fortunate thing is that they gave me the exact location of the bank, and we’re so close to it too!” From John’s perspective, he could see a commotion of people in the streets in the distance, close to a building a bit different from the others. Before the Galvantula wondered about it any further, the Weavile started descending a bit. “Attention all passengers, please buckle your seatbelts because this flight is reaching its destination!”

  “Let’s do this…” John spoke to himself, mentally readying himself for what would be the first of many robberies to stop. Geez, how did superheroes not buckle under pressure when doing something like this for the first time in movies or even series?

  The trio of Pokémon landed on the uneven titled roof of the bank, the bricks showing their testament through time because of how degraded they were through sun and rain. It made standing in it a little bit harder for Claire when she got out of Cassidy’s grip.

  The metal Weavile went to the edge of the building and looked at the sight below, taking in the many humans gathered around in front of the building. “Ohohoho, with these many sightseers in the front, we might have a hostage situation in the bag!” He turned around and looked at the two other Pokémon, however, his sight landed more on John when he saw the glitch particles rilling up around him, the air and the roof warping and bubbling near the Galvantula, heck, even his own body seemed to flicker in absurd ways for split seconds. “Yo, Johnny, you excited or what? You look, uh… not good.”

  The Galvantula looked behind and saw one of his arms split into multiple smaller ones before returning to normal in half a second. Fortunately, he didn’t feel it, although it did unnerve him a bit; Claire even frowned when noticing that strange occurrence. However, despite all of that, John shook his head and shrugged it off. “I’m fine. I’m just… hungry, that’s all.”

  “Hmmm… okay.” Cassidy shrugged before pointing a thumb to the front of the bank. “Would you be so kind as to scout the situation and possibly immobilize the criminals holding hostages? If you go through one of the big windows and stick to the ceiling, they probably won’t detect you.”

  Claire looked at the metal Weavile a bit unsure. “Do you know if sending John to this thing is the right idea? I mean, not only is he hungry again, we don’t know how the humans are gonna react to his presence…”

  John looked at the Vulpix with determination in his eyes. “This is the reason why we’re here in the first place anyway.” He started walking to the edge. “Besides, between you and me, they have to get used to me first-”

  Suddenly, the Galvantula’s unstable particles went into a frenzy as he started sinking through the roof. Claire gasped and started going after him. “John, no!”

  However, her pleas were for nothing as the tarantula’s body went completely submerged through the roof, a puddle of that liquid energy surrounding him as he went through the roof.

  Unceremoniously, John fell hard on the white-tiled floor with a thud, his underside receiving most of the damage. But because of his Pokémon bullshit logic, the impact did nothing but make a dull pain emerge. The Galvantula quickly got his bearings together and looked at the scene in front of him, his eyes widening a bit.

  It was clear that this was a hostage situation when he took one quick look at the scene. A lot of humans were lying down on the floor next to their seats and the attending stalls, even the bank attendees were nowhere to be seen, probably doing the same as the civilians behind their stalls. A loud ringing sound echoed around the building, the alarm signifying the obvious: money AND people were in danger because of bad guys. John could see two criminals, both wearing a black mask covering their heads with little holes for their eyes, noses, and mouths.

  Ah, and who could forget the heavy guns they were carrying, John sure didn’t. They had SMGs pointed at the hostages, but that quickly changed when one of them noticed the Galvantula. The bandit in front of the stalls aimed his gun at the glitchy Pokémon with a terrified tone to his voice. “T-the fuck is that!?”

  John blinked and, out of complete instinctual reaction, he spat out an ensnaring and electrifying web at the armed human, catching him by surprise. The masked human screamed as the web wrapped around his body and zapped him at every possible angle. Fortunately for John, the gun got trapped inside the electrifying silk cocoon around the human’s torso. ‘Holy shit, I got lucky!’

  Some of the hostages gasped after seeing what had happened. However, John had no time to take in their reactions when the other armed man came from the other stalls, following the screams of his partner. He noticed John and pointed his gun at him. “The hell’s going on here!?”

