apocalypse
chapter directory;
prologue&chapter1; the day of fire [scroll down]
chapter II; a legendary lead
chapter III; entei
chapter IV; a challenge met
chapter V; a gift of power
chapter VI; jason's history lesson
chapter VII; right back where we started
chapter VIII; separated
chapter IX; escape
Apocalypse is an FF based on the original (yes, the original) G/S/C games. It's a survival action horror about the "apocalypse" coming to Johto. Ho-Oh, along with her three legendary dogs, have been coerced into laying waste to the Johto region. In a single day, the entire area is demolished from raining meteors, intense storms, and blazing wildfires. Stephanie Storm, a young sixteen year old, will meet up with people she never expected to be allies with, and search for the cause of this disaster. Her search for the truth will bring her face to face with one of the most dangerous underground criminal group, named the Avengers.
The story is rather dark and although the entire story is generally PG-13 (as listed on the titles) there will be forewarnings to particularly nasty chapters. As always, ratings are provided before the story. Also, criticism and reviews are not only allowed, but welcome, so if you have something to say, feel free.
Enjoy!
Torlen
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RATING (for prologue+chapter1)
Violence: slight brutality (a boy being dragged onto the street).
Gore: Hints of an injured Pokémon, speak of corpses due to natural disaster.
Sexuality: None.
Profanity: the S word, but it's censored.
Other: Mention and use of a firearm.
----
prologue
Fire.
Fire leaked from the sky, spilling onto the ground and relentlessly burning everyone underneath it. Anyone who was there could tell you - the sky rained fire - and nothing else. Nobody really truly remembered what happened that day. They could tell you that meteors cut through clouds like butter and smashed into brick houses like cardboard. They could tell you the sky was blood-red and the sun was crimson from all its burning fury. They could tell you that Pokémon had lit the surrounding forests on fire in their fear.
Not one of them, however, could tell you why it happened.
Since that day, many scientists have been searching for the exact reason why it all came together. Why the Pokémon seemed to react to it before it even happened. Why they betrayed their trainers and went berserk. Why the meteors fell. Why any of this happened.
Perhaps the most important questions that have yet to be answered:
"What's next?" and "Why us?"
chapter I; the day of fireFire leaked from the sky, spilling onto the ground and relentlessly burning everyone underneath it. Anyone who was there could tell you - the sky rained fire - and nothing else. Nobody really truly remembered what happened that day. They could tell you that meteors cut through clouds like butter and smashed into brick houses like cardboard. They could tell you the sky was blood-red and the sun was crimson from all its burning fury. They could tell you that Pokémon had lit the surrounding forests on fire in their fear.
Not one of them, however, could tell you why it happened.
Since that day, many scientists have been searching for the exact reason why it all came together. Why the Pokémon seemed to react to it before it even happened. Why they betrayed their trainers and went berserk. Why the meteors fell. Why any of this happened.
Perhaps the most important questions that have yet to be answered:
"What's next?" and "Why us?"
----
It was a bright, sunny day.
It was only one week after it had stopped raining fire.
That's what they called it in Johto. The Day it Rained Fire. It had a certain ring to it, I'll admit. It couldn't describe the type of horror the entire region - perhaps the entire world - had endured. There wasn't much to do now, and there were only three things that I could do.
One, scavenge for any food - or any people - still left in Olivine City.
Two, constantly check the radio for any signs from Goldenrod. Since the day of disaster, there had only been static on each station.
Three, cry. Which, I happened to do a lot of, and happened to be very good at.
My name is Stephanie Storm. I am 15 years old and I used to be a student, but I suppose now I'm just a survivor. I used to have a family - my younger brother David and my mom Karen and dad Richard. They perished that day. They had decided to go for a day at the beach while I chose to stay in my house. Doing homework. I noted it was the only time that homework had ever paid off, but I suppose being the last survivor in the entirety of Olivine City was an arguable situation.
The things that I had inherited from my parents were countless, especially considering the destruction. Their food, their clothing, their possessions, but there were things that I had inherited that I didn't even want. Thick, dark brown hair that never seemed to stay straight or do what I wanted, pale skin that made me look like a ghost, scrawny limbs and weak ankles. My nose was crooked to the right and my teeth had been covered recently in wires and metal shrapnel which my dentist like to call braces. I wasn't pretty in any respect, sometimes I tried to listen to my mother when she told me I was a "beautiful unique little snowflake and people that couldn't respect me for who I am, are no good at all".
But... she is dead, so what does it matter, I find myself saying sometimes.
Houses were half destroyed; roofs had caved in, ashes had flown into the wind, various furniture had been dragged out in my effort to find survivors and anything useful, and bricks lay scattered amongst the dried yellow and black grasses. Fire had burned the houses, while the wind had swept away fences and signs and left them impaled in several things such as neighboring houses, to corpses. I had gotten rid of the dead bodies as soon as I could. However, the smell still lingered.
