Manhead's Missing: 1/1

  Jasper's black hair shimmered in the midday sun.  He had been out here for hours, melting in the summer heat.  What was he doing out here?  Oh right.  
  The grimmsnarl alter human had been passing through a small village to go pick up his helioptile from a nearby clinic.  The damn thing had raided a fruit orchard and gorged herself on spoiled fruit.  The vet had kept her overnight and gave her a clean bill of health by morning so Jasper was headed to go retrieve his dumb sugar-addicted lizard.  As he left the clinic, weighted pokeball in hand, he heard a woman whispering about something to her husband.  What did she say?  Sounded like she was talking about something called... Manhead.  Jasper approached the woman.

  "Excuse me, ma'am.  I'm new here, just passing through actually.  Did you say there's a pokemon called Manhead?" Jasper asked her.
She had nodded and sighed then responded, "It's been bothering us for about a week now.  We think it's a probopass but.. there's something wrong with it.  It's.. hairy."
"Like me?" he tilted his head slightly.
"No, no... You're a.. handsome sort of hairy.  This thing makes everyone uncomfortable.  It's so unsettling, with the way it sits by the village and stares at everyone.  Every day, when the sun is high, it shows up just out that way." she said, pointing down a nearby dirt road.
"Handsome?  Well, that's the first time I've heard that before.  Thank you.  Has anyone ever tried to confront this probopass?" he asked, smiling just a little.
"We're all too scared of it.  Maybe a little superstitious.  The way it stares at people..." she trailed off, staring down the dusty road.

  An hour later, Jasper had geared himself up with supplies and headed for the dusty road.  It didn't take long before he spotted someone who really shouldn't be out here in the hot summer sun.  Off about 200 paces was a lab technician.  A young woman in a lab coat that was covered in dust and mud and other debris.  She looked utterly defeated.  Jasper approached, waving to make it clear that he wasn't a pokemon coming to end her misery prematurely. 

  "Miss.  Are you okay?" he asked, once he was within earshot of the weathered woman.
  She perked her head up and slowly turned to face him as he grew closer.  
  She rasped out a few words, "You see a.. probopass? Around here??"
  "Here.  Drink some water.  I'm actually out here because I heard about your probopass.  The villagers call it Manhead." he replied, offering her a bottle of water.
  She took it and drank it quickly, wiping water off her mouth and rubbing it into her dry chapped hands.
  "It's not mine.  It belongs to the Adoption Center.  It broke out weeks ago and I've been trying to track it down.  I've tracked it to this field," she said, the water loosening her voice.
  "I'm not very suited to the hot sun but I'll try to help you find this thing.  Where do you think it-" Jasper was cut off by a nearby scream.  The probopass!  

  The two ran towards the scream and found a young man who had been roaming the field collecting wild herbs.  He had dropped a wicker basket full of flowers and leaves and seemed utterly terrified.  It only took a few sentences to understand that he had definitely seen "Manhead" and had watched it hover off into the vast grasslands beyond the brush he was foraging in.  Jasper and the lab technician both sighed deeply and took off walking.  They ended up spending hours just wandering and chasing any glimpse or clue they could find regarding the missing probopass.

  After around four hours of searching, the midday sun had barely moved in the sky.  Jasper was panting and exhausted and his cohort was practically dragging herself, step by step.  They had taken off in a random direction under the guidance of a wandering ranger they had passed who had clearly seen Manhead go that way.  Jasper was about to give up.  Clearly, this probopass had won its freedom fair and square.  Any pokemon that was this good at evading capture was worthy of going back to the wild to tell its tale to its fellow 'mons.  He turned to tell his cohort to turn around so they could start walking back.  He froze.  She froze at the sight of Jasper's green face going a pale pastel mint.  There it was.  It... had been following them.  It had been right behind them for.. minutes, hours?  Jasper had no idea how long it was just silently hovering behind them.  He just knew that he was staring at the most terrifying thing he had ever seen.
  
  Manhead was a towering creature.  It looked sort of like an actual human head with almost cartoon-like proportions.  It had a mustache, mutton chops, a tidy little hat, and the most uncannily fleshy skin.  It was a huge floating man's head.  Jasper realized that the local villagers hadn't just given it a clever nickname.  They had described it perfectly.  It stared down at the two, round glossy eyes fixated on Jasper in particular.  Its eyes looked like massive, wet marbles.  It inhaled, through the giant pink nose on its face, and seemed to be sniffing the air.  With a thud, it settled itself on the ground.  Jasper stared back at the thing for several minutes before he could finally move enough to take a step back.
  
  Jasper scoffed and placed a hand on his own chest.  His eyes began to dart over the bizarre pokemon, taking in its details.  It was so hairy.  That was definitely hair and not iron shavings like on its ancestral form.  As it studied him, he studied it back.  Behind him, the lab technician had fainted from a combination of fear and dehydration and was mumbling quietly as she lay sprawled out in the dirt.  Jasper glanced back at her then forward again to the nasal nightmare in front of him. 

  "She's been looking for you, buddy.  Time to go home," Jasper quietly said, trying to assess the pokemon's emotions.
With its eyes as cold as unfeeling as stone spheres, it uttered a soft, "Probooooo."
"Uh.  Nice to meet you too," Jasper gave the pokemon a little bow, never taking his eyes off of it.
"Proooobobopaaaaass," it uttered, rocking side to side just a little.  

  Jasper and Manhead exchanged what amounted to small talk for several minutes.  Jasper would ask it a question and it would say some variation of the word probopass and Jasper would pretend to understand what it said.  With the probopass thoroughly distracted, the lab technician would eventually get up and run towards the village for help.  She knew it would take some serious help to wrangle this abomination.  Unfortunately, the duo was at least two hours away from town and Jasper knew there was no way he could hold this thing's attention long enough.  Still, he had to try.

  An hour had passed and Jasper had sat down.  He was drinking his last bottle of water and breathing in short shallow breaths.  The heat was slowly fading but it wasn't fast enough for the dark-haired fuzz goblin.  The "conversation" he was having with the probopass had dissolved but it seemed content to just sit on the ground and stare at Jasper.  It never blinked.  It never diverted its eyes.  It simply stared, occasionally wiggling or rocking in place.

  "You know.  We aren't that different, huh?" Jasper broke the silence.
  "Pro.. bo.."
  "We're both hairy and people think we're both abominations against Arceus."
  "Bopass."
  "Yeah.  You understand me, huh?"
  "Bobo."
  "How long were you in that adoption center, bud?"
  "Proooooooooooobooooooooooopass."
  "That long huh?"
  "Pro."
  "What if I adopted you?  I mean, it's a crazy idea but I don't think anyone else will ever wanna take you home.  No offense."
  "Probobo."

  The probopass seemed to consider the question in silence for a few minutes then started rocking itself side to side.  It rolled onto its side with a loud dull thud and rolled around on the ground.  It seemed to be expressing joy.  It was rolling around just like a growlithe with a fresh bone.  Jasper stood and nodded briefly.  Internally, he was cursing himself for doing something this stupid and taking on something this.. cursed. 

  "You take me back to town and pick up that lab tech on the way and I'll adopt you myself."

  An hour later, with the exhausted young woman tossed over his shoulder, Jasper rode into town by standing on the brim of the probopass' hat.  The villagers screamed in terror as the thing descended from the sky and thudded to the ground.  Jasper hopped down and smiled.  It felt kind of cool to be the savior of a whole village.  He had tamed the beast.  The.. fleshy.. hairy beast.  Oh boy.