Larson and Kurt - The New Police Animals

Just Your Typical Monday

The scene was already a chaotic mess when you arrived.
Police were in the midst of trying to block off a two story residential home.
Thing looked trashed to hell, eastern wall was rubbled.
Was a refigerator chucked through it? Yeah, that was a fridge.
Civilians and the press were trying to get as close as possible to capture the latest incident.
Cops were shouting at them to get the hell back.
All the while an agitated, territorial nidoking was squatting inside a building threatening to collapse.
You sighed and moved to the back to pop open the hatch of the SUV
A luxray leapt out, stretching his legs before sparing you a glance.
"So, what're we dealin' with this time?" he grunted, working the stiffness out of his neck.
"One Declan Marlowe, 34 male. Owns the house, probably turned last night, and turned bad. Neighbor went to investigate after hearing a commotion and was chased off by something 'big, purple and pissed'."
"You'd know this if you actual read the report, Larson" you added smugly.
"Fuck off, I'd like to see you flip through pages with these things for hands!" Larson growled, holding up a massive paw.
You barked out a laugh before pressing down on your radio.
"Kurt, how're we looking?"
After a beat, Kurt's cheery voice cut through the static.
"Alllll good to go! Got a clear line of sight on the front. Just get Sparkle Cat to chase the guy out and I should have an easy shot."
Larson narrowed his eyes hearing that obnoxious nickname.
You pat the luxray's head before returning comms, "Perfect, just wait for my call. You got a type advantage this go around so should make quick work, provided you don't miss like last time."
A loud gasp filtered through the radio.
"Hey! The only reason that happened was because Larson kept repeating 'don't fuck it up' over and over while I was aiming. That doesn't count..." Kurt grumbled.

By this point the police captain noticed you.
"'Bout time y'all arrived, the hell took ya so long?" The old man grumbled.
"Sorry about that, we had a... motion sickness issue on the way. Let's just say nausea leads to poor voltage control."
The luxray growled.
You coughed. "Anyways, we're briefed on the situation and have a plan, so this'll be taken care of. Just make sure to keep the front of the property clear."
The captain shrugged. "'s long as it gets taken care of soon, we're swamped with calls as is and can't keep most of the force in one spot."
He walked away, yelling at his subordinates to move the perimeter up to the street.
Showtime.
Circling the house showed that the internal damage of the house was substantial. You couldn't tell what room was which.
No sign of the angry resident though.
Shit, hopefully he was still there.
You cleared your throat before turning on your megaphone.
"Declan Marlowe! I know that you're confused and upset and scared, but we're here to help! If you still have your sense of self, I need you to exit the building in a calm and orderly fashion so we can transport you to a safer location!"
You paused, waiting for a response that never came before continuing.
"If you don't cooperate with us, we'll have to use more forceful means! This is your last chance!"
Silence.
Well, you expected this. you signaled to Larson that the hunt was on.

The luxray's eyes immediately lit up as he searched through the debris.
Must be nice to have literal wallhacks.
You waited on the front lawn as he stalked into the house, your hand on your radio ready to give the signal.
After a few seconds you heard a cat-like yowl followed by a thunderous roar.
Larson reappeared through the front door, electricity shooting through the doorway at the raging occupant.
Wouldn't do much except piss it off, which was perfect.
"Fuckin' hell, bastard was hiding underneath all that shit waiting for someone to ambush!" the luxray panted as he ran up beside you, turning and crouching into a defensive position.
The doorframe and most of the surrounding wall exploded forward as the nidoking surged forward.
Shit, that thing was fast!
"Kurt, take the shot, I need you to take the shot right now!" you shouted into your radio.
You tried to stumble backwards, everything slowing down as a bigass purple fist started to careen in your direction.
Not even a second later the crack of an inteleon's hydrosnipe slammed into the nidoking's skull.
The poor bastard was instantly unconcious.
You heard a cheer and an "I told you so" from the radio as you took a deep breath to calm down.
"See, quick and easy" you smirked at Larson once your heart wasn't bounding in your ears.
"A quick and easy suicide more like, what the hell were you doing standing so close?!"
"I thought it would look cool if he was incapped in front of me, like some anime shit" you sniffed.
Larson rolled his eyes. "...did you really have to tell the police captain that I got car sick?"
"Hey, he asked what was up and I told the truth, Sparkle Cat. Next time I'll get you that anti-nausea med my dog takes before going to the vet."


Electromagnetic Woes

Larson’s eyelids drooped as he shuffled into his townhouse.
It was only a 12 hour shift today at the station, but using his x-ray vision always drained his batteries.
Probably quite literally in his case.
The luxray shut the front door with his back paw before padding over to the kitchen.
He nosed open the fridge and grabbed the last beer between his teeth.
Pop! After a few seconds of gnawing, his strong jaw separated the cap. He spat into the trash.
That was one of the first tricks he taught himself after losing his hands.
Paws sucked.
At least Larson typically had some assistance when he needed the use of normal limbs.
Kurt offered to move in to help him out around the house after hearing about his pokefication.
The inteleon even changed all the door knobs to lever handles so Larson could still open them up on his own.
He probably would have lost his mind if he couldn’t even get into his home on his own.
Tonight wasn’t the norm. Kurt wasn’t home yet, probably finishing up all the paper work from today.
The luxray figured he should take advantage of the quiet and study up on that type chart thing.
He appreciated his childhood friend helping him out, but god was he loud.
He never got noise complaints before until Kurt moved in.
Why did he continue to play counter strike when it made him THAT angry?
Larson picked up his beverage and flopped down onto the couch.
He pawed at a wireless computer mouse to wake a PC connected to the television from sleep before opening up google.
It was a very, very slow and delicate process, but after some trial and error they found out Larson had barely enough dexterity with his claws to use a mouse and virtual keyboard to access the internet.
He opened an online quiz on the effectiveness of the various types.
The luxray hadn’t ever played or even interacted with Pokémon games in the past, so all of this was still fairly confusing to him.

