The Ulti-Mutt Showdown

[Content Warning: Things get a little heated up ahead, proceed with caution.]

Sniff. There was something here. It was close. The fog didn't at all bother him in this odd part of the world. His paws ached, but his drive for...adventure(?) drove him forward. It wasn't necessarily adventure, but a desire to find someplace to call home. The houndoom needed to find someplace to settle. Settle down, perhaps find a nice girl, and make a pack of his own. Be the boss of said pack. He had no other goal beyond that. There was no part II to his plans. It was a simple desire that he craved as a very simple pokemon.

The houndoom's nose pressed against the ground with his gaze hyper-focused on what was in front of him. This smelly-smell...it smelled awful. Still, curiosity got a hold of him. He wanted to know what this awful smell was. Perhaps it'd be a pokemon, something he could make an example of-just like that mawile he met back at Blackmist-except with less embarrassing results.

He was close. He perked his head up and surveyed the hazy area around him.

Where was the smell headed?

44-10 - 34

The smell was heading for redemption.

Well, no, that was a crock of shit. Goro was a really smelly frog, though, and he was out looking for someone to beat up to make himself feel better. Every time to date that the croagunk had paid a visit to Pricklemist Hill, he'd gotten into a knockdown, bare-knuckle brawl with someone. The first time, he'd come across a riolu; they traded no words before they beat the absolute snot out of each other. The second time, Goro and his boss ran into a fucking demon, and it was there that he broke his fist on someone's face. Neither of those days had been his best, but it was that last one that really ate at him.

So he was doing what he always did lately when something made him feel bad feelings. Goro had waded into a mystery dungeon with his bindle in his bad hand and a fist curled with his good hand, looking for a fight. It was evident in the croagunk's posture, expression, and walk that he was looking for trouble tonight. He was angry, fired-up and eager to avenge his poor performance in arguably the most important fight of his career. More than that, he was really, really desperate to feel powerful again. Ever since he joined up with a certain umbreon, he'd suffered nothing but hardship, defeat, and confusion, and it was about time he felt like the top dog for once, like in the good old days in Cattail Marsh.

It was just too bad he couldn't find anyone in this cursed, godforsaken mystery dungeon. The croagunk exhaled noisily, slamming his fist into a tree that happened to be next to him before leaning against it. Goro closed his eyes as he took a little break from walking. He was thinking too much; that was his problem. He was in his own head. He needed to just... do Goro.

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Thwack!

He could hear the sound. Sweet music to his ears, it was something that was alive and from the sounds of it, feisty. He followed the sound, crouched low. He didn't want to be discovered just yet, but he wasn't exactly the epitome of stealth. The houndour drew close until at long last, he could see the frog. It leaned against a tree with a sad little sack over its shoulder. What was in the sack? He sniffed the air. He could smell good things.

Same dance as the mawile, it was time for some fun. He didn't give this frog the mercy of a warning like he had with the mawile. He wasn't going to give them time to do anything if he could help it. The houndoom took a deep breath, flickers of flame ignited at the sides of his lips, but it wasn't a fire move that he was unleashing. Sludge and bile rose up in the back of his throat before collecting into ball of sludge.

The houndoom lunged forward and chucked the poisonous ball of sludge at the poison type. He wasted little to no time afterward. Another deep breath, and a ball of flames would follow. The moment the fire caught up and touched the sludge, the whole attack would ignite in a massive fiery wave of certain pain.

That was it, he realized. Just do Goro. He was going to train in this mystery dungeon. And if that training entailed beating up a bunch of helpless losers who made the mistake of getting in his way tonight... Well, no one could blame him for taking pleasure in his work.

With an exhale and a relieved smirk, Goro stepped away from the tree. It was precisely at that moment that he was blasted from behind by a thick surge of what felt like goop. Distinctly poisonous, he resisted the blow naturally, but there was a certain force behind it that couldn't be brushed off. Aside from that, it was slimy, it was sticky, and—likeness could recognize likeness—it stunk. It enveloped Goro's entire back and sides, curling around the undersides of his arms and even managing to splatter on his face some. The surprise attack even managed to knock his bindle right out of his bad hand, sending it flying a healthy distance away.

