The city was still and quiet.

Well, ‘still’ and ‘quiet’ were both relative terms. The sidewalks and streets were still bustles of activity, and cars still honked in the streets, and a few street performers either danced and sang to various types of music (and with varying degrees of talent). But, on the whole, there was not a whole lot going on. Which was just to be expected at 2:36 PM on a Thursday; it was simply not a time when a lot of things happened.

Which, of course, was why everyone noticed the shaking of the ground so suddenly.

It was a rhythmic tremor, which ruled out an earthquake, but it also kept repeating, which ruled out any sort of demolition as well. That left just one potential source for the shakes.

“Hey, down there!”

Yep, that confirmed it. Even before most people managed to look up and spot the absol towering over the buildings and flattening whole blocks with each colossal step, he had already announced himself.

And, strangely, most waved up at him in greeting, or at least acknowledgement.

There was no mad dash to flee, no mob of frightened and panicked people trying futilely to flee the titan; the only ones who seemed at all scared were a few people from out of town. And even they couldn’t do more than gawk around them at how blase the reaction of the locals remained.

“ “Sorry I’m a bit late,” “ the gargantuan quadruped continued finally. “The guy who was supposed to show up twisted his ankle when he tripped over a canyon.” He actually held up one of his paws as some of the locals started to express concern. “Don’t worry, Doc said he’d be on his feet again in a couple of weeks. I’ll bring him by on Saturday if you don’t believe me. But, until then, I’ll be handling the usual rampage duties here. We cool?”

Most of the locals either nodded or shrugged, a few dozen even called up with ‘Get Well Soon’ wishes to pass on the injured macro, but the general consensus remained the same: they didn’t mind a replacement.

The absol, for his part, just smiled down at them. “Great! Anyway, let’s get this show on the road!”

As the absol stomped down with the force of a localized earthquake, the locals took the time to explain a few things to the out-of-towners. There was a macro settlement not too far from the city. Only about the proportional size of a small town; and, while the ones who lived there were a nice lot, they all had the instinctual urge to smash up micro cities like this one.

It was a problem, but one they had recently had a breakthrough on.

Due to a few theoretical physicists on both sides of the size scale collaborating, an experimental technology had been developed, and they were in the process of getting it okayed by the governing bodies. It was essentially a forcefield that protected micros from all the usual hazards of a rampage: falling, debris, even the macro themselves. Essentially allowing macros to rampage at their heart’s content with only property damage to worry about. It also meant the city could save money on demolition crews by just allowing a macro to smash through the city every so often.

Needless to say, it was a lot to swallow. But seeing people climb out of the absol’s paw prints with their only markings coming from the dust and dirt was a pretty effective demonstration. And, before long, several stomped on outsiders admitted the whole thing was kinda fun in a weird way.

And the absol, for his part, just kept stomping away. He’d help clean up eventually, but he was simply having too much fun to stop right now.

Story by   NMR

One of a few picture of big pokémon drawn just before Christmas. Starting off with Absol, for NMR, as I love drawing him. based on the picture, he wrote a little short story.