Fire beating grass made sense. So did water against fire, and electric against water. It was just logic.
But why was dark weak to bug? Dragon weak to fairy? Why was electric weak to ground, but not rock? How were ground and rock different from each other?
Not that he was complaining, it just meant he only had to be wary of that one type himself in the field.
Larson bit down on the neck of the beer bottle and tilted his head back to take a swig.
He took the quiz a few times before he got a good enough score to call it quits for now.
He closed the browser and was about to put the computer back in sleep mode before he saw the day’s date.
Wednesday. Trash night. And it was his turn this time. He almost forgot.
Larson sighed as he stepped off the couch and went out the front door.
Luckily he was big enough that he didn’t really have any issues just bodily pushing the can to the curb.
As he was finishing up his final task of the evening, he heard a growing buzzing sound.
Confused, he sat on his haunches and looked around the empty street.
He didn’t see anything, but it was clear that whatever was making the noise was getting closer.
He waited a moment, before turning around to head back inside.
Mid stride, he felt something brush against the fur on his back.
Larson let out a loud shout of surprise and craned his neck to see what the hell touched him, but again he couldn’t see anything.
The moment he turned back around, it happened again.
He scrabbled up the concrete pathway and burst through the front door, all the while the cacophony of humming and buzzing grew louder.
He felt like he was being attacked by mosquitoes on a humid summer evening. It even itched like he was.
He tried scratching himself but ended up batting something hard and round onto the floor.
It squirmed around before it fixed its orientation and floated back onto the luxray.

It was one of those, oh god what were they called? Magnetites? Floating eyeballs with magnets.
There had to be at least five or six of them on him right now.
Larson grimaced before he dropped onto his back and rolled around, trying to dislodge the little buggers.
They all buzzed in surprise but held steadfast like a bunch of little cowboys riding a bucking bull.
He tried shocking them with electricity but that just made them more energetic.
It didn’t matter how many times he swiped them off with a paw or used the furniture to peel them off, they’d just happily reattach themselves to his fur.
Larson slumped onto the floor and let out a groan as the magnet Pokémon cheered.
He hoped Kurt would get back soon so he could get rid of these things.
But he knew deep down that he would never shut up about this.
He better not send any pictures to their coworkers.


Familial Frustrations

Cracks of gunfire rang out from a small outdoor range as the midday sun beat down on the barren clearing.
Occasional snaps of lightning and pressurized jets of water also sounded off with the cacophony of human munitions.
Most of the patrons were clustered on the far side of the range, trying to mind their own business or openly gawking the Pokémon on the other end.
Either case, they were all giving them as much space as possible as the two slung elemental attacks at various targets.
Larson and Kurt usually came here when they had the time to blow off steam after a long week at the police station, and were regulars before they changed.
With the craziness of everything happening lately (their own transformations included), it was nice to take a breather on familiar grounds.
Luckily they knew the owner of the range and were on good terms, so they didn’t get turned away.
Just had to be careful to not “blow things up too much”, to which Kurt made no promises.
He’d try his best though.
They spent most of their time practicing various moves.
Kurt had a more traditional range experience with his snipe shot, but mostly focused on power control and stamina more than anything. Would be handy to be able to control the move’s strength in case he ever needed to hold back, and also not get tired after a handful of shots.
Accuracy wasn’t an issue in the slightest, especially when he use his special ‘extra eyelids’.
It was like turning on some sci-fi heads up display that showed everything’s vulnerabilities.
Pretty sick if you asked him.
Larson mostly focused on controlling and guiding his bolts of electricity, really the opposite of Kurt.
Controlling how strong of a shock he wanted felt pretty natural to him.
Actually hitting something wasn’t as straight forward as aiming a finger gun though.
Most of their early afternoon was spent that way, training their new abilities and just shooting the shit with each other.

Larson was currently taking a breather and enjoying the warmth of the sun on his fur as he recharged his batteries.
Occasionally his ears would flick at the boom of a rifle. He was worried that his enhanced hearing would make this experience much more unpleasant, but it hadn’t really bothered him after getting used to it.
What was more distracting was Kurt arguing with someone on his phone a short distance away.
He could probably listen in if he wanted to, but he tuned it out to give them some privacy.
Sounded like some personal stuff with family.
After a few minutes Kurt tossed his phone onto the bench and angrily fired off a salvo of snipes towards the small paper targets they had set up.
Larson jumped up at least seven feet into the air in surprise at the sudden aggression, and most of the other people still there gave various shouts of shock and awe.
Larson tentatively glanced up at the Inteleon whose black-shaded eyes glowered at the destroyed target stand.
“That bad huh?”
Kirt sighed as he turned to the luxray, the nictitating membranes sliding back as he calmed himself down.
“You gonna be free on Halloween night?”
”Uh, no? I’m pretty sure I got a shift that day. I thought you took that off since it was your turn to go trick or treating with your kiddo?”
Kurt crossed his arms and looked away, simmering.
”Yeah, well I just got off the phone with Lisa about that, and she’s freaking out about the whole Pokémon thing and thinks I’ll turn our kid into a frog or something, so it’s not happening unless I can somehow convince her to change her mind.”
Larson nodded in understanding, a frown tugging at his muzzle.
”From what I know about your ex, sounds like her. You remember how crazy she was during the pandemic. You mentioned she put plastic covers on basically every surface so she could spray everything down every few minutes.”