There was a long moment where he tried and failed to process that development. Then his brain kicked in and Goro whirled on the spot, enraged and a split-second away from breaking someone's face. "Who the fuck do you think—" And that was about as far as he got before he exploded.

Heat, boiling heat and burning flame erupted all over Goro. It started from the base of the sludge that covered him, spreading rapidly and powerfully. The fire cut almost as much as it seared. The pain started and it did not stop. The croagunk immediately began howling in shocked agony. Immediately, in a deeper part of his mind, he knew this wasn't pain he could shrug off or a blow he could simply bounce back from.

Goro didn't even realize he had hit the ground until he felt the dirt smearing against his burning back. He wasn't sure if he had been blasted backward from the force of the fire-type attack or had fallen to the ground instinctually in an attempt to smother the fire flickering all over him. He was definitely on his back, though, and as he looked up with an expression of anguish and outrage, he spotted... a dark four-legged beast, so alike and unlike the last one he had crossed paths with in Pricklemist Hill. Harshly, he bit down and silenced his startled scream, fingers digging into the soil as he grinded against the dirt in a pitiful attempt to kill the fire.

The sludge got their attention, but the fire is really what made them drop. Although...just like with the mawile, it was disappointing to see them defeated so easily. He watched the frog writhe in the flames as he stepped forward, steadily approaching through the mist. A steady puff of fiery sludge dripped down from his muzzle like drool with the biggest grin on his expression.

"I think I'm Zera," he growled, "And that I am now your boss!" He held his head high as another drip of fire fell from his jaws. It would have been easy to see him as gloating, in a way he was, but really he was just proud of how far he'd come. Getting beaten around wasn't fun, he knew from first hand experience...so finally he was the one to do the beating for a change!

"Understand?" the hound barked.

This guy had a really, really ugly (not intimidating, not intimidating) smile. Goro scowled up at the hellhound automatically as it grinned down at him. The sheer joy and triumph on this asshole's face hurt to look at, almost as bad as the fire burnt, and he cursed himself for not seeing the guy coming. Who the shit just walked up on people and blasted them like that?!

He had to straighten this out. "You're not the boss of shit," Goro barked right back, face tight with pain even as he yelled defiance at the one who hurt him. He was not Krikka. The croagunk forced his arms underneath him and pushed upward, staggering to his feet precariously. Loose and leftover flames still flickered on his back and underneath his arms, not quite smothered by the dirt, but he paid them no mind. "You... you dirty sucker-punching asshole, I'm gonna..." he wheezed, suddenly out of breath, fatigued.

The croagunk made to step forward to lash out but misjudged his footing, stumbling and falling to one knee in front of the houndoom. His back felt dry. Dry, crispy, and white-hot with pain and agony. It wasn't just surface level. He'd been burnt deep, in a way that was totally alien. It was an awful realization, but it came through crystal clear; Goro couldn't fight this guy. Not now, and probably not even if he hadn't been ambushed by him. He had too much power.

Sourly, he raised his head to regard the pokemon. At least it wasn't another umbreon; jaws still dribbling with fire, this thing struck him as another dark-type. Doglike, with horns and a strange skull motif. Goro's scowl deepened as he stared at the guy, aware that he'd talked a big game before he realized it was a bad idea, but he refused to take back what he'd said.

The odd frog still had the gall to talk as if he hadn't just been utterly beaten. It was a sneak-shot, yeah, but that's why it was a requirement to always be on guard out in the wild. Death and pain could be at any turn-it was something he learned from his original pack once they'd left him. The houndoom's smile twisted, not into a sneer, but into something a bit more confident and toothy. A spark of yellow energy crackled at his jaws.

"I'm pretty sure I am," Zera would need to teach this frog the law of nature. The strong reign supreme while the weak obey. As it seemed so far, the frog was weak. He lifted a paw and forced the frog onto the ground. He put in a little extra effort to shove the victim's face into the fiery sludge that littered the ground, just for extra measure. He shifted his weight onto Goro, so that he could have a decent pin on the poison type. The flames on the toxic pokemon touched Zera's paws, but didn't burn. It felt more invigorating than painful to him.