  John started letting instinct and adrenaline guide him as he rushed to the criminal. Even though it was not quite the same, he felt angry. He was held at gunpoint again, but instead of retaliating with justice and the will to protect the people around him, he retaliated with burning hatred. After all, he died by the scum of society like this.

  They needed to be punished by his claws.

  A hiss escaped his mouth as rapid gunshots started to fire. Even though the man tried shooting at the glitchy Galvantula, it was almost impossible to aim at him since his body seemed to flicker and distort in unimaginable ways all the while he approached.

  The armed human stepped back as he kept fire, drawing out screams from the civilians inside and outside the bank. He kept trying to hit shots but John’s body just seemed to grow large and small, appearing and disappearing closer and farther from the human, even on the walls, all in two seconds as his body kept getting more unstable.

  For a split second, the criminal could even see a man with white hair and blue eyes appearing where John stood before promptly disappearing.

  Click Click Click

  It registered a second later for the criminal that his bullets had run out. But before had any reaction to that, the human got tackled to the ground, receiving the Galvantula’s horns onto his chest. Once he landed on his back, John jumped on top of him, pinning his arms with his backhands. Liquid static started leaking out of the Galvantula, falling onto the criminal who could see a very unstable Pokémon on top of him. His form flickering and morphing all around without any rhythm or reason.

  “W-what kind of d-demon are you…!?” The man asked scaredly, his terrified expression being hidden behind the mask.

  John spoke nothing, not having the opportunity to say anything as the ceiling crumbled to pieces and a figure fell from it, landing on the floor with ease. Cassidy rose from his landing position as three other criminals came from the back door meant for staff, these ones having pistols rather than bigger guns. The metal Weavile spread his arms and announced to the entire bank. “Hello everybody! Your new heroes have arrived to save the day!”

  Claire landed behind Cassidy, not sticking the landing, falling face-first onto the floor. However, she quickly recovered, shaking her head rapidly before lifting a paw. “YEAH!”

  “The fuck!? What is this!?” One of the three new bandits spoke before pointing their guns, two at Cassidy and one at John.

  The robot immediately pointed his fingers at the two humans already aiming at him, opening his finger holes and threatening. “Yoyoyo, you sure you fellas wanna do this? We ain’t messing around when it comes to real firepower!”

  “I want to!” The glitchy Galvantula declared quite menacingly before shooting out a normal silk web at the man pointing at him, encasing his entire hands and arms in his web. The angry Galvantula then pulled at the string, making the man lose his footing and stagger forward. John used that momentum and lunged at the human, however in a split second, he appeared behind the criminal as his body spazzed and flickered.

  One of the other two humans turned to John in a panicked state. “Dammit, what the hell’s going on!?” However, as his partner turned away as well to focus on the unstable tarantula, Cassidy used this opportunity and activated his jet booster, flying through the air to the human aiming at John. Before he could take the shot, Cassidy hit the human by elbowing him on the side. “GAH-!!!”

  As the metal Weavile flew with the man to a wall, the other unnamed criminal was about to take a shot but didn’t see a fireball heading straight for his head. The fireball hit the man’s head he dropped his gun and went into a screaming frenzy as his head got completely caught on fire. Claire winced a bit, not liking the way was screaming but her resolve steeled itself as she scowled. “Sorry, but you chose this for being on the wrong path!”

  The man removed his burning mask, throwing it on the floor and also burning a bit of his hands in the process. However, he had no time to ponder what just happened as a tackle from a very unstable bug got him pinned on the ground.

  John panted as his body flickered and flashed in ways never thought possible. The air around him got heavy and distorted, even small random objects appeared and disappeared around the Galvantula. The man panickingly pleaded. “P-please, w-whatever the hell you are, s-spare me-”

  His pleading was interrupted when Cassidy walked away from the slumped man and cracked wall. “Welp, if there aren’t any more of you hiding away like the scheming rats you guys are, we suggest you surrender to the police because we weren’t even using half of our power to take you guys.”

