((Author's Commentary: I decided to make another Pokemorph fic in the tradition of Tears of Oni. Like ToO this is based on another story but I breathe my own life into it. I posted this once before under the translated title "Demon Deathchase" but I decided that that sounded too much like a bad action flick. There will be ballads, some that I made up, others that are modified versions of actual ballads from Victorian England. I hope you all enjoy the story. Let's see if you can figure out what it's a crossover of, shall we? I took a lot of creative liberties with this one...Consider the world an alternate reality of Neo Manhattan.))

ACT I

"Crickets are chirpin', the water is high
There's a soft cotton dress on the line hangin' dry
The window's wide open, African trees
Bent over backwards from a hurricane breeze
Not a word of goodbye, not even a note
She'd gone with the man in the long black coat

Somebody seen him hangin' around
At the old dance hall on the outskirts of town
He looked into her eyes when she stopped him to ask
If he wanted to dance, he had a face like a mask
Somebody said from the Bible he'd quote
There was dust on the man in the long black coat

Preacher was a-talkin', there's a sermon he gave
He said every man's conscience is vile and depraved
You cannot depend on it to be your guide
When it's you who must keep it satisfied
It ain't easy to swallow, it sticks in the throat
She gave her heart to the man in the long black coat

There are no mistakes in life, some people say
And it's true sometimes, you can see it that way
But people don't live or die, people just float
She went with the man in the long black coat

There's smoke on the water, it's been there since June
Treetrunks uprooted 'neath the high crescent moon
Feel the pulse and vibration and the rumblin' force
Somebody is out there beating on a dead horse
She never said nothin', there was nothin' she wrote
She'd gone with the man in the long black coat "
~Bob Dylan


Prologue~The Festival of the Hunt, Tsepesh Village, Year of the Deep Snow, 19082 A.D.

“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
~ E.L. (Edgar Lawrence) Doctorow




Neo Gaia was filled with bright colors and life. It was a Utopia. Every person in Neo Gaia lived in perfect harmony and bliss. But with bliss came ignorance. Not a person in Gaia, save for a few known as the Keepers, were truly aware of their ancient past.

It had started in the Years of M'an which ended in 1999 A.D. with the birth of the beast called Myutsuu and the start of the Nuclear War. For years, M'an had captured the elemental beasts called "Pocket Monsters" and trained and battled them for sport. They failed to note that "Pocket Monsters" had been around long before them....and would continue to be around long after. Myutsuu was an abomination. He was a clone of Myu who was the supposed creator of the world. He could not understand his purpose so he cloned Pocket Monsters and set them against M'an. He desired to create his own world. M'ankind could not withstand the incredible power of Myutsuu's psychic ability. In desperation, the forces of M'an counter attacked with nuclear weapons and devastated the planet. M'an had brought about its own extinction...

But the Pocket Monsters started to react to the radiation. They became more and more like M'an with each passing year and they started to spread. These freaks of Evolution eventually dominated the world using their knowledge of technology, which they inherited from M'an. They called themselves "The Folk".


The Folk became widespread and multiplied swiftly, but they relied upon machines to the point that they started to become lazy. Eventually, they became degenerate and more barbarous. When they reached the level equal to M'an's Middle Ages around 3000 A.D. a new race rose from the sleeping earth. They were powerful and graceful; they were fast and deadly. They were Vampires.

Any species of Folk could become a Vampire....But the very first Vampire was Myutsuu himself. He had been buried by the nuclear waste and sunk into the sea. When he broke surface, the sun burned his eyes and he fled into the caves near the fishing villages only to come out at night. This behavior led to the weakness of the other Vampires he created. No Vampire could survive in the sun, they loathed running water and they feared the sacred emblems of Myu. But, even despite these weaknesses, they conquered the world, declaring themselves the Nobility and the Folk submitted to them.

The Nobility held reign over Gaia for nearly 8000 years and spoke well of Myutsuu. Myutsuu had become a God in their eyes, a being called the Sacred Ancestor and Myutsuu had received a name. They called him the Impaler, the Merciless One. In the Vampiric language, he was called "Dracula". The Nobility erected a city in his honor known only as the Capital. There, they genetically engineered creatures to serve them and created the Weather Controllers, spires that regulated the global climate and blocked out the sun. Finally, the Folk gathered and overthrew the Nobility in a coup called the Great Rebellion. The surviving Nobles and their mutant creations fled into the Frontier where they continued to attack the Folk. These attacks prompted the folk to organize the Hunter class. This class was popular for years and was eventually broken down into specialty sub classes such as The Werewolf Hunters, The Spirit Hunters, The Lesser Dragon Hunters and the elite Vampire Hunters.

