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!
Thalia recalled her fainted pokemon and stood gazing at the horizon where the man and his scourge pokemon--there was no other explanation for what had just occured; he had owned a scourge pokemon--in shock. She assumed this was shock, the complete disconnect from all rational reality. Her vulpix pressed herself against Thalia's legs and whined at the newcomer's approach.
At this point, a strange boy walking up to her and offering her a revive in the middle of scourge-infested Bellona was not the weirdest part of Thalia's day, and she wasn't really happy with that. Was he wearing a suit--?
"I," Thalia responded intelligently. "I'm sorry? Who are you? Why are you--?" She gestured at the revive.
"just take it," iskander's tone was almost apologetic. cameron wasn't one to stop and say congratulations, you did a great job after losing a fight. she'd storm off, pissed as hell she couldn't beat a trainer, especially one with pink hair. he knew, he knew. "your pokémon was knocked out, right?" he grinned, and shrugged.
"i have one to spare," he explained, "and if you guys can get stuff off people like marko, you can probably accept this as well." he forced the revive into thalia's grasp and stood back, hands in his pockets.
Thalia held the revive in her hand for a moment, staring at it blankly, before sticking it in her pocket.
"Yeah, thanks, a few of them did," she said. "You were watching? Are you a trainer--what do you mean you guys. Why in the world was a Scourge pokemon taking orders from a human?"
iskander shifted in his suit, calm and collected. at least she took it. if her pokémon were ever in dire situations, she could always use it to help out her team.
unlike other agents, his aim wasn't to eradicate all the normal pokémon, or trainers who didn't share their view. he preferred a more laid-back approach to it all -- he'd see trainers who were hurt, and offer them some help. healing items, or something along those lines. (they were just like strays. poor things, running into the wrong territory.)
"you fought cameron?" iskander said, narrowing his eyes and frowning. this wasn't good. he thought she'd been beat up by the agent, not actively fighting against one of them. "um, she's a hades agent. she kind of controls scourge pokémon and ... yeah.
"let's just say ever since then, i've been a lot more careful."
his smile was weak, apologetic, but most of all, understanding.
"Yeah, I fought, Cameron?" Thalia said warily. "He--she ran off though. Right before you showed up. You know her? She's a girl?"
She bit her lip and looked down at her vulpix, who was still curled around her legs, the fire pokemon's tails spread out miserably on the ground. Fuck, she'd taken a beating in that fight. All of them had, really. She'd been lucky the other trainer had cut and run.
"Have you fought her before then? Does that mean you know anything about how she controls Scourge pokemon?"
"cameron, yeah. she's a woman," iskander sighed, "she beat me up pretty badly, too." for different reasons, and it had been more verbal than physical. he hadn't been really doing his job, and cameron was completely, wholeheartedly, devoted to the job. it was as if her life depended on the job; she was one of those people who completely believed in the dawn of a new age, unlike him.
"her camerupt's a beast," said the agent, rubbing the back of his head. he knew, because he'd seen it in action -- from the other side. cameron's side. "it's really hard trying to beat her when your pokémon's weak to anything it can throw at you." he glanced at his new shoes, then back at thalia. "but you managed to drive her off, right?" just to be sure, iskander glanced over his shoulder. yep, no more cameron.
"i don't really know how she controls them. can you even control them in the first place?" he said, then thought about it for a while, hand on his chin. "hmm." he seemed to be trying to recall the exact details of how cameron had ordered her camerupt around, before realizing that he couldn't explain it without giving away his identity.
"they're pretty wild, but i noticed they listen to her every command ... sorry. i don't know the answer to that question."
"I noticed," Thalia intoned, staring at what was left of--what she had thought was a pretty decent team. Just one pokemon, one trainer, and they'd been lucky the other woman had cut and run first, because it hadn't been a flawless victory, not even close. She'd gotten arrogant after that victory with J. She'd thought that just because it'd been easy once it would be easy again. She was stupider than she could possibly imagine, sometimes. "I drove her off but it wasn't easy, trust me."