The infamous lighthouse managed to survive, although the creaking drove me mad. Its flawless ivory-coloured bricks had been singed and were now a mix of gray and pure black. The light flickered and sometimes rotated in a circle, only to stop and return to being stationary. Its antenna, however, had snapped right off, and I had found it along the beaches and I had a habit of carrying it around like a weapon nowadays.
The water was turbulent and the waves on the beach seemed to reach up with desperate fingers and pull in whatever object they could into the relentless tide. Despite it being a calm day, the sea was furious. Legends my grandfather used to tell me when I was a child about the Lord of the Sea came to my mind. If there was a legendary Pokémon down there, perhaps it was angry of what had become of the surface world.
Or perhaps it was angry that it didn't get a chance to take part. I thought glumly. I dismissed the thought from my mind. It's not like I needed any more despair in my life.
A Larvitar I had nicknamed Pepper stood on the edge of the ocean, watching aimlessly as the ocean grabbed at her tiny toes. She seemed to be indifferent about the destruction that had claimed my town, and somehow I could not blame her. She was only a Pokémon - Pepper had not known my home like I had. Olivine City perhaps was a blemish on the nature that she loved.
"Pepper," I called while I rushed to her. I was desperate for company. Pepper, the tiny Larvitar with a scarred face, was the only friend I had left. We had known each other for a couple years after I had found her in the hills beyond Olivine and fed her. I had never once thought that she was mine, per se, like how some people called themselves trainers and raised Pokémon to fight in glorious competitions.
Pepper turned and jumped up and down gleefully. "Steph!" she cried. I had taught her words such as 'hungry', 'thirsty', 'tired', and 'Steph' so she would know how to communicate with me. Pepper was such a fast learner. Cute, too. "Hungry," she echoed.
I dug through my jeans for the trail mix I found in an empty house the other day. The nuts were hard and the candies had all been eaten, but it was food. I held out the bag for her and she dug in greedily. I envied her. I couldn't tell if she was too innocent or too oblivious to realize that all the humans and Pokémon alike around her had perished. Yet, she was a friend in the desolate city and I couldn't turn away that. Pepper liked to follow her, and she especially liked to scavenge with her. Often, however, she would sit on the beach and just... well, stare. I even asked her, one day, what she was looking at, and she just replied, "hungry". She was always hungry.
Evening fell that night and I had considered making a fire but the summer air was warm and the persistent ocean had finally yielded and fell silent for a night. Pepper and I gorged on nicely preserved fruit cups we had found, and Pepper even learned how to say "fruit". I was proud of her.
The sound of footsteps deterred me from my short-lasting pride in my partner. Pepper heard them too; she dashed behind me as fast as her tiny feet could carry her and grasped onto the edges of my jacket. Whistles, hoots and hollers accompanied these, and quickly, I snatched Pepper in my arms - she was heavy! - and rushed behind the nearest destroyed house. It had never occurred to me why I ran - it was the first human contact I heard in a week, I should be happy, but I was glad that I didn't run out to greet them, after what they said next.
"Any survivors, ya think? Ya didn't find any in Ecruteak either, did ya?" A male voice, thick with a foreign accent that Steph didn't recognize.
"No," A female voice, cold and distant. "I doubt there are any rats in this s***hole either. If we do, they're probably going to be a child or an elder, that's for sure. What's the point of them?" She scoffed confidently. "Not like they're any use to us."
"Hehe, yer right as always. Well, maybe we should scan the place, ya know, to see if we can find anythin' that might satisfy us?"
The air was silent for a moment, and I saw two figures step out in the dark. They turned to survey the ruins for a moment, before I heard the girl whisper. "I think someone's here."
I froze. Surely, they couldn't be talking about me. I was hiding out of plain view and the ruined city had become so dark that you couldn't see much without a light, which they didn't have. The girl flipped on a flashlight, and I took cover behind the building, clutching Pepper in my arms. The two of us breathed heavily in our fear - our heartbeats matching each other in a panicked race.
A racket suddenly erupted, and shouts burst into the night. "Will, drag him out!" was all I heard from the girl as someone - a boy - screamed and the sound of gunfire silenced him.
At first, I thought the boy had been shot, but it was only warning fire. "Shut up, if ya value yer life," the man Will said. I peered out again and saw that they had pinned a teenage boy to the ground, who held his hands up to his face to avoid the glaring light from the girl's flashlight.
"P-Please, don't hurt me. I-I have nothing you want!" he whined loudly. The two that had dragged him out of the wreckage glanced at each other for a moment. I noticed the two had large, crimson 'A's embroidered on their black jacket sleeves. I couldn't tell if they were scavengers from a neighboring town or part of a bigger equation.
