"Oh God, how can ANYTHING live out here!?" Tyler said that as he collapsed under the shade of a small tree, the Lucario most certainly not equipped for the environment he was currently in! He and his friend Alexander were currently slumming it out in a flat, sandy desert, the hot wind whipping sand into the two friends’ eyes with only the flat tops of mesas off in the distance as they searched for a strange, elusive, enticing creature...well, Alexander was really the one searching for it! Tyler had mostly just come along for the ride, to enjoy the sights and sounds of a place he had really only seen in pictures beforehand...though, in this sweaty, exhausted moment, the Lucario was regretting pretty much every choice he had ever made! Alexander stood over his friend to give the Lucario a little bit of extra shade while he looked over the map that was in his hands...well, more accurately, his claws. Alexander was a dinosaur, and that meant he was naturally a bit more resilient to environments like this then his friend. The Spinosaurus-looking dino was strapped up with all sorts of bags and devices, and even with that weight, he was faring way better than Tyler...at least all those bags were full of water to help the Pokemon out! "We're almost there, Tyler. According to my map, there's a cave right around the bend that we can use as a temporary base..." Alexander said, offering the Lucario a canteen which he very quickly accepted. The two of them had already tried to set up a camp earlier in the day, but the high winds and flat landscapes completely destroyed their ramshackle tent in a matter of minutes. The cave that Alexander was referring to was probably their last chance to set up any sort of semi-permanent camp… But, why were these two friends out here in this inhospitable environment in the first place? Tyler had just decided to tag along with his friend, but Alexander had a very specific reason. The dinosaur was hunting down a mythical, almost cryptid-like creature that was rumored to roam the mesas and steppes of this dusty, deserted area...a creature known as Mefudoka. Mefudoka was a subset of a species of creatures known as Shadows: strange, wispy creatures that could move and leap out of the shadows as if they were portals to another dimension. And Mefudoka, as a so-called Shadow Captain, was said to be able to control these Shadows...though, he himself was a bit too large and round to effortlessly flow through the darkness like they could. That was why he commanded them, after all. Let them do his dirty work, while he sat back and reaped the benefits! The two friends didn't know much of this information, though. They only knew that there was a strange, shadowy creature that had been sighted out in this area a few times! Tyler was proving to be a bit too out of it to trek deeper into the desert himself, so Alexander ended up carrying the smaller Lucario on his back as they trotted down the worn-out trail that was represented on the dinosaur's ragged map. "I-I think I see the cave! Just around this corner…" Alexander said, craning his neck around to check on Tyler as a small, rocky outcropping began to peek over the horizon. "Oh, thank goodness…" the Lucario commented as he lolled his head back to take a look, sipping from the canteen Alexander had given him as he saw the sweet, sweet relief of shade inside the dark void that was the mouth of the cave! The two friends quickly made their way over, Tyler almost instantly regaining some strength as his paws touched the cold rock inside. "Geez. I forgot what it felt like to not have your face constantly blasted by sand…" Alexander nervously chuckled a little bit as he let Tyler down from his back. "Haha, yeah...at least the landscapes were pretty nice, huh?" he joked, starting to feel a bit bad about bringing the Pokemon out here in the first place...even he couldn't have predicted how bad the weather would be, though! So, at least, now they were in a place where they can set up and rest a little bit, and that's exactly what Alexander did. They didn't have any kind of real shelter, but they still had plenty of supplies and amenities to make this cave somewhat of a home for the time being. Including, thankfully, a few lights to make the deeper parts of the cave a little less unknown and freaky… As soon as Alexander flipped on the lantern he brought, though, it was suddenly made aware to the dinosaur that the cave was far, far deeper than he thought. It was the main area near the mouth of the cave where the two of them had set up shop, but in the back, there was a tunnel that seemed to go on for days and days. It instantly called out to Alexander, speaking to his sense of curiosity but also, to a fear. So deep, so dark...where did it lead to? What could be in it? Even as the dinosaur was setting