[SNEAK PEEK]A Suitable Grunt
Trip tries on an Emboar suit.
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A Suitable Grunt
By Limewah
Commission for Carmine
Featuring settings and characters from Pokémon
18+
SNEAK PEEK
When running from wild Pokémon, it’s probably not a good idea to scream at the top of your lungs. That could attract more of ‘em, after all. You’re just giving away your position.
Trip wasn’t good at thinking of things like that, particularly in the moment. His arms were pumping as he ran faster than he knew his legs could carry him, and he was yelping and gasping for air the whole way. He wasn’t even articulating any words, so someone might have just mistaken him for a Guzzlord and stayed well away.
The buzzing of the angry Beedrills was getting closer and closer, and he heard the ‘thump’ of the thin, stinging needles embedding themselves in the tree trunks as he passed them. He was still under fire, and it was just down to sheer dumb luck that he hadn’t been pricked by any of them yet.
Knocking down that hive with a rock to get some honey from it seemed pretty silly now… why had he thought it was a Combee hive?!
As he ran, full of adrenaline-fuelled tunnel vision, he saw a metal door built into the wall of a cave. He didn’t stop to think about why there might be a door in the middle of this deep forest. It was his only way to escape.
Not only was the door unlocked - it was ajar, probably left open by someone careless, or someone who’d just stepped out. He could explain it to whoever was inside…!
He slid past the opening and pulled the door tightly shut behind him. Shortly after the click of it closing, he heard a series of loud clangs as the bees crashed into the door, followed by some thin pattering sounds as they tried to sting their way through. It was no good. Not even a scratch.
Trip fell to his feet and gasped for air, reaching up to wipe the sweat from his pale brow and out of his dark, coiffed hair.
Running from a swarm of bee Pokémon really took it out of you; it took some time for his lungs to stop burning and for his vision to settle.
“I need some water,” he gasped to himself. It was only when he grasped at empty air behind his back that he remembered he’d left it behind.
“Oh no…” he groaned, slapping his forehead. “Alright, let’s see, maybe those bees will calm down and I can get back there…”
The next thing he noticed was that the cave - this section of it, anyway - was weirdly hot and humid, stuffy like a sauna. Not to mention there was a lingering scent of what smelled like cigarette smoke.
He didn’t want to linger around and give the smell time to stick to his clothes.
He looked down the cave passageway. There was light up ahead, bright and fluorescent. Someone was here… maybe he could flag them down for some help?
Surely someone who had a secret hiding place in the forest could be trustworthy and eager to give them a hand. There was nothing fishy about that at all.
It was little wonder that Trip kept finding himself in situations like this. He had very little self-reflection.
The further he sojourned into the cave, the more he started to feel a cool, dry breeze caressing him. It was definitely not natural, too. When he caught the glimpses of vents overhead, covering carved tunnels in the ceiling, he was able to piece it together.
Someone was definitely here, if they had the air conditioning on full blast.
Ahead of him was a door, with a big red R emblazoned on it just below a porthole mirror. Trip paid little heed. He was more focused on what was past the door. What he could see looked sterile, smooth, and most importantly, sealed off from the outside world.
He wasn’t thinking about any of the implications. For all intents and purposes for him, this was just a lucky break, he’d found someplace to chill.
It looked like this was a break room, with some comfy couches and a cooking space
As he stepped inside, he noticed more of those R symbols emblazoned on the walls, as well as on a few mugs that had been left inverted to dry on a rack next to the sink.
“Huh, wonder what the R stands for,” he muttered to himself, before his growling stomach extracted him. “Dang, I’m hungry, let’s see what’s in the fridge…”
He didn’t notice the cameras in the corners of the ceiling, watching him and softly whirring as the lens zoomed telescopically closer. It remained trained on him even after he decided there was nothing worth taking, and wandered out of the room.
The security cameras in the hall picked up the slack for that one.
“You’re in big trouble for this one. How hard is it to make sure the door’s after a smoke break?”
“I’m really sorry sir…”
_“We’ll deal with that later.
“Who is he…?”
“Doesn’t look like he’s a trainer. I don’t think he has a single Pokémon on him.”
“Yeah. Should we nab him before he breaks something?”
“No… hang on. Look where he’s going now…”
“But that’s the- oh. Ohhhh.”
“Heh, exactly. I’m sure we can draw him in there.”_
“Hellooooo?” Trip called out, hearing the very slight echo of his voice bounce back to him. He looked up, and saw some dark signs with white lettering hanging from the ceiling. It reminded him of a hospital.
“Lobby, straight ahead… bathrooms, Rec Room, that’s where I was… Testing Lab? Ooooh…”
He couldn’t resist the siren call of those signs. He was in a secret base of some kind, that had to be it. Team R… he felt like he’d heard of a Team R-something before, but it was escaping him.
When Trip found the lab and slipped inside, it was impossible to ignore the Emboar in the room. When he first saw it, Trip flinched and nearly bolted! A giant fire-type Pokémon behind glass was still a giant fire-type Pokémon. But it was standing perfectly still in the middle of the room, staring at nothing at all with a blank, stoic expression. It didn’t look to be hooked up to anything; the room was completely barren and blank.
The Emboar was clad in a tight black bodysuit, with thick white boots and gloves, and a black cap to match. A giant red R was emblazoned on the torso, stretched over the pig Pokémon’s giant bell. The material looked quite shiny and stretchy, too. Was it latex?
Oddly enough, the rest of the Emboar’s body looked just as glossy… though that could have just been a trick of the light.
Not only that… but the bright orange flames around the pig’s neck weren’t moving at all.
In fact, it was totally inanimate.
Trip went to the other side of the glass and waved at the Pokémon. It didn’t even acknowledge him.
Trip looked down; there was a control console in front of him. Old blue displays behind thick glass monitors were full of text that he couldn’t even begin to parse…
“Just what’s goin’ on here?”
He heard a soft clicking sound, and his eyes were turned towards a door leading from the cubicle he was in, into the testing chamber. Was it unlocked?
He wandered over and touched the door. It slid open seemingly of its own accord.
“Awh, cool… an automatic door!” Trip grinned.
He took one sneaky glance over his shoulder before he slipped inside and closed it behind him.
“_Oh, Arceus… he actually did it! This is too perfect…”
“Wait for it, wait for it…”_
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