The houndoom was quick to snap down on Goro's waist. The punctures themselves likely wouldn't hurt much, he wasn't trying to kill the guy, but the electric tase that followed soon after certainly would. As the electricity crackled and assaulted the frog, even more dark purple sludge began to pour out of Zera's mouth as he clamped down. The bile burned his tongue and the back of his throat a little, but it was worth it to prepare the feisty new underling for a good lesson in dominance. Once the electric seize ended, a little spark was all it took for the waste he dumped onto the croagunk to ignite without a single fear that the flames would harm himself in the process.

While the electricity stopped, he still kept his teeth sunken in. If the croagunk wriggled to escape, he would meet the pain of sharp teeth burrowing into him. They were going to sit there and burn together until Goro understood just who was in charge here.

After speaking, Goro was honestly just waiting for the hammer to fall. He had enough experience with Krikka to know what happened to people she perceived as underneath her when they talked back... and as utterly sickening, emasculating, and pathetic as it was, this guy had him in the same exact position. It made him hate himself at that moment almost as much as he hated the dog. Still, he kept his head up high and stared the houndoom right in the eye while its smile twisted cockily, teeth crackling with electricity.

He remained steadfastly silent when a strong paw slammed him to the ground and refused to whimper when half his face was smeared into the burning sludge. The instant a quiet groan began to escape him, he bit down on it ruthlessly. He was not going to give this guy any kind of satisfaction. Even as sharp fangs pierced his waist and a horrifying static shock followed, he stayed quiet.

Then the burning started. Goro bucked and seized immediately, the pain instantly reminding him that he could do something here instead of just sitting down and taking it. Unfortunately, struggling just seemed to make the pain worse, the electrocution of his waist and subsequent eternal burning intensifying. The asshole named Zera made certain of it, digging in deeper and more savagely with his every attempt to get free. His silence ended somewhere in that struggle, pained, determined groans and grunts accompanying his efforts, for all the good they did.

He wasn't sure how long he lasted, but the pain made it feel like forever. At some point, however, an angry scream ripped out of his throat, communicating all the wrath and fury he felt at being dominated. It did nothing to alleviate the pain, and to his shame, the words escaped against his will shortly after. "Stop! Fucking stop it already! STOP!!" he shouted. His voice was thick with agony, panic, and fury... and perhaps the most damning, a certain note of submission stubbornly lying underneath that would likely be sniffed out by the houndoom on top of him.

He didn't stop. If anything, it just showed him what was effective. Zera laid on another layer of flames that burned away at the sludge. The grass around them steadily began to catch fire as well as the nearby tree. Smoke wafted through the area, but none of it bothered him. He could hear the defeat in the croagunk's voice. It was the kind of voice he often heard when his previous leader tried to teach him a lesson. All he needed to do was repeat what he saw, then he'd be a respected leader too.

He released the croagunk from his fangs, but kept his cold wet nose shoved right against the back of the smaller pokemon's neck and his paws fixed on the back. While he might have released the waist, it would be easy for him to latch on if the frog got a little too active for his liking-assuming he'd be able to react in time. "Who's Boss?" he growled. His tail whipped about excitedly as he waited for what he wanted to hear.

The agony intensified after Goro unwillingly admitted defeat, and for a brief moment, he despaired at the fact that it might've just been what the houndoom was waiting for. His hip was on fire, his face was actively burning, and his entire body was twitching with alien, painful electricity, to say nothing of the goddamn fangs tearing into his flesh. But then... the fangs withdrew. And a voice followed afterward, and Goro knew instinctively it was promising the reward of mercy in exchange for submission.

He hated this houndoom so, fucking, much. Instantly, this Zera was all the way up there with the likes of Dusk, maybe even further up on his shit-list. Goro suddenly possessed such a powerful and all-encompassing loathing for the creature that ambushed and humiliated him, like he was the same weak-minded, powerless kid that his mom used to beat the shit out of and his dad would make cry. He hated how he had no option but to tell this asshole what he wanted to hear. The only thing that sweetened it was a dark promise to himself he made in that instant between suffering and submission; one day, Goro was going to brutalize this mutt. He would repay the favor in kind, and go so much further beyond than Zera would take it with him.

And he was going to do it by himself. Nobody would know of this humiliation—not Krikka, not Alki, not Chiyako, nobody. With that in mind, the croagunk clenched his eyes shut in disgrace and went through the motions required. "You." Goro bit out, voice still heated but compliantly hushed. And then he waited.