up the little camp they were making in the mouth of the cave, just knowing there was a tunnel back there was a bit unnerving. It felt like there was something watching him from the darkness...something, or someone, perhaps. "H-hey, Tyler...do you ever feel like, there's someone watching you?" the dinosaur eventually worked up the courage to ask; despite being the one who made his way out here to search for Mefudoka, the dinosaur was honestly a bit of a scaredy cat! That was another reason he brought Tyler; the Lucario was a lot stronger and a lot more brave than he was, and he thought that the Pokemon might motivate him to be a bit more bold in situations like this. And, well...it wasn't working. "Uh...I mean, yeah, sometimes, I guess. Usually when there's someone staring at me. Why?" the Lucario responded. He had been too busy regaining his strength to even realize that there was a tunnel at the back of the cave, honestly, so he didn't understand a lick of what his friend was talking about. "W-well, I found this tunnel at the back of the cave, and it looks…*really* deep. And spooky. It's freaking me out a bit, honestly…" "Well, it is a pretty big cave, y'know? There’s gonna be a deeper section, but I'm pretty sure it's fine. I can check it out for you, if you want, though, I suppose." The Lucario buried the lede a bit in what he was saying. The truth was, his ears had perked up when he heard there was a deeper section of the cave, and he was kind of curious to explore it himself! There could be some really cool stuff back there, honestly. Big caverns, mountainous stalactites, perhaps even that weird Shadow thing that his friend was looking for! "Oh, geez, really? All right, but you should really take these." Alexander dug around in one of the bags still at his sides for a moment, before pulling out an extra lantern, as well as a walkie-talkie. "Make sure to keep in touch, okay?" the dinosaur said before handing both of them to Tyler, the Lucario just a little bit bemused by how careful his friend was being! "Uh, all right. I'll be fine, though, don't worry about me!" he responded, clicking on the lantern before slipping the handset into his other pocket. "You keep setting up the campsite, okay? Maybe if the dust storm clears we can get a move-on or something…" That was the last thing Tyler said before he turned around and started to slip into the void of darkness at the end of the cave, his lantern illuminating the deeper sections and showing Alexander just how long the tunnel was as the Lucario continued to walk. He went on for a good minute or so, before turning a corner and disappearing from the dinosaur’s sight. Tyler had only taken a few steps around that bend in the cave before he heard a loud buzzing sound coming from the walkie-talkie he had just acquired. "Tyler! Do you copy?" came the familiar voice of Alexander, though it was heavily distorted and bitcrushed when coming out of the handset’s tiny speakers. Tyler rolled his eyes for a moment before taking the thing out of his pocket. "...yes, Alexander, I can hear you. We just saw each other, do you really think it's necessary to…" "OkayjusttestingBYE!" Alexander interjected quickly, before Tyler heard a loud click as the line went dead...whatever. they could have probably done that before Tyler had decided to leave, but it wasn't really a big deal. The Lucario just kept his lantern firm in his paw as he made his way through various twists and turns...even though this tunnel was fairly large and seemingly very long, there wasn't much of actual interest to the Lucario. A bunch of rocks, mostly. No secret underground lakes, or impossibly deep chasms, or slumbering bears for the Lucario to poke… In fact, there was really only one thing of interest in this cave. And it was *very* interested in the two intruders who had set up shop at the mouth of it. It had been watching them from the shadows since they had arrived; it had seen them, and more importantly, it had smelled them. And it was hungry. Perhaps it was fate that led the two adventurers to settle in the very cave of the creature that they were hunting down, ostensibly as a respite from the hunt...but, no matter. Mefudoka had found them. Once Tyler had broken away from his friend and ventured deeper into the cave, the shadow captain jumped on his scent...above the cliffs that Tyler unwittingly walked under, just behind the Lucario as he turned around a bend in the cave, or even just standing barely out of the range of the Pokemon's lantern. And then, as the Lucario got yet another call from his worried friend, Mefudoka saw his chance. "N-no, I haven't seen anything yet. It's a whole lot of nothing. And I would really appreciate it if you didn't call me every 5 seconds-" *BWOMPH* With how focused he was on his little chat with