It was the Vampire Hunters who paved the way to victory for the Folk. After thousands of years of struggling, the last of the Nobility perished and Gaia belonged to the Folk once more.

In a misguided attempt to prevent the Dark Ages from ever returning, the Folk burned every last historical reference and refused to address the past ever again. While the ruins and architecture of the Ancients and the Nobility were left standing, very few people could recall their purposes.

...~...

Tsepesh had been founded in the Dark Ages. It lay at the bottom of a hill upon which stood the ruins of an ancient castle. Such close contact with the old made Tsepesh one of the few Neo Gaian cities that had familiarity with the past, and even honored the past.

Every year for as long as any Tsepeshian could remember the village held the Festival of the Hunt. Big game hunters from all over Neo Gaia would gather and hunt large beasts released into the streets by the town officials.

But the Festival did not draw the attention of the hunters alone. It also drew in the Keepers who held their hidden temple in Capital City. This secret organization of Eevees and Eeveelutions had existed for millennia and based itself around truth. The Keepers had full knowledge of the Dark Ages for they had saved their books. They could list every Vampire in the Nobility and every Hunter Class and every Hunter. They knew that the Festival had started here in Tsepesh to commemorate the victims of Vampires who could move in daylight. They knew who the Nameless God prayed to before the Hunt was and they knew who it was that was portrayed as a statue in Town Square. In fact, the statue was a depiction of the Nameless God.

Today was the first day that Fay'Lynne, an Espeon acolyte of the Keepers, had ever attended the Festival. It was a big day in her training. Accompanying her was the Vaporeon, Loremaster Kendaric. The pair stood in the middle of the crowd that gathered on the bridge over Town Square, watching the opening ceremonies. Both were dressed in black robes and not a single person saw them. Keepers who did not wish to be seen, never were.

Fay’Lynne was fascinated with everything. The bright colors, the bustle of the crowds...But the marble statue in the Square drew her attention more than anything else. It portrayed an elegantly built Myutsuu with a wide brimmed traveler’s hat and long hair. His mouth was open, displaying a pair of sharp fangs and clutched tightly in one hand was a long sword that must have been over Fay’Lynne’s body length. The most curious thing about the statue was that his left hand was raised and, in the palm of that hand, was a perfectly sculpted face. The statue was decorated in gold and jewels that had been strewn over it as part of the ceremony. Once upon a time, this man had been hero. He had been a giant among men, a noble fighter. But, as with so many figures, history had swallowed him whole. He was simply...the Nameless God. A deity worshipped as a God of plenty in Tsepesh Village but otherwise forgotten. A victim of the passing of ages.

“Look now,” said Kendaric and he nodded towards a lone shape making its way to the podium before the statue. She was a Flareon with golden hair and wide blue eyes.

“Who is she?” Fay’Lynne squeaked.

“Eleanore Lang, she is a hunter from the Werewolf Frontier Sector. Her ancestors worked the plantations of the Noble that used to live there. Do you remember who that Noble was?”

The Espeon frowned and thought hard. “Count Magnus Lee?”

When this failed to elicit a response she tried again, “Baron Byron Balarge?’

Kendaric gave her a sideways glance. “Right the first time. I am glad to see you have been studying. Now, watch...”

Eleanore Lang leaned into the microphone. “Welcome, hunters of Neo Gaia!”

This was answered by a loud cheer and the assembled Folk brandished their weapons of choice which ranged from guns to spears, from crossbows to warhammers.

“We are gathered here today to celebrate what might be the seven thousandth anniversary of the Festival of the Hunt. Let us begin with our prayers.”

Almost instantly, the people around Fay’Lynne fell to one knee. The two Keepers remained standing and were still unnoticed. Kendaric, however, had a somber look on his face and was holding a withered blue hand over his heart. The Espeon mimicked the gesture and blinked with confusion.

Once again, Lang spoke.

“Nameless Protector, Spirit Bright
The Blue Eyed Farthest Walker.
Your Hunters pray, in need they step
In need, but never in fear.

The Nameless God purged Tsepesh of the Evil-That-Moves-In-Daylight and saved the virtue of Leena, the founder of this Festival.