A scoff. “Don’t remind me. It’s just frustrating because no matter how much I told her that none of the other officers have had any ‘symptoms’, even with both of us working almost every damn day of the week, she just wouldn’t relent. Danny was so excited for it. He told me he wanted to be a dress up as a Pokémon trainer a couple days ago.”
The luxray snorted a laugh, “Ha, yeah that would have been cute. To be fair though, if it was my kid I’d probably worry about the possibility of it spreading to them, too. Maybe it’s like, genetic or something. Who knows. Sorry to hear she’s acting like that though.”
Kurt sighed. “I know, I know, I’m worried about it too. Just sucks because I barely get to see him as is, and now with all this Pokémon stuff happening I feel like if I don’t grab the chances I get, it’d be months between visits.”
”Well, you still got two weeks to change her mind, and you know she isn’t completely heartless, just overprotective. Just gotta really play on her heartstrings and maybe she’ll change her mind.”
”Eh, maybe…” the inteleon muttered, lost in thought.
Larson tilted his head to the side as he thought before continuing, “Hey, if she doesn’t change her mind, I can see about requesting the night off, and we can go to the theater and marathon whatever horror schlock you want, my treat.”
”Oh my, the big ‘ol mean lion afraid of scary movies offering to watch some? Never thought I’d see the day,” Kurt smirked.
Larson softly growled. “Screw off, not scared. Just worried that I might fry something because of a jump scare, and I’d rather not be banned from every theatre in town because of that…”
”Well if things don’t work out, that sounds fun, I appreciate the offer, Kurt chuckled as he took on a wistful tone, “the scaredy sparkle cat is finally growing up!”
Kurt’s laughter turned into a pained yelp as a spark of electricity snapped across the range.


[A VIRUS HAS BEEN DETECTED ON YOUR SYSTEM]

”Hey Kurt? I think my computer is messed up.”
Kurt looked up from his phone and squinted at the Luxray peeking through the doorway to his room.
”What do you mean messed up? I saw it was working fine when you were using it last night.”
Larson scoffed, “Yeah I know it was fine last night, but now I can’t even do anything on it. Takes forever to open anything up, if it even works at all.”
Kurt groaned as he stood up from his bed, “Alright, let me check the damage. Did you try turn-“
”Turning it off and on again, uh-huh, already tried. I’m not THAT helpless.”
The Inteleon snickered as he walked in to the living room to troubleshoot the issue.
”Son of a…”
Kurt rolled his eyes and grumbled as the PC froze up for the eighth time in the past minute.
The fans sounded like a jet engine trying to take off. Poor computer was absolutely drowning.
After an hour of waiting, a virus scan finally finished and found nothing wrong.
Dubious that Larson actually tried, Kurt attempted to restart the PC. Didn't help either.
Whatever Larson did really messed it up. Kurt swore he was as computer illiterate as his grandparents.
Probably downloaded a bitcoin miner or something.
After what felt like ages, task manager finally popped up, which confirmed that both the CPU and memory were completely hogged by something called PgZ.exe.
Nothing about it showed on the internet either.
Of course, trying to manually kill or remove the program did nothing. Flagging it for the antivirus to wipe out was a dud as well.
Hopefully someone at the local computer repair shop could take a look and get rid of this thing, because Kurt was out of his depth on this one.
”Really gonna need to teach you to not click on random links,” Kurt fussed as he stood up to gather his wallet and keys.
”Hey, don’t blame me for something I didn’t do! Seriously, all I did was watch some videos last night. Didn’t download anything!” Larson complained.

Kurt raised an eyebrow, “Right, so it just magically appeared. Whatever, gonna take it to Geek Squad or whoever’s open to fix it up, so I’ll be back in a bit.”
He paused as he was about to exit the door with the computer in tow before glancing back.
”You ARE using an Adblock right? Didn’t click on any ‘hot chicks in your area’ ads?”
Larson’s frown turned into a snarl as a bolt of electricity raced down his fur. ”Oh my god, just go already!”
Kurt ducked out and ran to the car before he got a friendly hug from a thunderbolt.
One of the downsides of being a six foot tall lizard was the abnormally long tail.
Really made trying to sit in a seat awkward; he never knew where to put it, especially sitting up in the driver’s seat.
Maybe they made special chairs with slots for tails.
After a few minutes of trying (and failing) to get comfortable, Kurt drove down to the local Geek Squad and approached the counter with the damaged goods.
Luckily the place was borderline empty. It was always annoying when he went out and had a posse of people trying to snap pictures of him for social media.
No one was actively manning the counter, so Kurt had to call out if anyone was actually there.
He heard a clatter from the back and a “be right there!” before a pink furred, cat-like Pokémon rounded the corner, their forked tail gently swishing behind them.
They had on a cap with the company logo on it, and even holes for their large ears to poke through.
They hopped up onto the tall chair behind the counter and looked expectantly at Kurt.
”So, what can I do ya for?” She said in a chipper tone.
”Just need to get a virus or something removed from this. Friend probably downloaded a crypto miner or something on accident and I can’t get rid of it.” Kurt gestured to the desktop.
The Espeon, Emma by the looks of her name tag attached to a small scarf, hummed in acknowledgment as she glanced at the device before nodding.

Emma’s face contorted in concentration as a dull blue sheen surrounded the computer.
It shakily floated up and towards a workstation before cords snaked through the air and hooked themselves to the correct ports.
Kurt gave an impressed whistle at the display.
”Neat trick. Haven’t had the pleasure of seeing a psychic-type do their thing yet. Is it true you guys can read minds and stuff?”
Emma’s ears flattened as a peeved expression flashed on her face. “Eugh, I can’t read people’s minds or brainwash them or whatever everyone is afraid about. Maybe some crazy strong psychic-type out there can do something like that, but most I can manage is to float a few things around. Really wish people would stop freaking out over that,” she grumbled.
Kurt put his hands up defensively as he tried to stifle a laugh. “Hey now, just asking, not accusin'.”
Emma huffed and went back to work. Once the computer was all hooked up, she flipped the power on and started to tinker around.
It was bizarre seeing the keys depress by themselves, like some phantom hand was typing.
After a few minutes of diagnosis, it seemed like Emma ran into the same issues he had prior as her eyebrows knitted in confusion.
”Yeesh, yeah this thing is nas-ty. Can’t disable it, no start up entries to turn off, its not even making any temp files. Its like this thing is a ghost. Safe Mode is bricked too. Honestly, we might just have to factory reset. Hopefully you have a recent back up.”
Kurt shrugged. ”Had a feeling it’d come to this. And nah, there shouldn’t be anything important on here, its only purpose is surfing the web. If you think that’s the only shot, then go for it.”
Emma nodded and navigated over to the reset after fighting with the sluggish machine, hitting the ‘remove everything’ option.

