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!
he remembers watching the matches at bacchus gym on occasion. usually, it was because one friend or another decided that iker wasn't going to waste away the rest of his life in the library. those were okay times, but iker actually prefers the present the best. as a ranger, he has autonomy. the sort of autonomy that his home had not granted him.
the stairs are still annoying to get past. irene's gym seemed to heavily favor them. this time, iker doesn't even bother, preferring to draw the psychic sign instead. this is not a place that is built to accommodate the graceless. jax follows closely. he's been a lot better about that ever since they left nerio. perhaps it wasn't experience that tempered him.
"you're not feeling so good, are you?"
<i'm perfectly fine! just... be careful. this place reeks like the rest of the town>
"...yeah, the gym is in bacchus city. which happens to be up to its neck in scourge." the ranger turns the sarcasm knob to the max, but recognizes when his partner's concern is real. so he doesn't make fun of the manectric too much beyond that."we'll be fine. probably."
the doduo assist behind them only follows them quietly because iker had sufficiently bribed them beforehand. maybe...maybe he should try to get another assist before his snacks run out.
iker takes his time travelling the different corridors, the place oddly foreign to him. the walls are peeling and the panels of glass were shattered, but as far as iker knew, that's how they've always been. in a state of immortal decay.
the shattered glass is a recent addition, actually. minerva is working her way through the halls, punching out every mirror she can find. she likes the smash smash noise it makes, the way the shards glitter on the ground. and it's not like it's bad for her. she's functionally a level 200 scourge lucario. she could probably eat those glass shards for breakfast.
batin trailed after her through the backstage of the gym, carefully trodding around the stabby trail she was leaving behind. his gaze on the ground, minerva saw iker first.
< look batin> she broadcasted to everyone in the room. < it's an eos trainer. i've never seen one before. let's fight him and kill him. >
the eagerness of youth. batin sighed. heron had had more self control.
minerva makes jax look really smart. the manectric can appreciate that.
upon the sight of the scourge lucario, iker's train of thought went more along the lines of 'oh fuck this', but he supposes that they can't be lucky forever. they were going to have to face the scourge sooner or later. today just happened to be their day.
"i don't suppose i'm the lucky 100,000th visitor?" he maintains a steeled calm, but he's already readying his capture styler. he could teleport away, that's not why he was given a capture styler, was it. "nothing personal." at least he is a ranger, and not a trainer and therefore less likely to be required to tear anyone limb from limb (iker isn't thalia okay).
manectric used fire fang manectric used thunder wave
doduo used growl doduo used peck (literally most effective move atm i shit you not, fuck steel types)
"if you think there's been a hundred thousand visitors here since the scourge came," batin said. "you're kidding yourself. you're like, lucky visitor number three and a half. anyway. what brings you out here?"
minerva dodged growl and confuse ray minerva hit by fire fang and peck minerva used agility minerva used aura sphere on manectric minerva used dark pulse on doduo
batin drew electric - flash on doduo, mostly for shits and giggles.
"...so the lucario is only as exceptionally bloodthirsty as the next scourge. good to know. a death threat would have made for a lousy prize." it's kind of strange, but iker almost misses the bustling crowds that usually flooded bacchus' streets, pre-scourge. they had been little more than a hinderance before. "...a pilgrimage, i s'pose. i could ask the same from you."
manectric is hit by aura sphere doduo dodges dark pulse, hit by flash
yeah, iker didn't miss that he was being fucked around with either. the gravitas of being faced with an agent of the apocalypse kind of put a damper on the whole mood, though.
manectric used fire fang manectric used thunder wave
doduo used acupressure vKS4prif 1-15 atk 16-31 def 32-47 sp atk 43-58 sp def 59-74 speed 75-90 acc 91-100 eva
"this this place of particular religious significance to you?"
minerva dodged thunder wave + fusion bolt minerva hit by fire fang acupressure missed due to flash minerva used dark pulse on doduo minerva used aura sphere on doduo
doduo looked weird to minerva. she didn't like it.
< i'm so glad i'm a lucario and not a doduo, > she sniffed.