"It looked...I mean it looked like she was a regular trainer, almost. Minus the fact that her pokemon was a rampaging infected monster instead of the traditional say, top percent rattata. She commanded the camerupt, gave it tactics during the battle. I didn't see any sort of control mechanism, any collar."
Her knees felt like buckling. She wanted to sleep for days. "I'm going back into Nerio," she said. "I need to tell someone about this--I'm not sure who but someone definitely needs to know. I--be safe out here? If you wanna keep wandering around, I'm hardly in any shape to stop you, but you should probably get back too. Thanks for the revive." She straightened out of her slumped posture, and then frowned. "What was your name again?"
iskander nodded, fully understanding what thalia meant. of course it wasn't easy to drive a hades agent off. they had perfect sync with their pokémon -- it was almost as if they knew what the monsters were thinking, their own hearts clouded in grime and clouds as dark as the ooze that pumped through the veins of hadean pokémon.
"yeah, i didn't see any collars too ..." the agent's voice trailed off, "maybe they wear some sort of ring to control it? like some sort of symbol to make sure it recognizes the human as its leader?" at this point, iskander was basically throwing out ideas. he knew that as long as the scourge pokémon recognized the human as its master and partner, they shared a bond quite unable to be replicated by the likes of devices, emblems or accessories.
iskander blinked. why would she head back into nerio? she'd have to come through bellona hills again, where she ran the risk of meeting cameron -- again. "you have friends in nerio, right?" he hoped she did. that'd mean that more people were getting closer to them, and he'd need to get everyone notified via the scourge's hive mind. "i'm just going to hang around for a bit here."
"just in case i find some trainers who got beat up, haha," said iskander. who knew what cameron would be up to in her rage ... she might have taken it out on a few weaker, unsuspecting trainers. he'd need to heal them up or at least, give them some healing items so they could safely get back to nerio. "they might need some healing items." he showed thalia the small amount of healing stuff he had on him. a super potion or two, maybe a half-consumed soda pop. not much, but it was something.
"eltanin. people usually call me delta for some reason, but ..." he scratched his neck. nicknames were hard to explain. "what's yours?"
"Friends? In Nerio?" She laughed. Who did she know in Nerio? That stubborn green-haired asshole, Neo, Regina...no, there weren't any friends in Nerio. "I don't think there's friends anywhere these days," she giggled. Irene. Irene was in Nerio. Irene was not a friend. "Does anyone even like each other anymore?" This was it, this was the end. It had to be. The shock had crested and she was just breaking down into hysterics and this guy was going to think she had completely lost it and he would be right. Why was she laughing?
Somehow she got herself back under control.
"My name is Thalia," she said. "Delta. Are you with EOS? Or just doing charitable deeds for the sake of it?"
iskander seemed vaguely disappointed, but he picked his emotions up again and smiled at thalia. "i see," he said, nodding at the female, "well, i can try to like you as a friend, but as it stands now, we're just acquaintances who met over a revive." he punctuated the end of his sentence with a small laugh, and placed his healing items back into his suit pockets. it didn't bother iskander to see that she was laughing; he supposed it was just a natural process of the female psyche, which he would not and could not ever hope to understand. (just like cameron, really.)
"thalia, alright," the agent said, nodding, before placing her name in a mental post-it note. pink-haired, trainer, thalia. even if she'd beat cameron by an inch, she'd lost in terms of health and aftermath. cameron would just stomp on ahead and vanquish all her foes like a hadean joan of arc. "unfortunately, eos wouldn't have me, but i'm reapplying for the next batch."
unconsciously (or consciously?), he tapped the healing items he had. "figured while i waited, i could help someone out. no one's attempted to stop me yet," said iskander -- then glanced at thalia. "you're not calling the cops on me, are you?"
"Call the cops on someone who just gave me a revive? No, I don't think that's happening. I really do need to get my team to the pokemon center. It'd suck to have spent all that money vaccinating them and then have them die anyway because I hung around at the site of my grand victory for far too long. Good luck with your reapplication to EOS, and uh, try not to get yourself killed helping anyone?"
With a wave, Thalia was off, hiking back to Nerio. Her vulpix paced a little behind her, peeking back over her tails from time to time as if she was unsure Delta wouldn't follow after them.