Alexander, Tyler hadn't noticed that he was walking right into a cave wall! The impact knocked him fiercely back onto his rear end, slamming down onto the cave floor with a very painful thump as the walkie-talkie in his hand clattered to the floor. "Tyler? Tyler? What was that noise?" came Alexander's voice from a few inches away, even more fuzzy and broken up than it usually was…something probably broke in the two ft fall that it took, ugh. As Tyler collected his bearings, he started to realize something a bit strange about the impact. The wall he ran into, it wasn't...really that hard, honestly. It more felt like he had just run into a trampoline or something, honestly, especially from how much running into it pushed him back! On top of that, it almost felt like there was some weird, wet substance that was dripping from his body...what on earth? The Lucario had managed to get back to his knees when he suddenly heard a noise coming from in front of him. Deep, crass, rumbling...it was happening consistently every second or so. In fact, that pattern, it almost reminded Tyler of...laughter? Was someone laughing? Was *he* laughing? The Lucario managed to keep a grip on his lantern, at least, so he brought the thing up towards his chest to get a better look at what was in front of him… Huge. Round. Corpulent. Black as the night, with deep, green eyes and a mouthful of teeth that glinted in the light of his lantern. What he had bumped into was not a wall, but a creature. And what he had bumped into was not only a creature, but the powerful, stout Mefudoka himself. And it was lunch time. The bulky, gluttonous shadow just continued to guffaw as Tyler floundered about on the cave floor, the thick goo stuck to his body making it difficult for the Lucario to move and fight back. "What the…? God-fuck, alright, I don't know what the hell this stuff is, or what you are, but let's see how you deal with this…" Tyler said, ripping his arms off of the ground as his entire body started to glow blue with the power of aura. That glow was starting to centralize into the hands that Tyler was holding together, a blue orb of energy growing out of thin air that quickly rivaled the size of his whole head! With a vicious growl, Tyler shoved his clasped hands forwards towards the shadow captain, the ball of sizzling blue energy rushing towards Mefudoka with the full power of an Aura Sphere, the Lucario's signature attack. Tyler expected there to be a deafening explosion of impact as his Aura Sphere hit the shadow captain, but...that wasn't what happened. In fact, the blue orb didn't even cut off Mefudoka's laughter as it splattered right against the creature’s big, jiggling belly, some of the aura being seemingly absorbed into his gooey mass and the rest harmlessly dissipating into the cave surrounding the two of them. "TYLER! I'm coming to look for you!" the walkie-talkie to his right screeched, the noise of Tyler's Aura Sphere and the cackling of the shadow captain all that Alexander was able to hear on his end for the past minute or so. "How the…" was all that Tyler could exclaim, before he was suddenly cut off. Not by Mefudoka attacking him, but by the shadow captain reaching out one of his arms towards the walkie-talkie that he had seemingly been ignoring up until now. It wasn't an ordinary reach, though. The arm seemed to extend far beyond its original size, stretching and squelching down towards the walkie-talkie before his "hand" splattered against the cave floor, the impact causing a few more drops of goo to end up matting Tyler's fur. Another sloppy, gooey noise accompanied that arm pulling itself off the ground, returning to Mefudoka and dangling the damaged walkie-talkie above his head. And, for a brief moment, that incessant laughter ceased, but only because the shadow captain opened his mouth wide, dropped the still buzzing radio into his gaping, goopy maw… And bit down with a deafening *crunch*. The beast chewed and gnoshed on the broken handset like a piece of candy, bits of circuitry and springs flying every which way as Mefudoka noisily chowed down, barely stopping his belly laughter before tipping his head back and swallowing down the broken mess of wires and circuit boards. The sight was enough to throw Tyler into a bit of shock, especially as his friend's voice was smashed to nothingness...and, it was that bit of hesitation that allowed Mefudoka to start on his real appetizer. His goopy arm extended out once more, a flood of darkness rushing right towards the Pokemon as he yelled for help and desperately tried to scrabble backwards on the cave floor...there wasn't much he could do, though. The surge of black goo quickly swallowed up most of his body, the shadow captain yanking him off the ground and bringing the squirming, subdued Lucario right up to his