"i came here to figure out if it was." to the people of kohaku, a pokemon battle was probably the closest that they got to prayer. a gym might as well have been a temple, except iker feels no trace of hope here. "doesn't feel like it, though. outta luck, it seems."
he didn't really get an answer on why a hades agent would be here where there's only about three and a half visitors, and he can't deny his curiosity. "so...do you guys get off on all this death and despair thing? the broken crap around here set a nice mood?" maybe they did, if they were running around trying to get the scourge to raze the world to the ground. it would explain why the man was hanging around this place. "or are you another dude from bacchus?"
doduo hit by dark pulse and aura sphere
doduo used rage doduo used growl doduo used peck (spd 1/2)
manectric used howl manectric used spark XIOTACqW <30 paralyze
iker attempts to pacify minerva. "yo, it's not too late to go out for a tauros burger together, but you gotta stop firing aura spheres at us first."
batin could not give less of a shit about bacchus if you paid him, honestly.
"not from bacchus," he answered. "don't particularly care for the scenery either. minerva just wanted somewhere she could smash things."
minerva dodged pacification + howl + growl minerva hit by everything else minerva used dark pulse on doduo minerva used aura sphere on doduo fuck doduo apparently
she laughed at iker's pacification attempt, shrugging it off.
< i don't eat processed food. > she informed him scornfully.
what the fuck would batin even do with money though. "would've been nice if you guys stuck to pax institute if you're not after the scenery." then iker wouldn't be out here fighting scourge lucario in an abandoned gym. "less of us to ruin your fun"
and less scourge to fuck shit up.
doduo hit by everything and faints. boo doduo.
manectric used fire fang manectric used spark (...howl raises attack jsyk) D3c3_kkl <30 paralyze
...iker could at least distract the lucario. he decides to pacify it again.
something about bacchus makes me think of a town in texas, i dunno why. so yeah, the steak is the best okay. "...bacchus tauros is not nearly as bad as nerio's. i had to eat that city shit for months, okay."
"...i guess we're gonna have to agree to disagree then." although that really kind of went unsaid for a ranger.
this pacification isn't really working so hot.
"...that would be kind of you, but i'd really prefer if that wasn't an offer to start firing hyper beams on us." iker thinks about it for a second. hyper beams were...dodgable, at least. "actually ... i think those might be preferable to the aura spheres"
jax makes a small sound of protest.
iker draws flying sign - defog
he's also thinking about why those fire fangs don't seem as painful as they should be. maybe scourge were kind of special snowflakes like that.
manectric is hit by aura sphere manectric uses spark 90gfKo|5 <30 paralyze manectric uses fire fang 1-10 flinch 11-20 burn (just realized that's probably what i should have been doing w/ fangs since...status effects don't stack orz)
all's fair in love and war, but even iker has to admit that was a fucking low blow. he didn't really have a right leg to lose at all, but that was a small comfort when he's being knocked over sideways into a pile of rotting wood. the wheelchair is built sturdily enough that it didn't seem to require expensive repairs.
which was probably better for the both of them since iker would have given into the stupid instinct to retaliate on the agent personally. stupid because he's seen the speed of that lucario. she could probably take them out if she really wanted to. she seemed like she really wanted to.
iker draws normal sign - strength to push himself back upright, chair and all.
actually, fuck it. it's not like they weren't chilling out in bacchus gym and trying to kill each other. "anyone ever tell you that you're a piece of shit?" he hopes that batin steps on a lego.
jax's priority is to tear out the lucario's throat. and then spit it out.
manectric used fire fang manectric used thunder wave
he remembers watching the matches at bacchus gym on occasion. usually, it was because one friend or another decided that iker wasn't going to waste away the rest of his life in the library. those were okay times, but iker actually prefers the present the best. as a ranger, he has autonomy. the sort of autonomy that his home had not granted him.
the shattered glass is a recent addition, actually. minerva is working her way through the halls, punching out every mirror she can find. she likes the smash smash noise it makes, the way the shards glitter on the ground. and it's not like it's bad for her. she's functionally a level 200 scourge lucario. she could probably eat those glass shards for breakfast.