Almost immediately, everything went wrong. The screen started strobing random colors, the fans rattled in the case like they were about to fly out, and Kurt was sure he smelt something burning.
Emma let out a yelp of surprise as the entire store's power flickered dangerously. She tried to reach out with her mind to pull the power cord but struggled to grasp anything over the chaos.
Though as quickly and violently as everything started, the screen suddenly went black, before something spilled forward from the monitor.
Emma yowled and ran back from the station. Kurt was already aiming at the creature in horror as it emerged, its red and blue ovoid body twitching erratically as if it didn't know how to piece itself together.
Eventually it fully exited, its twitching halted. It almost resembled an incredibly mangled duck.
Its yellow, bullseye-patterned eyes snapped open as it spread its wings, letting out a loud buzzing cry before being promptly hit with a snipe shot, where it crumpled to the ground like a wet towel.
The Inteleon hopped the counter, eyes wide in shock as he kept a finger aimed at the unconscious Porygon-Z.
He glanced over at a shaking Emma who had taken cover behind a stool, a sheepish look on his face as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Uh, sorry for my roommate's haunted computer..."


Welcome to the Pack

”Gosh yeah, my manager was such a jerk about it. Basically said that ‘becoming a magical animal wasn’t an excuse to call out’, that it wouldn’t look good on my record, they’re short staffed as is, blah blah blah, you know the works. Ended accidentally busting open my window with a psychic out of panic trying to get out of the house in time for my shift. I had like, what, a single day of being a Pokémon before I was thrust back out into the real world? Maybe having the stressors of adult life bearing down on me kept my mind off any instincts enough to not go feral like some of the others out there. Having a crappy manager might have been a blessing in disguise… Hey, come on dude, don’t fall asleep on me! I'm not yapping THAT much.”
Larson opened an eye as he felt a small paw lightly bap his nose, peeking at the bubbily Espeon sitting beside him.
He yawned, large canines glinting in the light before he gave a stretch, claws briefly unsheathing themselves before he got comfy again.
After the whole porygon fiasco a couple days prior, Kurt felt it was a good idea to befriend the techy Espeon.
’Us human-mons gotta stick together’ was his reasoning. Larson didn’t mind, it made sense to him. Camaraderie built from shared circumstances.
Which was how he ended up at the park on a lazy Saturday afternoon for a chat. Her idea.
”Still listening, sorry if it seemed like I was ignoring you. Sun’s just real nice right now,” he murmured in his rumbly voice, “And yeah, you are ‘yapping’ a lot Emma, but that’s alright, more of a listener than a talker myself.”
”Uh-huh, whatever you say, gramps. Just let me know when you need to leave so you can get your beauty sleep,” Emma snorted.
”Ha, sleeping here seems nicer than back home. I’m pretty sure I got hexed by the misdreavus we took care of two days ago, and now a woodpecker is hammering against my wall whenever I try to rest.”

”Also, for the record, personally I don’t think twenty-nine is grandpa territory,” the Luxray joked in retort.
Emma giggled into a paw. “Whaaat? You totally act like my granddad. I’m gonna need to see some proof here.”
Larson raised an eyebrow and sat up as he pawed at the lanyard hanging from his neck, separating his ID from his credit cards. Sure enough, he wasn’t lying.
”Well would you look at that, I concede,” Emma responded with dramatic flair, turning her head away and pointing her nose up.
”And how old is the chatterbox?”
Emma turned back, “Didn’t your parents tell you it’s rude to ask a lady for her age?”
”Well, it’s a good thing that you’re a dork, not a lady, so I’ll just assume you’re around seventy. You’re lucky your fur covers up your wrinkled and feeble form,” Larson smirked, copying her dramatics.
Another bap on his nose, this time less than gentle. Ok, he deserved that one.
”Oh my god, you're totally the dork here,” she huffed, failing to keep a smile off her face. “I’m a very humble age of twenty-seven, and you will treat me like the young lady I am.”
Larson bowed in faux shame, "Apologies then your ladyship, it shan’t happen again.”
The two stared at each other before they cracked up, failing to keep up their posh acting. Emma wiped a tear from her eye before she regained composure.
“Interesting way of carrying around your cards by the way,” she mentioned, glancing at the lanyard.
”Unless I wanna carry my wallet around in my mouth, this was the best idea I could come up with. At least this way I can sort of grab what I need.”
Emma hummed in agreement, “Yeah I can see that. I feel lucky that I can move stuff around with my noggin. no idea how you handle not being able to hold anything.”
”Well, it’s a pain in the ass for sure. Still figuring out little tricks here and there to be self-sufficient, but Kurt’s there to help out if I need it.”

