Poisonous Muscles (Preview)

Nancy needed something like this, something calming so she could just soak in some ambiance. Maybe she would let her Pokémon out as well.

Crossing the bridge, she came upon the far greener part of the route, a comforting sight high up in the mountainous region. She took a right and headed on the path near the river.

It had been a while since she had come there. The path was far more overgrown than usual, the grass long and going up to her thighs. Yeesh, who maintains these roads? She thought, frowning and trying hard not to trip over anything she couldn't see. I got to talk to somebody in town about this.

Her mind wandered, the grass climbing above her waist now. Wait, who do I talk to about this? Mayor, parks department? Maybe I should look it up when I get-

Then, she twitched. Off to the right, there was rustling, some of the grass shifting and waving. Right, right… Wild Pokémon. Her head looked over towards the movement as she continued walking forward. Better be careful. Never know what you'll run into-

Her right foot came down. “HISSSSSSSSSSSSSS!” It stepped upon something thick, wide, and large.

Nancy stumbled over the large lump in the high grass path and hit the ground with a thud. She groaned before rolling onto her back. What the hell? She slowly sat up and looked where she had stepped. There was a large, thick, long body covered in purplish black scales.

The grass parted on one side as a head stuck through. An angry-looking Seviper was staring at her, its red eyes harsh and almost seeming to glow with rage.

She felt her heart almost skip a beat, goosebumps breaking out over her body. Crap crap! She had stepped on a landmine. Sevipers weren't the most pleasant mons on even the best of days. This one she had pissed off something fierce.

Her horror only rose when she saw the next thing. Another part of the grass parted on the opposite end of the serpent body. The blade-like end of the Seviper appeared. The sharp, red half glowed neon pink, the other half purple as it slowly rose higher and higher.

Poison Tail. Her heart almost skipped another beat. Part of her mind, some part very deep inside, felt the glowing was strange. Poison Tail usually had a different aura to it.

However, her fear and terror drowned out that “well, actually” little voice inside of her. Nancy needed to act now or terrible things would occur. She reached for her waist, fumbling for one of her Pokéballs that was hooked to her belt.

But, she was too slow. The Seviper struck, the whole scene over in a flash.

The tail swung, and Nancy felt a hot flash of heat and intense pain. She yelled louder than she had ever done in her whole life as her entire arm ached.

In the chaos of it all, the Seviper gave one final hiss and vanished, disappearing amongst the tall grass.

Nancy panted rapidly, pupils dilating. Her entire arm shook and quivered, pulsating repeatedly with pain. The world blurred in and out, colors rapidly flashing.

Despite it all, she did her best to sit back up. She needed to see, needed to know. How bad was it? Her head slowly tilted down to her arm. She held her breath, expecting the worst.

It wasn't… as bad as she thought it would be. The slash of the tail had struck her arm and only her arm.

It still stung and hurt like hell. That slash gave her a long cut that went up her arm from the wrist to her short sleeve. There was no blood… possibly.

All she saw was purple. Was it poison? She couldn't exactly focus on it with how blurry her vision was. Even if she could, she didn't want to look at it for long.

All she knew was that she was prepared for anything. She was a picnicker after all, a woman of nature and the great outdoors.

Nancy found the strength and drive to slide her backpack off her shoulder. She opened it up and rummaged around in it, quickly finding one of the antidotes she packed. She wasn't sure how well they would work for humans, but she wasn't going to overthink it.

She started spraying the spot, wincing and looking away as she hosed the area down with the antidote. She didn't know how much she would need, so she kept spraying and spraying until she was sure she had emptied the entire bottle. You couldn't be too careful about these things.

After a moment, things seem to settle. Her breathing returns to normal, along with her vision. The pain subsided somewhat. Okay… she thought, dropping the empty bottle and reaching back into her pack to get some bandages, okay… treat the wound and head back to town… maybe… maybe I'll see someone on the way back.

She had something of a plan and that would do for now. She turned back to the cut, trying to unwrap some gauze with her teeth.

When she looked back, the spot was… looked healed?

There was no open wound, no sign of blood or anything oozing out of her. The only thing dripping now was the liquid antidote she sprayed her arm with. The skin had closed up all on its own apparently.

In its place though, there was a mark. The skin was purplish black along the spot where the injury was. Looking close, it was soft and scaly.