So sang the Dunpeal
Cursed the Nobility
Out-of-Sun they are forever
Servants of Shadow,
We made them Masters
But the True Folk are never vanquished.”

This was followed by the ritualistic response from the masses. Together, they cried out,

“Long may we reign
in majesty glorious,
ever victorious,
Myu save the Queen.”

Lang’s ears flopped back against her head in a most comical fashion and she clapped her hands. A pair of Machoke emerged from a nearby alley, dragging a huge cage. Sweat beaded their brows and they looked genuinely miserable, their muscles bulged from the strain of dragging the heavy piece of metal. Noises came from within the cage, howls and cries of various wild beasts.

Lang hopped from the podium and opened the cage door. A flood creatures poured into the street, plowing over some hunters and being pursued by others. The Festival had begun. The audience ran along the bridge, wanting to see all of the action. Fay’Lynne and Kendaric descended the stairs into Town Square and stood in front of the statue of the Nameless God. By this time, the Square was already empty, the crowd having had followed the hunters.

“It’s a beautiful piece of art,” said Fay’Lynne.

Kendaric nodded, “Very much worn away now, though. I wonder what it looked like when it was built?”

Fay’Lynne kicked a pebble into a nearby gutter. “Kendaric...who was the Nameless God?”

The old Vaporeon arched his brow at this question. “Are you familiar with the Cyclical Myths?”

The acolyte shrugged her slender shoulders. “The stories of how the Nobility fell and we arose again just as M’an did before us. I haven’t read any of them...I’m still reading about the rise of the Nobility and the division of Capital City.”

“The Cyclical Myths,” said Kendaric, “are vital to our understanding of our heritage. The Nameless God was the hero of the Cyclical Myths.....Only, of course, in the Myths he was no God. He was simply a Myutsuu...The child of the Impaler, a direct descendant of the Sacred Ancestor of the Nobility. He was hated by the Folk for his Vampiric blood and he was hated by the Nobles for he had a mortal half. Not a Myutsuu, not a Vampire, all he knew was what he was not.”

Kendaric wrapped his fingers around his oaken staff and smiled at Fay’Lynne from under his hood. “And he had a name. He was called Dyxsil'rav'dmenkhsxyl. Translated out of the Vampiric Language, his name meant ‘The Bonny Swan’”

Fay’Lynne was momentarily distracted, focusing her attention on a bug that had landed on her tail. Kendaric continued, “Of course ‘Dyxsil'rav'dmenkhsxyl’ is such a fuss to pronounce that he and those around him called him ‘D’”

Fay’Lynne swatted at her tail and giggled as the bug flew off in search of a less squirmy perch.

“There are thirteen Cyclical Myths,” said Kendaric. “I think that today you should learn one of them.”

“Story time!” Fay’Lynne squealed. “I love stories! I want to hear one with lots of action and romance and people with cyborg horses!”

“You just described every Cyclical Myth,” the old Vaporeon sat on the base structure of the statue. “I will share with you the story called ‘Yousatsukou’, the Demon Deathchase.”

Fay’Lynne crawled over to Kendaric and kneeled in front of him, smiling.

“As with all great stories, ours begins with a simple ballad:

The Vampire Lord came over the hill
Down through the valley so shady,
He whistled and he sang till the greenwoods rang
And he won the heart of a lady.
A ley lu, a ley lu, a ley
A ley lu a lee ley ee
He whistled and he sang till the greenwoods rang
And he won the heart of a lady.

She left her father's castle gate,
She left her own fond lover
She left her servants and her estate to follow the Vampire rover

A ley lu, a ley lu, a ley
A ley lu a lee ley ee
He whistled and he sang till the greenwoods rang
And he won the heart of a lady.

The Hunter saddled his cyborg steed
And roamed the valleys all over,
He sought the woman at great speed
And the whistling Vampire rover.

A ley lu, a ley lu, a ley
A ley lu a lee ley ee
He whistled and he sang till the greenwoods rang
And he won the heart of a lady.

He came at last to a mansion fine
Down by the river Glady,
And there was music and there was wine
For the Vampire and his lady.

A ley lu, a ley lu, a ley
A ley lu a lee ley ee
He whistled and he sang till the greenwoods rang
And he won the heart of a lady.

He is no Vampire, my Hunter, she cried
But lord of these lands all over
And I will stay till my dying day
With my whistling Vampire rover!

A ley lu, a ley lu, a ley
A ley lu a lee ley ee
He whistled and he sang till the greenwoods rang
And he won the heart of a lady....”