A momentary lapse in conversation as the two enjoyed the cool autumn breeze, before the psychic-type spoke back up.
”Ya know, I’m curious. Both you and him seem so… normal? Like, if I was blindfolded I wouldn't be able to tell you were a giant electric lion. Do you ever get those weird urges? It’s something I kinda worry that I just sorta initially dodged, but eventually it’ll creep up on me without realizing it.”
Larson cocked his head to the side and chewed his lip in thought. “Like instinctual stuff? All the time, I’m just pretty aware of them to not act on ‘em if I can help it. If I was home right now I’d probably be grooming myself, especially with all this grass in my fur right now. Not doing it now because it’d be embarrassing.”
She snorted at that last comment.
He paused again as he tried to find a way to further explain. “I get distracted by all sorts of little noises these giant ears pick up, and always try to find an excuse to doze off, especially after zapping something. There’s an itch to fight or hunt something down… it’s pretty constant, and slowly builds up if I haven’t acted on them in a while. Between training and my helping out with Pokémon related situations around town, I feel like I get to work those out enough that they don’t become problems.”
Emma slowly nodded as he spoke, holding on to every word. “Makes sense. Don’t think I’d be able to do the fighting thing, too scary. Especially after that porygon situation.”
Larson awkwardly glanced away in guilt. His cheeks would have looked flushed from embarrassment if not for the dark fur on his face. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
The Espeon shook her head, ”Nah it’s alright. Just glad Kurt was there to take care of it. My body was in fight or flight mode, and it definitely chose flight,” she laughed.

Her ears flattened against her head. “I dunno, thinking about that kinda stuff makes me anxious, especially reading all those horror stories online about people losing themselves like some kind of nightmare…”
Larson regarded the Espeon as a slight tremor took hold of her form, her worried stare lost in the mire of worst-case scenarios.
He stood up after a beat and circled the psychic cat before laying down around her in the cat form of a hug. Emma’s eyes widened in surprise at the gesture, before a grateful smile graced her face as her fear of what-ifs subsided.
Larson groomed the top of her head and spoke up after she seemed to calm down. ”Hey, if you ever feel like you need to talk about that or just need advice, you got us now. I’m pretty sure Kurt wouldn’t mind you giving him a call whenever. Can try calling me, too, just might take a few tries for me to pick up with these big ‘ol mittens. We keep each other grounded, and we can keep you from slipping as well. Don’t feel like you’re alone on this, alright?”
It was Emma’s turn to be glad she had fur to cover up a growing blush. She closed her eyes and took a minute to enjoy the comfort, resting her head on his front paws.
”Thanks, Larson, that means a lot to hear.”


Late Nights and Paperwork Frights

Kurt felt his eyes glaze over as he began to finalize the last report of the night.
His chair groaned as he leaned back before he pushed the mess of papers and folders away from the digital clock on his desk.
12:43 AM. His head hit the top of his chair as he shut his eyes and grumbled to himself.
Today was a complete mess. Both him and Larson ended up breaking up what seemed like some backyard fighting ring after getting a noise complaint about excessive roaring and clanging.
Not a great thing to leave alone. Someone was bound to go overboard and burn a house down.
The place looked like a party and smelt like something was burning not too long before. And booze, lots of booze.
There were about 30 or so people all crammed in the backyard, cheap flood lights lit a basic, patchy ring.
Kurt was pretty sure he saw a Kecleon sitting behind a fold-up table taking bets, but they vanished as soon as they spotted the officers.
The stars of the show, however, were a Tyrantrum and a Honedge.
You’d expect the Tyrantrum to be the more destructive ‘mon, but that Honedge was something wicked.
Tyrantrum was obviously on the backfoot, chest heaving and littered with cuts and knicks.
Honedge on the other hand just floated there, almost bored. It honestly seemed relieved once they started breaking everything up.
The arena was totally wasted. Patches of ash, craters, and deep gashes marred the ring.
Luckily the dinosaur Pokémon was relatively sane-of-mind and had been talked down before they had to escalate.
The sword was either wild or too far gone. Kurt wasn't sure it could understand what they said to it, but it seemed to get the general idea that the fights were over.
It seemed to bow to the Tyrantrum before it regarded both Kurt and Larson with a discerning eye.
Kurt was poised to blast it if it tried anything, and Larson gave a rumbling growl in warning, but after a moment it seemed satisfied with what it found and melded into its shadow, which darted off.

Hopefully that wasn’t something to worry about later.
Larson seemed peeved that he didn’t get to fight something. Kurt was honestly relieved for once. Meant less paperwork for him to write up.
Anyways, unsanctioned prize fighting was technically illegal, so a couple guys, including the Tyrantrum, got booked.
Which led him to now, stuck in his office doing the work no one else wanted to.
Kurt rested his elbows atop his desk and rubbed his eyes before he grabbed a cigarette.
He promised himself that he’d stop smoking after his transformation, but between the long, stressful shifts, honing his new instinctual urges, and familial drama, nicotine sounded really, really good.
He took a long drag. He wasn’t supposed to smoke inside the office, but it wasn’t like anyone would be able to stop him, really.
His stomach growled. Luckily Larson ordered some chinese food for him so he didn’t have to make something when he got back home.
Kurt glanced at his phone and smiled when he read Emma’s latest message in the group text asking about the movie plans on halloween night.
He was glad that she was open to joining their little group. He hadn’t had much of a chance to hang out since the Porygon incident due to work, but it seemed like Larson liked her.
Good. The guy desperately needed more friends.
He popped his knuckles before getting back to the grind. Just had to finish up this last page and he could finally head home.
After roughly twenty minutes, Kurt typed in the final information and hit save. The computer processed for a second before half the page went blank and the screen froze.
Kurt internally screamed at the thought of losing all that work to a glitch.
Fortunately the cause of the issue popped up in the corner of his monitor.
In pixel-art form was the damn Porygon-Z, seemingly dozing away with a slightly distended belly.

