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!
For the most part, she'd watched the battle. They spoke like father and son gone fishing, a pastime that involved the least possible eye contact. Now, she turned to him.
"What do you call all the dead pokemon and people of Pax Institute, Decima Town, and Bacchus Town--and those still dying here at Bellona--if not murder? It sounds like one of us must be blind."
Maybe he'll six feet under and rotting at the end, she didn't say. "Decima," she repeated, and it was caught somewhere between a question, where curiosity kills the cat, and a statement of dread. "Decima is a poisoned wasteland, where good goes to die."
zahir grinned like he dreamed he had fangs. "i call them necessary," he said. he looked around them. "i have to say, i think pal park's atmosphere has really improved since the virus hit. less screaming children running about."
riolu used screech on wobbuffet.
"decima is exactly that," he agreed. "melchior has some interesting methods for keeping everyone--scourge and eos alike--out of his city, doesn't he? no one is poking around in there that he doesn't know about, that's for sure."
wobbuffet dodged the screech wobbuffet used encore on screech
Neo released Athena, which was possibly a poor choice. The young lucario wasn't ready for a fight of this calibre.
Athena, to her credit, took one look at the riolu and said, <Bet you think you're tough. At least I can breed.>
lucario used agility lucario used quick attack
"Everyone goes through a screaming child stage. You missed out if you skipped it." Neo... wasn't sure if that was a slight against Melchior, but she bristled almost imperceptibly. She'd grown up in admiration of the gym leader. "Melchior's methods were infallible."
riolu used screech again riolu dodged quick attack riolu used force palm on lucario riolu used reversal on wobbuffet
"infallible," zahir repeated, turning the word over in his mouth like he'd never heard it before. "not prone to misleading, or lies. i'm not sure that's the word i would use to describe melchior."
wobbuffet dodged reversal lucario dodged force palm lucario used quick attack lucario used quick attack again wobbuffet used destiny bond
"It's the word I would use. It is, in fact, the word I used." More to the point, she leveled a blank stare at Zahir and said, "You imply anything about my town's gym leader again, and I will cut you. Are we clear?"
riolu dodged destiny bond riolu was hit by quick attack x2 riolu used force palm on wobbuffet riolu used reversal on wobbuffet
riolu hissed at lucario
he blinked. "i didn't know you could use hidden machines on people. but if you insist. i understand certain topics regarding the truth can make people uncomfortable."
Mneme didn't seem to know she fell unconscious. Her body stilled, and she stood upright for a moment until Neo noticed that her wobbuffet was down (metaphorically) for the count. Against her better judgment, Neo brought out Tiresias. The blind deino was at least stronger than the lucario, she supposed.
Athena provided her $0.02. <It's cool, Tir. Beating up a wobbuffet makes this one feel like a badass.>
lucario used quick attack lucario used another quick attack lucario used agility deino used work up deino used dragon breath
The battle went on and Neo didn't reply.
Finally, she said, "What's your name, masked man?"
"What about being a masked man with no name that decides to work with pokemon that seek the destruction of everything we know? I'd count that as pretty bad, honestly. But obviously not moreso than being a bad cook." If she was being sarcastic, you couldn't tell.
Athena stumbled, cursed with more foul language than Neo was aware she knew, and fell. She didn't get back up. That was okay because Tiresias had finally opened his eyes--still to see nothing, but awake all the same.
"This way, Tir," Neo called out, stepping closer to Zahir. "Hone claws and Fire Blast."
zahir's eyes widened, and for the first time he seemed to lose his composure slightly.
he barely had time to activate his psychic sign before the flames poured out of deino's mouth and sucked all the air out of where he had been standing. flickering back into view a dozen yards away, he looked at neo with an impassive expression as the riolu bounded to his side. "it was good to meet you, neo," he said. "i hope that your story doesn't end here. i think you're going to have an interesting one."
the riolu touched one paw to zahir's elbow and he drew the psychic sign in the air again, vanishing for good this time.
Her masked man teleported away, and her hoodie fucking caught on fire. Goddammit.
Neo stopped, dropped, and rolled, but mostly she just threw off the hoodie on account of it being on fire. The rest of her clothes weren't exactly in the best condition either, but at least they weren't actively burning. Singed, maybe. Scorched, even.
"..." she said in farewell to Zahir.
She stamped out the fire on her hoodie, picked it up again to see if it was salvageable. Neo dropped the hoodie again, leaving it on the ground. It was chilly without though, and she shivered.
Neo went to her deino and picked up the deino. Carrying him, she started walking back to the city. "Come on, Tir. We need a pokemon center."