salivating maw. In the deep, unending darkness, Tyler couldn't even tell when he went from being in Mefudoka’s grasp to being shoved inside of his mouth. Constant gooeyness, warmth, and wetness surrounded him at all angles, and he was starting to feel a bit dizzy from all this constant movement in the dark. Mefudoka's tongue undulated fiercely underneath the Lucario's body as he gave his appetizer a good tasting, a deep rumble of satisfaction causing a miniature earthquake inside the shadow captain's malleable body...his taste was agreeable, to be sure, but the shadow was hungry! He could lick the rest of Tyler's flavor off of his lips later. A pouch-like opening near the bottom of the beast's throat filled up as he tipped his head back and took a long, dominant *GUULLLllrrk~*, pulling the second half of the Lucario's body into his mouth and sending Tyler sliding down a tunnel of slick, hungry flesh… The beast's thick, black lips slipped over the tips of Tyler's toes a few moments later, Mefudoka's throat expanding once more as he threw his head back to finish off the Pokemon. Rivulets of drool oozed out from between the cracks of the creature's jagged teeth as he swallowed one more time...and, just like that, Tyler was gone. Swallowed into the dark void of the cave, and then literally swallowed by darkness. Mefudoka's deeply green, frog-like eyes opened once more as he felt the Pokemon sinking into his gut, the creature slurping along his lips to get some of that flavor that he missed earlier. Tyler yelled into the void as he was unceremoniously crammed down the monster’s insatiable gullet, tight waves of peristalsis quickly shoving and pushing against him from all sides until one last, overwhelming spasm of thick muscle shoved the Pokemon's entire body out into the fat potbelly that had absorbed his blow so easily just a minute or two ago...the pokémon wasn't even able to write himself inside of this constantly shifting, slimy, smelly chamber before he heard that sinister laughter once more, only this time, surrounding him on all sides and just rubbing in how fucked he was right now… The beast laughed it up all the way down the cave hallway, rubbing and slapping at his gut every now and again and hearing it bounce and wiggle and churn around the meal inside. "Tasty dumb dog try steal my cave…" Mefudoka eventually said, the fact that he could speak kind of jolting Tyler a bit and throwing him into another bout of squirming, even as the stomach walls continued to squeeze inward and suppress any real movements that he could make. "Urgh...let me out of here, you fat oaf!" the Pokemon shouted as he fired off Force Palm after Force Palm against the inky-black belly walls, with really no discernible effect on Mefudoka...and, the Lucario had soon realized that it hadn't been very long since the beast had swallowed down his walkie talkie, yet there were absolutely no remnants of it that he could feel inside...oh no. Was that a preview of what was going to happen to him? "Mmmh. Good appetizer-dog." Mefudoka teased as he continued to aimlessly wander throughout the cave, giving his appetizer a bit of time to digest while he worked on finding the main course. "Dum-dum fight back...dum-dum get ate.~" he continued, thumping at his belly as Tyler continued to wiggle and squirm underneath the dark roundness, though his strength had already been sapped quite a bit and it was starting to become difficult to move among the thick stomach sludge. "Doggy-meal say where friend is…" Alexander, meanwhile, was in the middle of a panic attack. Ever since he had lost contact with Tyler, the dinosaur had been pacing the floor of the cave, trying to work up the courage to chase after the Lucario. The dust storm outside was starting to clear, but...he couldn't just leave his friend like this! He had to do something, something besides pacing back and forth along the side of the campsite… And then, a strange scent started to drift into the dinosaur's nostrils. It was strange, but at the same time, slightly familiar...was that Tyler? It was coming from a little deeper into the cave...maybe he was coming back! Coming back from...whatever the hell he had been up to, but that didn't matter. He needed to go find him, and fast! The dinosaur excitedly clipped a lantern onto one of the saddlebags he was still wearing before turning tail and heading down the tunnel, hoping to be reunited with his friend. But he didn't make it very far. He was only a few feet down that dark hallway before he started to hear something strange. It sounded like...running water…? No, not quite, but it was wet and bubbly...there had to be some kind of pond or pool around here somewhere. Perhaps he could explore it later with Tyler. Speaking of Tyler, though, he was having a bit of trouble following the smell he