(WIP) Scrafty Story

Outside the train window, Castelia City looked beautiful. The magnificence of skyscrapers slowly crawling past the view of the ocean with a sea of smaller buildings whizzing by into a blur wasn’t something he could appreciate right now. This part of the city wasn’t meant for Dan. Instead he focused on how gritty his teeth felt, or the faint reflection showing how his hair was already falling into disarray.

Despite his noticeable gloom, he wore a clean suit. The outfit was much better cared for than his own appearances, because it was his only suit. He wouldn’t have worn it during move-in like this if he had any more room in his briefcase. His eyes mindlessly scanned the fellow passengers as well as the occasional pokemon small enough to ride the train while he clutched his one carry-on carefully. Afterall the case contained everything he was bringing with him to his new life.

He would continue riding this train until the sun was starting to set, and the immaculate towers of glass and concrete shifted to boarded windows and dingy bricks. Few rode out to this station, and those that remained in the seats didn’t look happy about it. Dan included. Still, he was lucky a friend managed to connect him with an apartment cheap enough he could afford it. Unfolding a small map from his pocket, he realized the real problem would be finding the damn place before nightfall.

Any feelings he was getting closer to the hastily circled spot on the map were eclipsed by the eerie pattern creeping up on him. At any crossroads where he saw an opportunity to go down a street without quite so much litter and cracked pavement, he was forced to twist deeper into the progressively more derelict parts of the city. What little sunlight bled through the cracks of the buildings around him waned, and the flicking of stray purrloin tails reminded him there was very real danger from wild pokemon out here. He wasn’t a trainer, all he could do is run if something jumped him.

Approaching a grim crack of an alleyway between two buildings, he was remined of his friend’s increasingly worrying advice. “Okay man, the place is a little hard to get to. You can only get in through an alleyway in the back of the complex. I guess they don’t own the street side of the thing. Just look for the place that sells incense nearby.” Sure enough there was a faded sign with pictures of golden luck incense… but the broken windows covered in iron bars told him the business wasn’t so fortunate.

Uneasily he braced his belongings against his chest. “This is the final stretch.” He told himself. Not much further and he could collapse into whatever closet sized room he was almost the owner of. The money for the down payment currently rested inside one of his socks. Feeling like a prime target in his suit, he took the first steps into the alley. Worn but repeatedly polished shoes echoed slightly on the cracked asphalt, forming a steady rhythm.

Then with a crash like thunder a trashcan lid clattered to the ground with an unsettling echo. Immediately the rhythm of his footsteps grew faster while he looked for any sign of an entrance. Instead of finding the unfittingly pleasant sign for “Maple Crest”  he hoped for, he caught a hint of movement as a shadow darted by. A concerningly large silhouette for a wild pokemon. One coming straight at him. Mentally he nearly screamed, “A shady guy with a whole team of pokemon is worse than any stray!”

Weighing if he should just run straight back where he came from, the details of the encroaching figure became apparent passing through a crack of light. Orange scaly skin and baggy yellow pants, not a person but an unusually tall scrafty. The pokemon marched up to him with enough authority to make him freeze like a statue, glaring at him with it’s one good eye. Strangely enough, they were wearing a dark eyepatch ripped at the edges in a way suggesting it had seen better days.

He wasn’t exactly looking for this detail, but the scrafty wasn’t just unusual large. They may have only had the faintest swell in their dark chest, but he couldn’t help but notice the scaly pants looked as if they were only help up by the sheer width of her feminine hips… Focus! Better things to look at when you could be getting beaten into a pulp. Turning on his heels, he was stopped when she put an arm on each of his shoulders to hold him firmly in place. “Hey punk! What the hell are you doing in MY territory?”

This pokemon was talking. There were stories of the rare anomaly that learned to, but the novelty of the meeting was overshadowed by the fact she looked ready to bash his head in. Unable to do more than linger on how her breath reeked of cheap fast food, he watched in stunned silence as she elaborated in a gruff but distinctly female voice.