Kurt tapped the screen over the Porygon to wake it up.
”No, bad, spit it out! I need that so we can go home! Seriously, we talked about this sort of thing NOT being ok. How did you even sneak into the computer?! Get back in the damn phone!”
After cleaning Larson’s computer of Porygon related damages, Kurt was made responsible for looking over the corrupted digital duck because the captain wasn’t sure how they’d contain something that could basically just hop into someone’s phone and disappear to who knows where in the world.
Slightly annoying, because of these exact scenarios. Emma provided an out of date desktop for him to use as its ‘home’, where it usually stayed, but sometimes it hitched a ride on his electronics when he went to work.
Even though the creature was absolutely mad, it did seem to respect Kurt in that Pokémon way where they respected strength.
Shooting it in the face that day was probably the best outcome that could have happened, it turned out. Or maybe a curse, Kurt wasn’t too sure.
The Porygon startled awake at his angry shouts before it spewed the document out. It jittered around before undigitizing through the screen, where it floated above Kurt’s desk.
Kurt gave it a flat, annoyed glare before he pointed to his phone. The Porygon let out a harsh, staticky warble before it melted into the device.
Kurt sighed and really hoped it wouldn’t start messing with his social media accounts again.


Feeling the Halloween Spirit

One day before Halloween, and with everything that’d been going on they hadn’t had much time to get ready for the festivities.
Larson usually put up a few decorations outside the house every year. Cobwebs, string lights, and a few miscellaneous decorations you’d find for sale at those pop up halloween stores like some tombstones, spiders, and bones.
He didn’t host parties or anything, just put them up for the hell of it. Probably nostalgia. Most of the other houses in the neighborhood didn’t bother anymore.
There were still a few kids he figured would be trick-or-treating this year. Felt like less and less every halloween. Still, he felt it would be lame for the kids if at least some of the houses giving away candy didn’t decorate.
Of course, he couldn’t really put most of the lights or fake cotton webs up himself. Paws and stuff. That was Kurt’s task.
Larson had to go rummaging around his storage closet to find the plastic storage tub holding all the decorations.
Typically an annoying task due to all the random crap hoarded in there, but now he could just look through objects to search for what he wanted. Thank you, special Luxray eyes.
Man he really needed to get rid of some of this junk. A problem for another day.
After he pushed away loose junk to make an opening, he grabbed the handle between his teeth and pulled it through the house.
He had put up some tunes on the living room TV earlier to help get into the festive mood, but when he turned into the kitchen from the hallway, Larson couldn’t even tell what the hell was playing.
Just the most incomprehensible bombardment of hyper edited sound and visual effects, esoteric generative AI clips, and generally low quality garbage that was unbearably loud.
And the Porygon-Z sitting on the couch in an almost comatose trance, lobotomizing itself with instagram brainrot.

Larson wanted to go in there and turn it off, but on the other hand this was the first time he’d seen the corrupted digital duck actually sit still for once.
Just ignore it Larson, the corrupted digital duck wasn’t terrorizing their electronics without Kurt scolding it beforehand for once.
He did turn the volume down, though. The Porygon slowly turned its head to regard the Luxray as if questioning why he would do such a terrible thing.
”Look, I don’t really care that you’re watching this garbage, but keep it down. I’d like to not get another noise complaint, thanks,” he grumbled.
The Porygon twitched erratically for a beat, before it returned its deadpan gaze to the television and resumed its relentless doomscroll.
God that thing gave Larson the creeps.
He returned to the task at hand, making it onto the porch and popping the lid before checking Kurt’s work so far.
Orange string lights were all strung up around the doorway and porch and were plugged in, causing the lights to alternate between themselves in a steady pattern.
The cobwebs looked like they were put up by a coked-out spider.
Larson had to stifle a laugh. Seriously, it looked like Kurt just grabbed a handful of the stuff and threw it at the walls and bushes at random, before pulling maybe one or two strands from the glob to attach elsewhere.
”Oh come on man, you could put a liiiitle effort into it,” he called out to the Inteleon placing a styrofoam headstone by the mailbox.
”What? I did what you said, I think it looks fine!”
”You gotta like, pull the webs apart from each other before you start hanging them if you want them to look sort of real, like this,” he explained, attempting to pull apart the strings of cotton with his claws.
Of course, it was incredibly awkward, and his sharp claws cut more than pulled, so the end result didn't look any better.

”Well sorry mister expert threadspinner, this is the first time doing this. My parents thought we’d go to hell or something if we put up decorations for Halloween when I was younger.
”I, for one, think they look incredibly charming, all placed with love and care from me,” Kurt remarked, hand placed over his heart in faux dismay.
Larson rolled his eyes as he attempted to shake off a clump that was stuck from his paw, growling in annoyance that it wouldn’t let go.
He just ended up burning it off with a current of electricity, where it very readily caught fire. He paused at that, coming to the sudden realization at the potential fire hazard he posed.
”You know, on second thought, maybe we should just put those away. I’d rather not accidentally burn the house down because I accidentally spark up or something…”
Kurt sucked a breath through his teeth after witnessing the display, “Uhhh yeah, that’d probably be for the best. My poor work of art though!”
”...Though I ammmm a water type, could just put out a fire if one popped up easy-peasy,” Kurt suggested.
”I would trust a 40 year old sprinkler system more than having to rely on you actually waking up in the middle of a roaring housefire.”
”Yeah, that’s fair.”
”Next year I’ll try to find some fire proof ones for you to put up,” the Luxray consoled the Inteleon.