had noticed earlier. It was almost like it faded, or...had changed, maybe? Okay, now he wasn't so confident about this, that doubt was starting to creep back into his mind - *BWWWwwwUUUuuuurrrppphhh~* A blast of hot, incredibly-loud air came billowing out of the darkness right towards Alexander, forcing him to step back as his face was speckled by a few splats of what felt like warm water. "Agh! What the hell…" the dinosaur said, reaching for the lantern at his side to get a better view of what was ahead of him...and, oh boy, was it a sight. Looming over him was what the dino immediately recognized as Mefudoka himself, the beast even rounder and fatter than he had seen in all the many reference materials he spent hours combing through. Oh gosh, it was really him. And...was that a bit of wiggling in that belly? No matter. He had found exactly what he came all the way out here for! And he had a whole day to study the beast, as well… "Are you friend?" the beast asked simply, his black gut letting out a deep *wwRRRrrrrbbblll…* before another wet belch erupted out of his mouth and rained down on the curious dinosaur...usually, people ran away from Mefudoka as soon as they saw him, so the fact that this dinosaur was almost happy to see him kind of threw the beast off. "...oops. Appetizer dog gone." he said a few seconds after smacking his lips, reaching down to rub at his gut as it turned and bubbled quietly. It had been a good half hour since he swallowed down the Lucario, and his digestive system worked quickly...so, in a sense, Alexander had found his friend. It was just that he was currently being processed into belly and butt pudge! Alexander was so enamored with the sight of the creature he had spent so long trying to find that he didn't even process that Mefudoka was actually talking to him for a few seconds "U...uh...yes! I-I am friend. Can I...touch your belly, maybe? OhgoshIcantbelieveitsreallyyou…" the dinosaur eventually blabbered, reaching out with a claw and pointing at the beast's black gut to make certain that Mefudoka understood what he was asking. The big oaf sort of tilted his head to the side at first, but as Alexander started to get closer, he began to sort of get the gist of what Alexander was asking for. He grunted and slowly nodded his head in assent, and Alexander immediately stepped on the gas to get prime access to that belly! - The dinosaur reached out both of his forearms as wide as they could go, stepping forward and wrapping them firmly around the beast's jiggly, grumbly belly...and, mmh, it was just as good as all the research suggested it would be! Warm, soft, goopy...some of that stuff was definitely going to cling to the dinosaur's body, but Alexander didn't care. In fact, the dino was honestly probably going to consider that a bonus! Whatever the beast had eaten earlier was just sloshy, bubbly goo at this point, and as the dinosaur tilted his head to the side so that he could press his ear hole right up against it...ohhHHHhhh, yes! God, so wet and squelchy and burbly; the chorus of sloppy noises that was an absolute delight to Alexander's ears. "Mmh...you're...you're really freaking soft, honestly…" Alexander mumbled into Mefudoka's belly as he continued to rub and indulge in that soft gut, unknowing or uncaring of the fact that his friend was currently being put to use plumping it out even further! Mefudoka was still more than a bit confused about Alexander's enamored state, but, if he liked his belly so much...well, he would absolutely love being a part of it, right? He was planning to make Alexander the main course from the start, anyway, and not having to expend some of that energy chasing the dinosaur down was perfect, really. "Thank you...but dinner time, food-friend." Mefudoka said as he looked down at Alexander, the beast reaching out with both hands and starting to pick up his meal and heft him up into the air. There were no gooey tendrils or subduing hands, just a fat cryptid picking up a fan and starting to show him exactly where good fans like him would end up! The dinosaur was a bit confused at first, fumbling around in the darkness before he saw - well, mostly felt - Mefudoka's cavernous maw opening in front of him, the beast’s slimy tongue shooting out of its home and SLURPing right along Alexander's snout; letting the dinosaur know exactly what was about to happen to him… And, really, that tongue slurp flustered the dinosaur so much that he ended up lost in his own mind while Mefudoka just started to chow down without hesitation. The dino really couldn't believe this was happening, to him, right now, and all the self-preservation instincts that were screaming at him to get away were just completely drowned out by the arousal that was starting to shoot through his body as he felt Mefudoka handling him