This world is inhabited by creatures that we call pokemon. People and pokemon live together by supporting each other, but now the scourge threatens the safety of the entire region. Kohaku has become a dangerous place, where children stay at home and only brave souls go adventuring.
Welcome to KOHAKU. Come for the nightmares. Stay for the tea and crumpets.
The season is SUMMER. It is easy for survivors to forage for food from the land, as there are entire abandoned farms ready for harvest. On the downside, you can smell the corpses.
swarms
GRAND OPENING !
Welcome to KOHAKU REGION's grand opening! If you're interested in joining, come check out our grand opening giveaway!
The temple wasn't quite a place of worship--Kohaku wasn't big on worship so much as they were big on earning stuff for yourself rather than at the blessing of any god--but the temple was a holy place. Sacred.
Neo sat on one of the forwardmost pews, staring blankly at the altar, the genesect statue, and the spray of colored lights from the stained glass windows.
It was a good place to think. Also a good place to meet up with someone--especially someone that you might go hunting with.
When people said they sweat like a sinner in church, Delilah had never really understood what they meant; she certainly had no problems going in and out of these 'holy' buildings.
Of course, she had also never believed in any of that legendary-worship to start with. (Bowing your head to a stone statue for hours seemed kind of pointless, didn't it?)
That wasn't why she was there, though; instead, she saw the familiar figure of a woman in the front pews. Delilah came up beind Neo, wrapping her arms around her shoulders. "Hey there."
Hook has never heard of the phrase sweat like a sinner in church, but she thinks it's really cool, actually.
"Hey," Neo replied. She gestured to the empty space (a whole pew's worth of it) next to her for Delilah to sit. She considered whether she should just get to the point--a bunch of new theories and observations, but none of them were worth much. A once-off, but still concerning. Could a riolu draw signs? Could an agent have more than one pokemon? Points to think about it, but one instance is still only an outlier.
"Good to see you out of Pax," Neo said, almost warmly, but mostly just courteous. Good to see your liver's still intact too, she didn't add. "How've you been?"
Delilah glanced at the empty seats -- to stay behind Neo or to sit next to her? (Sans the cuddling, because Delilah doesn't think either of them are drunk enough for that.) With a small sigh, she clambered over the top of the pew and slid down beside the researcher.
"Likewise," she grinned. "I'm still alive and kicking, so that's a good thing." Better than not-alive and not-kicking, anyway. "You?" Delilah wasn't particularly interested, of course, but it was best to get the formalities out of the way.
"Good--healthy." She didn't know if she meant the second part as an addendum or a correction.
Alright, down to the business. (Maybe they should get a stiff drink. Neo feared that'd only lead to them cuddling up on a sofa and watching bad romcoms until 4AM though.) "Run into any scourge lately? Agents, specifically?"
Delilah sighed. "Yeah." She had heard them all talk about their encounters in Bellona, and she didn't think either of them matched the description of Cameron or that Batin guy.
"Pal Park, actually -- two of them." The woman's fist clenched. "They had their own partner-scourge, but it looked like there was also a wild one." She leaned back, groaning. "It seems they can also get other scourge to help them -- and neither of the two matched the description of who we talked about last time."
How many more were there that they didn't know about?
"Perhaps they're growing in number, or they're only now revealing themselves." Neo sighed, recalling her battles with the camerupt, riolu, and metang. "Sucks to be us."
Partner scourge and a wild pokemon sounded... optimistic. "Wild, you certain? Normal colors, except darker? I ran into Batin again--the masked man that Stefan is so fond of. Had a riolu still, and a metagross too. Silver metagross like vaccinated, except dark. Makes me worry he's commanding two. Nothing conclusive to say yet. Maybe it was a fluke."
She laughed harshly. "Feels like a losing battle, at this point." Why had she joined EOS with such stupid optimism? Defending against a foreign invader, sure -- but how could they fight against themselves?
"But yeah. Wild; it was just a scourge ampharos." The woman bit at her lip at the new news. "If they can have a bunch of pokemon with them like we can, and control wild scourge in organized attacks --"
"We could avoid them," Neo said. It wouldn't be pretty, no--but it was reality, and now they just needed to find a way around it. Success was their only option. Getting there may take some ingenuity.
"They seem mobile and responsive. They moved to Bacchus as soon as Bellona became a lost cause. If they're moving... we could try drawing them elsewhere, holding their attention. A feint. Might not be feasibly though, not without sacrificing one of our own." Neo shook her hand, vetoing her own statements as soon as she'd made them. "No, can't afford to lose anyone. Not enough to spare."
Avoid them and do what? Let them continue destroying the land and killing the people? She listened to Neo's suggestion with apprehension. Even the researcher vetoed it herself.
"We need to work with what we have." Which ... wasn't much, really. "There's still the people barely arriving at Pax -- we can use them, too. Not by themselves, but if everyone travels in groups ..." It would at least increase their chances of survival.
"Researchers can vaccinate; rangers can pacify. We need to make use of everything we possibly can and try to keep it balanced." Delilah groaned. "The question is, what'll grow faster -- the agents' hold on places or our own forces?" (Speaking as if they were discussing war.)
"More of them, more of us. How many new faces at Pax? Four? Five? Numerically, we don't have a significant advantage, but it would be worse. Potentially, if they can command a horde of scourge, we're all dead. Unless we've got a whole swathe of new rangers. Even then."
They could fight to survive. They could always fight to survive, but so far, Neo wasn't sure how they could fight to win. Neo had battled evenly against Batin's metang and riolu, but she'd retreated in the end. Maybe she could've won, but she knew no EOS kid wet behind their ears would've stood half a chance.
"We will grow faster; we afford the alternative, so we ensure the positive. I--plan on going back to Proserpina. To research. Train. Help others train. Size up our resources. Won't take long. Hopefully it'll help, need everyone else to hold down the fort though."
Delilah found herself gripped by a sudden cold terror. Death. Perhaps the absolute finality of the idea hadn't sunk in until just then, but she could only think of the irony; a jouney in other regions was an adventure. A jouney here was a mad scramble to the finish line, where the losers were picked off, one by one by one.
She looked at Neo, surprised, when she heard the idea. Delilah hadn't pegged her for someone willing to do such a thing, but -- that was what their circumstances recquire. She sighed. "Guess that means I'll be here; if anything, I'll do my best to get as much information as I can." She would just have to get info the only way she could.
Delilah hoped she would still be alive to see their reunion. "When're you going to go?"
"Hold down the fort for me," Neo said. Except there wasn't a fort, just ruins of Bacchus and inhospitable Decima.
"In a day or two. J called me to look at a scourge pokemon he captured. Are you heading back to Pax? We should travel in a pair at least that far, if so. Safer."
She shrugged. "I guess Pax is the best place to stay, maybe Bacchus; make sure the ones that make it aren't picked off too soon." Delilah twirled a bit of her hair around her fingers. "Going together sounds good -- you can train them as they start out, and I'll try and help them along the way."
The woman didn't like the thought of having to stay in the area, but it was necessary. "Fill them in on any new developments if I have to." She tapped her C-Gear. "We'd be keeping in touch, though?" If only to detail the potential of the newer recruits (and perhaps to make sure they were both still alive).
"Should pick fights in both, if possible. Keep the scourge on their toes. If not possible, Bacchus." They'd already lost Lake Pax, more or less. Not allowing the scourge to ever feel safe even in their own territory would be a bonus, but not if it risked losing what hold they had left on Bacchus.
Neo glanced at her own C-Gear. "Yes. Of course. Call whenever you need me."