  The robot’s speech was thrown to the side in John’s mind as he got consumed slowly by hatred and hunger. That’s it? This trash below him would just be thrown in jail after all the crimes he had done? What if they had killed people in the past just for standing in the way of their greed? What if they had taken innocent lives before and what if they do it again when they are out of prison?

  All of this thinking was making him hungrier… and there was food… directly below him. Nobody would miss scum like this, right?

  “So, I give you this chance because we’re so nice-” Cassidy glanced at John, noticing how he was drooling over the human with that strange static coming out of his mouth. “John, what are you doing…?”

  The Galvantula didn’t listen as he sank his fangs into the man’s neck, biting on him as all of his jagged teeth kept munching through his insides. The man screamed as he started to get coated with glitch energy, making his scream sound distorted, the same sound one would almost hear from a console crash.

  The Vulpix gasped and reached out with a shout. “JOHN, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? STOP!!!”

  The Galvantula snapped out of it as he removed his teeth from the man’s neck, but it was already too late. The human started convulsing and flickering in and out of reality as the same distorted scream as more of the liquid static consumed his body. John stepped away from the glitching human as screams started sounding from every direction.

  The monochrome tarantula looked around to see the civilians getting up and trying to get out of the building, panic filling the entire room as it dissolved into chaos. John muttered to himself as he started taking steps back torwards a wall. “W-what have I… what have I done…?” He muttered to himself as he looked down his glitch particles getting into a frenzy once again as liquid static started spreading over the floor. “I… I-I’m a… monster… I’m an… actual monster.”

  “John!” The Galvantula looked at the source of the voice and saw Claire carefully and slowly approaching him. “W-what happened? Why did you just…”

  “Get away…” John said as he stepped back a bit more, his abdomen grazing the wall a bit. “D-don’t come near me, please…”

  Cassidy did the opposite and got closer to the Galvantula calmly. “Listen, whatever that was that you did to that guy you were clearly not in control so how about you just talk it out-”

  “STAY BACK!!!” John hissed to the two other Pokémon before a screen of solid static covered him. And from one moment to another, the glitchy Galvantula had disappeared.

  “John!” Claire shouted. But before she could say anything else, the building got stormed by humans in black suits, holding out pistols. “What the!?”

  “Stop, this is the police, put your hands-” The woman in front of the squad who was speaking interrupted herself when she noticed that instead of humans there was a strange animatronic and a strange dog or something of the type in the left wall of the building. “What the…”

  Cassidy crossed his arms as he stared at the officers, causing them to flinch a bit. “Fashionably late as usual. We took care of it and we were about to make our leave.” He grabbed Claire again and started flying. “Let’s go, Claire.”

  “I-it speaks? Wait a damn-” Another police officer started talking but Cassidy wasn’t in the mood to hear them talking. Instead, the metal Weavile headbutted the wall hard as he flew through it, rubble falling out from the side.

  With that Cassidy and Claire were flying away from the scene. The air felt heavy from what just happened within a few minutes. The metal Weavile held the fox in his arms, hugging her so as not to fall. They stayed silent for a few seconds before the robot sighed, even though he couldn’t breathe. “Welp, everything was going according to plan until it all went to shit…”

  Claire whined a little bit as her grimace deepened. “John… where are you…? What even happened?”

  “Wow, coincidence we must be thinking the same things…” Cassidy groaned a little bit. “Hey, don’t worry, we’ll find him. You know if his teleportation goes far?”

  “Hmm… I don’t know… the two last times he used that ability with me, it didn’t take us far. We probably moved a few meters or a kilometer…” Claire added as she thought about it for a bit. “I don’t know if he can go further than that.”

  “Then let’s hope he’s still in Roseburg. We’ll get our bearings together and search for him. Good with you?” Cassidy offered. “We still need to get you something to eat, after all.”

  “Alright… that should be good. Hopefully, we can find him before night rolls around.”

  Cassidy nodded before flying to the outskirts of the town, in the hopes of finding a quiet place for them to rest and reconcile.