so casually; the monster putting both hands underneath Alexander's tail and shoving him up inside mercilessly...like a meal. Because, at this point, he was one! The wet slurping noises, that fat tongue rubbing and lathering his underbelly up with sticky saliva as the beast hungrily shoved him right to the back of his throat...oh, it was a dream! He was actually going to be able to get inside that gut that he loved so much, spent so much time admiring and thinking about… The dino still yelped as he felt the world around him tipping forward, Mefudoka taking a powerful *glRRRrnk* that pulled a good half of his meal’s body into his gullet! Mefudoka threw his head back a few more times, loudly *gluck* and *GLNK* ing at his meal until all that was left was a squirmy throat bulge and a long, striped tail casually sticking out of the creature’s mouth. Mefudoka pursed his lips around the base of that thick, tasty tail, sucking inward until the last of it disappeared inside of his mouth with a lovely, loud *shhLRRrrrp~*! That slurp ended up swallowing down the last of Alexander as well, the dinosaur being pushed right through the opening to Mefudoka's stomach and slamming against the slimy walls in the pit of the beast's belly in one quick, decisive movement. That thick tail filtered inside not too long afterwards, forcing Alexander to curl up into a ball as the tight stomach walls around him already started to squeeze and press inward on him from every side, emphasizing just how trapped he was inside of Mefudoka as the big beast rubbed and slapped at his fat, satiated belly. Thankfully for Alexander, Tyler was already digested by the time he arrived, converted into sentient-enough fat that was blushing and jiggling around on Mefudoka's waistline as he gobbled up his friend in just a few gulps! "Mmh...you like Mefudoka? Then you will look good on Mefudoka gut…" the brute teased as he smacked his lips a few times, stroking both hands over his engorged stomach as he waddled his way towards the mouth of the cave, finding the little makeshift camp that his two meals had set up earlier...seemed like a good place to rest and digest for the time being! Mefudoka strode over to a big supply bag and just, sat right down on it, using it as little more than a tiny bean bag while he continued to grope and caress his gurgling, slightly-wiggling tank of a gut… All that movement quickly kicked up a little something inside of his guts, though! Alexander felt the belly squeeze so tight around him for a moment until something rushed up out of the entrance to the belly. A few seconds later, an ear-blasting *UUuuooOORRrrppp* rumbled like thunder around Alexander, shaking the stomach walls and coating even more of his body in thick, tingly slime… That belch came with a little bit more than just air, though. Something hard rushed out of Mefudoka's mouth on that wave of gas, splattering right onto his fat belly once gravity got involved! The beast was a bit confused at first, before he looked down and saw that it was one of those spikes that were on that weird dog's hands…ooh, perfect! He was looking for a toothpick anyway. There was this little bit of blue fur that had been stuck between two of his teeth for like, an hour at this point, and it was really bothering him… Mefudoka casually picked and jabbed at his teeth for a few seconds with the Lucario's spike, his other hand continuing to massage and press at his belly to help it quickly work down the dinosaur inside...and it was already doing quite a good job, honestly! Alexander was getting pretty naughty in there, a powerful, tingling pleasure spreading throughout his body as the beast's black gut walls continued to squeeze inward and encroach on what little space there was left inside. The dinosaur still had a few reservations about giving himself up to Mefudoka like this, but, well...at this point, it was pretty far past the time for actions outside of digesting nice and pleasant-like for the big, beefy shadow captain. "Mmh...your friend make good toothpick." Mefudoka said to his belly as it grumbled and sloshed around, Alexander not really in the position or consistency to respond to the beast's teasing at this point…! Speaking of digestion, Mefudoka was feeling something come up again. Another loud, proud *BWWWwwoooOOOrrrcchhh* later, and a piece of the shirt Alexander was wearing flew out of Mefudoka’s mouth and splattered to the floor...yet again, perfect timing! He needed a napkin too. Not only did those two go down so easy, but they left behind such wonderful amenities for the beast...Mefudoka leaned over and grabbed the slimy "napkin" off of the cave floor, pat-patting his mouth with it as he casually walked out of the cave, more than pleased with the selection of treats that had wandered into his territory today...