And just like that, the "taming" process was almost complete. The houndoom knew first hand how this sort of humiliating display felt. He knew just how livid and bitter the frog must have been. Zera knew that one day the frog might come back to take back the title. That was okay, however. That was just how the world worked. Then, they'd go back and forth-if the frog ever managed to overtake him in the first place.

For all he knew, he might just have to smack and burn this croagunk every now and again just to remind them how this all worked. "And what's my name?" The dog questioned the frog.

An extremely frustrated exhale escaped Goro, coming out as a mix of a groan and a distressed cry. The pain of the situation was catching up to him—for however big his ego was, there was only so much punishment a croagunk could take before it was lights out, and he was fast approaching that limit. It made him want to get this entire debacle over with as quickly as possible, even if it meant submitting further.

"Zera!" he practically cursed. The ridiculousness of the situation was just too much for him to be completely compliant, and the way his face was actively burning in toxic sludge didn't help. "Your fucking name is Zera, you're the boss, I get it!" The croagunk's voice was just the tiniest bit hysteric at this point. Conversely, his spite and heartbreak was only intensified, only now it was directed more at himself. There were few moments in his life that he felt so pathetic.

Zera was the dog's name, he reaffirmed both himself and the sadistic hellhound. Zera was not and never would be his boss, but one day, Zera would be his victim. He had to keep thinking it, like a hellish mantra in his mind to cope with the humiliation.

Meme:

It was certain that the croagunk would remember his name now and his status. Zera was satisfied with this. He didn't quite release the toxic pokemon just yet. He bit down onto the croagunk again, though this bite wasn't nearly as damaging as the one before. Instead of crunching down and inflicting more pain, the houndoom instead lifted the croagunk's face and body out of the burning pile of sludge. He walked a few paces away from the burning tree, putting it behind him, before he dropped the croagunk in fresh grass.

"Good," he smiled with another wag of his tail, chest puffed with pride, "Since I am Boss, you are Omega. You will refer to me as Boss and I will refer to you as Omega." He sat himself down, enjoying the scent of burning fire the bits of ash that floated through the area as the fire ate away at the tree Goro touched just earlier.

"Understood?" He looked down at Omega, patient to see if they would continue to "get it."

At last—he was drug out of the flaming sludge. The croagunk was taken further away from it, being unceremoniously dropped onto the ground as the windup pitch was made. Goro rose a shaking hand up to his face, wiping the sludge off of himself and wincing at the horrid sensation. He could still feel it on his face, even though it was gone. He could feel the burning everywhere; had it not stopped? Was he still on fire?

Goro closed his eyes after Zera spoke. The way he saw it, he had two options. One, he could agree, be spared any further pain and torture, and bide his time until he could shatter this houndoom's face and leave him for dead. Two, he could speak up and explain why he wasn't about to call this guy "boss." Because he already referred to someone else that way, and Goro would be damned if this Zera guy was any sort of replacement for Krikka.

Unbidden, a wave of powerful self-loathing accompanied that train of thought. How pathetic was he that he had to explain to one asshole that he was already owned by another?

The charred, twisted skin dominating one half of his face told him to just keep his mouth shut. "I get it," he repeated himself quietly, the still-present pain urging him to just comply. Goro didn't think he'd have the strength to truly defy this guy until he healed up. "Now... what do you want?" he spat out, raising his head off the ground. There had to be a reason this guy ambushed him. It could very well be that he was just a sadistic asshole who got his kicks out of torturing unsuspecting pokemon, but it seemed more likely to Goro that there was something else.

Well, he had one subordinate now. That was progress. It takes more to form a pack, but one was a good start. He'd just need to find more to bend to his will like he had for the Croagunk-and hey, then Omega wouldn't be Omega anymore...unless the new person also beat up Omega. The dynamics usually sorted themselves out fairly quickly from what he knew.

Omega's question was honestly a good one. What to do from here? "Haven't gotten that far yet," he admitted. The houndoom's nose dropped to the ground and went to work, now seemingly completely dismissive and disinterested in the croagunk now that the defiance was gone. "For now, find someone else and add." It was an odd thing to say, but he didn't feel as if context was needed. He wanted to add more to the little party they had going on here.