Kurt tore down his masterpiece while Larson took out the final decorations from the plastic tub and placed them around the yard.
Kurt spoke up while he placed handfuls of webs back into their bags, “Did Emma talk to you about tomorrow yet?”
”Nah, haven’t heard anything, what’s up?”
”She wants us to show up at her place early so we can all get dressed up for the movie marathon. Apparently she’s a cosplayer? Dunno, she sounded pretty excited about it and said she had a good idea on what we’d all go as,” Kurt shrugged.
”I don’t know if I should also be excited, or absolutely terrified,” Larson replied.
”Ha, you and me both. She’d definitely be the type to go overboard with this,” Kurt chuckled.
”I’ll be sure to pray for our souls tonight.”
It wasn’t much longer before the two finished. Even without the classic web decorations, the yard was serviceable to the holiday spirit.
The two fistbump each other for a job well done. Kurt opened the door, about to walk back in, when he froze.
”What the hell is going on in there? I feel like I’d get a migraine just walking to my room,” he side-eyed Larson.
”Hmm? Oh, our new roommate is enjoying the wonders of modern internet media, and I have a feeling it would be particularly upset if you turned it off.”
Kurt peered in to glimpse at the Porygon on the couch, its eyes glazed over in complete rapture at the TV.
Kurt slowly closed the door and forced a smile onto his face. “You know, I think I’d like to just sit out here and enjoy the decorations a bit longer because they just look so good and nice, wouldn’t you agree?”
”Kurt, our home was taken over by a monster…” Larson lamented.


Ready for a Traipse Through Yharnam

Larson shuddered and lashed his tail in discomfort as the last vestiges of motion sickness drained away once he leapt out of the back of Kurt’s car.
They arrived at Emma’s apartment early in the morning, per her request to get ready for their Halloween festivities.
Kurt lit a cigarette, taking a long, sleepy drag as he locked up the vehicle.
Larson’s nose scrunched up at the scent of the sickly smoke.
It was particularly offensive to his enhanced sense of smell, even if he was somewhat used to all the smokers at the station.
”Thought you said you were gonna quit?”
Kurt glanced down at the Luxray as the two began to walk to Emma’s apartment, “Huh? Oh. Yeah, I guess old habits die hard, or something. Unfortunately ol nic’ and I have some unfinished business with all the long nights at work.”
Larson felt a frown grow on his muzzle, “Hey, I told you if you needed help with office stuff that you should let me know. You know I feel bad about all that crap getting piled on you.”
”Eh, it’s fine, just need to be better about not pushing it all off until the last minute. I didn’t forget about that, just know writing up papers is a major pain in the ass for you more than it is for me,” Kirt replied, flicking the ash off the cigarette.
”I mean sure, it’s not really feasible for me to type stuff out, but I could always ask Emma if she knows anything that might help me write. You don’t have to shoulder everything on your own, I’m not completely helpless.”
”It’s fine, I’m fine! I told you I can handle it, can we just leave this conversation for some other time?” Kurt spat with more force than he intended, pinching the bridge of his snout.
Larson’s ears pinned back as he glanced away, “I- yeah, alright. Sorry, I just worry that I’m not pulling my weight sometimes,” he muttered.

Kirt sighed as he flicked the butt of the cigarette onto the street, hesitating a moment before he reached down to pat the Luxray.
“I’m doing all this because I wanted to help YOU out. Yeah there’s a lot of stuff going on, but it’ll get easier, and I feel good knowing that your life isn’t a living hell.”
Kurt searched the apartment numbers on the wall until he spotted Emma’s.
The Inteleon clapped his hands and took a deep, cleansing breath before placing his smile back on his face, “Alright, no more of that shit. We got some costumes to put on, then some horror flicks to binge!”
Larson softly sighed and internally cringed at the thought of being stuck through so many horror movies.
But Kurt was excited, and if it brought some levity to his situation then Larson would put up with anything.
The two marched up to Emma’s door, giving it a few knocks and waited for a response.
A moment passed where nothing happened. Kurt was about to knock again when the door sluggishly creaked open on its own.
The two glanced at each other, Kurt scoffing a laugh.
”Ooooh, very scary Emma. Poor Larson’s already shivering!” Kurt gleefully called in.
There was a snap of electricity and a pained shout.
The two walked in, Kurt rubbing his arm where he was shocked, and glanced around for any signs of the Espeon.
It didn’t take long to spot the pink psychic type, who was seemingly asleep atop an old dining room chair placed near the far left wall of the living room.
She was already in costume; layers of flowing cloth and leather covered her form, and a small tricorne hat with a feather on the side between her large ears. She looked straight out of the Van Helsing movie.
”Emma? You ok? Don’t tell me you stayed up all night making our stuff,” Kurt called over.
When he didn’t receive a response, he walked over and reached out to shake her awake.

His eyes snapped open in shock when he suddenly felt something grip onto his outstretched arm, pulling him in close.
”A corpse, should be left well alone. Oh, I know very well how the secrets beckon so sweetly,” Emma whispered into his ear as she sat up.
She slowly opened her eyes which shone a shimmering blue, meeting his gaze, “Only an honest death will cure you now.”
Kurt’s brows scrunched up in confusion, “Uh, ok? Are you like, larping or something? Because I don’t get the reference.”
He stumbled backwards as the telekinetic grip was released, Emma’s ears flat in annoyance.
”Aw what? And you call yourself a horror fan,” she grumbled.
Larson spoke up from the door, “Lady Maria, right? Been a while since I played Bloodborne.”
Emma’s ears shot back up as she smiled at the Luxray, “Bingo! At least someone here is cultured.”
”Oh. Well I don’t play roll slop,” Kurt mumbled as he crossed his arms. Emma stuck her tongue out at him.
”Guess Kurt wasn’t lying when he mentioned you cosplayed, that costume looks crazy. When the hell did you have the time to make that?” Kurt asked as he padded over to get a closer look.
”Well luckily I already had this one from last year, just had to adjust it from human-size to Espeon size. A little tricky and not perfect, but it didn’t take too long. Finished it up last week actually.
”Kurt’s costume is also one of my previous ones, but adjusting it to fit him was a heck of a lot easier since he’s all normal proportioned besides being taller and lankier than I was.
”Yours took the longest since I had to make it from scratch, but it was mostly just stencil work and molding foam and rubber.”
Kurt raised a brow, “wouldn’t you have needed to get our measurements beforehand to do all that?”

