Lost in Reality [pokémon Ranger Fanfiction]

Chapter 1

The air was filled with glass-shattering screams. Bodies littered the ground like leaves in fall, and a red river swam across the earth. And there, a brunette stood in the center of it all, the red uniform drenched in a dark ooze. A Starly swooped down, beak gleaming with the intent to kill. However, the woman's arm flung out. Her hand wrapped around the frail Starly's throat, grey pin feathers squeezing between her fingers.

Starly screeched out as its lungs stretched. The bird wildly thrashed its talons, hoping to just give a single scratch fruitlessly. A laugh erupted from the woman, but all light was gone from her blue eyes. With her other hand, She ensnared the Starly's throat further. She twisted it. And twisted and turned until it snapped. She kept turning. Turning and turning and turning until the skin broke away and started to unravel like twine.

"Kate, stop!" A voice called and each note trembled out. Pounding footsteps skidded to a stop as the brunette turned to look at who spoke. Her eyebrows furrowed, lips slanting down slightly as she examined the unfamiliar man. His spiked hair was painted with a red mosaic and framed his long face. A pair of russet eyes burned into her, so wide and so innocent. "This isn't you! Look around, this isn't something you'd do, is it?"

The brunette scratched just beneath one of her short pigtails. She feigned a gaze around to the battered field around her. The barren horizon was stained with the bleeding sunset, setting the world ablaze. A beautiful, pale corpse lied a few paces away. It had golden hair reflecting the light was knotted and gnarled down to their waist. Blood drooled from the body's throat and mingled with a matching red gem necklace.

The redhead took another step towards the woman, "Kate, please listen to me. I don't want to hurt you," the woman looked back with an ocean churning behind her blue eyes, "See? That's Rhythmi... She was your friend. And Starly, they were your friend too. Now, we can work this out, just..." he held his hands out as if he were talking down a rampaging pokémon. Hands extended out, palms facing the woman who merely cocked her head.

He was only maybe three feet away now. He took one more step, "Take my hand, Kate." His beautiful eyes were like jewels. They glistened with something the woman couldn't grasp. They were desperate, hopeful, begging. His bottom lip trembled. His fingers shook in the empty air between them.

The Brunette closed the distance with a slip of her step. Her hand met his, and for a moment the redhead smiled. His muscles relaxed as he began to open his arms, wanting to wrap the woman up. The man's intent was shattered though, as she wrenched him down.

Behind her eyes was nothing. Her face was glazed with calm as not a single muscle twitched into a smile nor a frown.

The woman leapt out at her victim. Her feet kicked their fiery head into the unforgiving earth. Her fingers lunged out and began to claw. She focused her eyes on the prey's back and growled something not quite human. The man behind her wailed, "Kate, please!" His voice broke with sobs, but the woman didn't care as she continued to scratch. Rip. Tear. Shred.

She wouldn't stop as the clothing fell away like air. Clumps of skin swelled under her nails as she continued to scratch. Blood bubbled up from the back she tore at, coating her hands. It was so warm, burning really. It boiled on her skin but it only fueled her onslaught. The red liquid gurgled and sputtered into the air. She was like a berserk Kabutops as she ripped away the man's muscles. It was like tearing through guitar strings. Soon, the pearly bone of a spine began to shine through.

The man's words were lost as he could only sob and scream. Not a single thing coherent fell from his lips as his life drained away. Every second drew out like an eternity. Bile rose in his throat as he stole a glance at the woman he once loved. She was obscured by the salty tears steaming his vision, but he knew. He knew the Kate he loved was gone.

The monster before him killed him in every way.

The woman cracked a smirk as the victim shrieked. Her fingers latched around the spine and with a great heave, muscles snapped away like fraying wires. Blood freckled against the woman's olive skin. Little bits of the liquid hooked on her bottom lip and she quickly licked it off with a swipe of her tongue. The metallic flavor danced in her mouth for a moment before she spat onto the dirt beneath her.

The body beneath her writhed, seized, screamed into a world that would not respond nor answer its plea. The woman continued to laugh as her claws broke apart each disc with a pop. She fashioned them between each of her fingers and continued to cut the man. She threw the man onto his ravaged back and earned a new sweet scream as dirt filled the victim's wounds. The bones dug into their own body, gutting through his stomach and pulling out tender pink intestines to gurgle out bile onto the ground.

She relished in each tortured scream. Chills ran down her spine as she continued to tug at his insides. The skeletal claws she created ripped open at his breastbone and she dropped the spine to cut into his heart. She danced her fingers through his ribs, clawing at his lungs as his chest was torn open for the entire world to see. His struggled gasps resembled a Magikarp on land.  Even though the air was all around, the man couldn't catch his breath. It gave the brunette a good laugh. He so easily let her in.

He was so pathetic.

Soon, the woman's victim slowed. His shambling becoming still as his empty amber eyes drifted away. The woman leaned down so she was nose to nose with the man. Her breath felt warm, puffing out a small cloud of mist as the chilly evening set in. The brunette's fingers caressed over the man's paper-like skin. Her grime-encrusted nails tracing over his cheek. She never broke eye contact and saw her own reflection in his glazed eyes.

"Who are you?"