“I’ve been livin’ here for years, and I’ve never seen your dumb little suit and tie come through these parts.” She leaned in close to inspect his face, Dan involuntarily studied her as well as she brought her dark eye close. On her left eye a small scar of red trailed outside the confines of her patch. She flicked a toothpick in her mouth looking him up and down.

After a moment in silence she exhaled loudly, seemingly satisfied by her inspection. “Don’t see a lot of guys in suits come down here.” Looking elsewhere in thought for a moment she muttered, “Especially rare to see a guy so cuᵗᵉ-” She caught herself and dropped the toothpick in her mouth as she fumbled to correct herself. “Rare to see a CUNT like you around here. Ha, you probably got lots of money on you short stuff.”

Even if her grip was strong, the way she shifted her gaze towards the ground was telling a different story. Not entirely sure what she said under her breath before, Dan tried to argue against her last statement. “I uh, I really don’t have that much money on m-” Regaining her focus she pushed him against the wall with a soft thud to silence him. Angling her head to give him another glare, she looked ready to say something before she was interrupted.

A watery growl loud enough to be mistaken for waterlogged construction equipment a block away cried out, but it was actually much closer. The strange cry came from her midsection with a muffled intensity, like it was just an early warning. In response her grip softened as she nervously cleared her throat louder than necessary.

“As I was saying you… fuck-ass… You need to pay me a toll to get through here. Which, last time I checked was… ummm… how much does a burger cost around here again?” Counting silently with the fingers still wrapped around his shoulders, she gave up after a moment and shook her head. “Never mind, just give me-” Once again she was forced to stop as her guts bubbled and churned madly, but this time it caused her to drop him and instinctively grip her stomach.

For some odd reason he didn’t immediately bolt when she let him go. A feeling of concern perhaps, possibly for himself as much as her. Not totally aware if he was still being mugged or not, Dan blurted out the first thing to come to mind. “Are y-you alright?” With visibly mixed emotions she looked him straight in the eyes as her tail twitched.

“Yeah, of course I’m fine. That’s um, just uh…” Her search for an explanation ended after another cramp tore through her abdomen, causing her to grimace and whine. “N-not now!” Balling her fists hard, she left the dazed man completely unsure what was going to happen next. He only had to wait a couple seconds in confusion to get his answer.

A series of short rabid spurts echoed against the narrow walls like a drowning duck, the sound hardly contained by her clenched orange cheeks. The sound should have made it obvious, but Dan had trouble fully comprehending what was happening until the fetid odor leaking from her wafted up to his nose.

A cloud of poor diet-choices condensed into something like old grease mixed with sulfur and expired ground beef. Each was only a couple of seconds, but the barrage of farts escaping with a noticeable puff of her baggy pants only grew louder and more impossible to hide with each new addition.

Once the fourth crass trumpet note squeaked out of her and finished her chain of leaked steam, she sighed loudly. “Okay, let’s make this quick you b-… bitch? Bitch-boy?” With seemingly neither of them knowing where to go from here, she paused to speak up once more in a strained voice. “Something about that face of yours is twisting my guts up something fierce. Quit looking at me like that!”

Completely unaware of what face he could be making, Dan scooted against the wall to put some distance between them as well as her awful miasma. “It looks like you need to take care of something. I’ll uh, see you later.” Mentally he nearly screamed, “Why did I say ‘see you later’? She was just threatening to steal my money a minute ago.”

The scrafty straightened herself out, seemingly uninterested in giving chase. “Yeah… it’s your lucky day because I’ll let you leave. But don’t get cocky shorty! I’ll charge you double the toll next time I see you coming through here!” Without looking she tried to lean back casually against the brick wall behind her, but misjudged the distance and hit with more force than she planned. Still, she kept the intimidating look glued on her face despite the accident. “What are you looking at?”

His curiosity would have to wait, after all he had his own sad life to attend to. “Not looking at anything… uh bye!” She returned a small wave back, before catching herself and crossing her arms firmly. Quickly leaving the unusual encounter behind him, he resumed his scan for the Maple Crest sign a little more at ease than before. If she was the worst this alley had to offer then maybe he could walk in peace now.

After a few more steps, he swallowed dryly with a new realization.

This would be the only way into his new apartment. No way this would be the last time he’d have to deal with her.