”Oh so that’s the neat part! Figured out that when I telekinesis something, I sort of get its dimensional data pictured in my mind. Sooo, whenever we met up I just lightly used my powers to get your measurements without all the hassle of using a measuring tape!” Emma excitedly explained, tail wagging behind her.
A moment passed as the gears in Kurt’s brain turned, before he covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. He failed.
”So- So, wait. You were psychically feeling us up this past week?! I didn’t know you were so scandalous!” Kurt forces between barks of laughter, wiping tears from his eyes as he doubled over.
Larson failed to contain himself and joined Kurt on the floor.
Emma’s eyes widened as a mortified expression overtook her face, her tail going rigid. The fur on her cheeks stood out in a blush.
”Wha- I didn’t- WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?!” she sputtered, grabbing onto Kurt’s costume and launching it into his chest, which he grabbed with a slight groan as the wind was knocked out of his chest.
”YOU, OTHER ROOM, CHANGE NOW!” she shouted with a snarl, eyes glowing threateningly. Kurt scrambled into the guest room and shut the door.
Emma turned her baleful gaze to the Luxray, who was currently banging a paw into the ground trying to catch his breath.
She grabbed a hold of a large brush, and not-so-gently began raking it through Larson’s mane which snapped with static electricity.
Larson’s eyes bugged out in pain as he yowled in surprise, “Ow ow ow, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! What the hell are you doing?!”
”I need to do your hair. Now stop squirming around if you want me to make this quick,” the wrathful Espeon growled through gritted teeth.
Larson calmed himself down and let Emma do her thing, occasionally snickering. She made sure to tug extra hard when he did.
The two fell into an easy silence with the sounds of brushing, hairspray and Emma’s soft humming as their backdrop. Eventually Larson would speak up.

”So, what am I supposed to be?”
”The big zappy skeledog Paarl. Was the most fitting thing from the game in my eyes. Also the easiest for me to put together quickly since you already got the fur.”
”I think I remember that one… You know, kinda funny you chose Bloodborne for this year considering the whole Pokémon thing.”
Emma cocked her head to the side, “How do you mean?”
”Second boss, Gascoigne. ‘Beasts all over the shop, you’ll be one of them sooner or later’? Pretty ironic considering people are turning into Pokémon.”
”Ha! I somehow glossed over that. Well hey, plus one for me on choosing a relevant theme. Maybe we haven’t seen any Ultra Beasts because we don’t have enough ‘eyes on the inside’.”
”It's a good thing our insight isn’t high enough, might go insane from all the cosmic squids and stuff,” Larson chuckled.
Eventually Emma started tying the rubber bone coverings over his legs and placed the mask on his face, which he scrunched around to make it sit comfortably.
Emma stepped back and circled around him, inspecting her work. Satisfied, she sat in front of him with an excited energy in her eyes.
”Ok, now I need you to stream some currents through your fur for the full effect. Don’t worry about the costume, shouldn’t mess it up.”
Larson stood and closed his eyes in focus as he sent blue sparks down his body. He heard Emma shout in joy and smiled at her infectious enthusiasm.
”Yes! Oh it’s perfect! Still got my touch!”
She brought a mirror over for Larson to inspect himself, where he was also left impressed by the craftsmanship.
”Wow, yeah this is awesome! Sorry you didn’t have much time to put this together, must have been stressful.”
Emma waved him off, “No no, it was a fun challenge. I was honestly kind of worried that after changing, I wouldn’t be able to make costumes anymore. But I’m glad I pushed myself to do it, made me feel… I dunno, like things were still normal I guess.”

The Luxray leaned down and nuzzled the Espeon, who squeaked but didn’t pull away, “Thanks. I’m glad it made you feel better, too.”
They enjoyed the quiet moment before the guest room door slammed open, startling the cats into scrambling away from each other.
Kurt walked out donned in an attire similar to Emma’s, but with a long ragged cape and a frumpy old top hat.
He posed in front of the two, “Well, what do ya think? I make for a pretty cool vampire, am I right?”
Larson snorted, “Yeah, pretty cool for a wheelchair bound old man.”
”Oh. Well that’s kinda lame. I thought I was Dracula or something,” Kurt grumbled as he sagged slightly in disbelief.
”Well to be fair, he does get out of the wheelchair and kick your ass with a giant scythe and a shotgun,” Emma piped up.
Kurt snapped his fingers, pointing at the Espeon, “And we’re right back to being cool again, thank you Emma.”
Emma preened under the praise while Kurt fished his phone out of his pocket.
”Alright, the first movie’s starting in thirty minutes, so we should get going if we want to pick up snacks and stuff.”

And so they did. The theatre was abuzz with activity when they arrived, the Halloween spirit infecting most of the movie goers, many of whom were also in costume.
They ended up drawing a small crowd of people wanting to take pictures with them.
Emma thrived under the attention. Kurt and Larson would have been uncomfortable under so many eyes, but this afternoon that usual oppressive feeling seemed far away.
Maybe it was because everyone else was dressed up, so they didn’t stick out quite as much as they usually did.
They joined in after some coaxing from the Espeon.
Popcorn, candy and soda were all bought in preparation for the marathon of slashers, thrillers and mysteries.
Poor Larson sat hunched over, rigid, and wide-eyed in constant, horrific anticipation of any jump scares every movie. Some seats now had scars from claws that dug into the fabric.
Kurt did his best to comfort his friend while trying not to tease him the entire time, as much as he was tempted to. It was very hard to control himself.
Concessions floated between the three as Emma passed out their snacks, ensuring everyone had their fair share… For the most part. Not like they would notice if she had a little more.
And all three got to enjoy a day without the worries and stress of work, life, and the strange circumstances they all found in common.

Edit

Pub: 27 Oct 2025 12:13 UTC

Edit: 01 Nov 2025 13:55 UTC

Views: 28