"If you don't have anything we want, why would we keep you alive?" the girl removed a small red and white ball from her pocket and opened the capsule carefully. A beam of light illuminated the area as a ten foot tall snake burst out of the ball into the area. With a ferocious hiss, the violet and gold snake leapt forwards and began to circle its prey.
The boy whimpered pathetically. "Please, please, spare me, I won't do anything, I won't hurt anyone-"
"Of course ya can't hurt anyone, yer pathetic," the man sighed. "Just leave him be, Rosette."
"No," she replied coldly. I heard the soft cha-click of the gun clip being changed. "If we show mercy here, we will never be forgiven."
Will seemed to have a change of heart. "Rosette, it's a kid. He's too weak to hurt anyone and he'll die out here anyway. There isn't a functioning city for miles."
Rosette growled. "You are too soft," she whispered dangerously, but began to walk away.
It was a few minutes before the two intruders were out of earshot. For the entire time, the boy had laid on the ground, only daring to breathe. I hesitated going near him, fearing he might scream and bring the two running back, but after a while I could feel Pepper's tiny hands tug on my jacket. She didn't waste any time dashing off to the boy either. I had no choice but to follow. I couldn't let Pepper run off into potential danger without me.
I tip-toed across the cobblestone road, careful to pause every once in a while and listen intently for footsteps. I reached the boy and observed his eyes had closed. Thoughts raced through my head. I didn't know what to do. Was he in shock? Was he dead?
Suddenly, his hand seized the collar of my hoodie and he tried to pull himself up. I bit my lip to stop from screaming. He drew his face close to mine, and then in a single puff of breath, exhaled the word "puffer".
I thought at first he said "Pepper", and wondered how on earth he knew about her. Then, to my shock, I looked as a shining white object was suspended in the air in front of me. I grabbed it and pulled it down, realizing that the boy had asked for his "puffer", not for "Pepper". I wrapped the boy's fingers around the small medicinal specimen and watched as he inhaled from the puffer and slowly sat up.
"Thank you," he whispered breathlessly. "I don't know why you didn't do that sooner."
I was astounded by his rude words after I had saved his life, but I paid no mind to it. He was on the verge of death - or at least I'll let myself think that. "No problem."
The boy was a tad chubby. A mop of curly auburn hair on his head fell to the very edges of his thick brow. He constantly adjusted his thick rimmed glasses with pudgy fingers. His clothes were dirty and stained with food remnants. He frowned when I had addressed him casually. "Not you," he snickered. "I was talking to Gregory."
Gregory appeared just then. First, as a wide smile of pearly white teeth, then as pasty pupil-less eyes, followed by two purple crooked hands and a small, detached violet body. It took me a while to realize just who Gregory was. It was the boy's Haunter. Whether this boy was a trainer or just a friend to Pokémon, I had no idea, but my curiosity soon overwhelmed me. I had been within the ruins of Olivine for a week now, and not once had I stumbled across another human. To my knowledge, before this, it was just Pepper and I. How this boy evaded my watch was beyond my comprehension.
"Who are you? How did you get here?" I found myself asking, still crouched by him as he looked back at me through fogged lenses.
He took his glasses off and began to wipe them casually. "I'm Ned. S-Sorry about before. I d-didn't mean to be rude. Th-Thanks for giving me my puffer."
I raised an eyebrow. His tough-guy attitude from before had completely melted. "I'm Steph," I said softly. "How did you get here?"
"I travelled from E-Ecruteak. Since the town was destroyed, I had no where to go. Do you have any food?"
I found it a bit unnerving talking to this stranger with Gregory staring wide-eyed at my every action. Pepper was at my side, stomach growling. Everyone's hungry. I don't think there's enough to feed everyone. "I don't," I replied glumly. "I don't think there's any left."
"Then we have to move," Ned sighed, lifting himself off his feet. Gregory's clawed hands appeared suddenly on either of his shoulders, and the Haunter's mouth chomped onto Ned's head, but the boy didn't seem to notice. "If you stay here, there might be more of those people."
"Did you know them?" I inquired. I hadn't ever seen them before. I hadn't seen anyone. It felt good talking again with another human being. Ned shook his head and glanced off towards the road that exited the city. His Haunter disappeared when he shook his head and reappeared at his feet, tongue hanging out.
"I don't know who they are, but I don't want to run into them again," he sighed, obviously discouraged. "Um, Steph? You haven't seen any other humans? All I see are wild Pokémon. I haven't seen another human since today."
I shook my head and patted Pepper's head. She looked up at me with pure glee. "It's only been Pepper and I since today."
"Do you think maybe we should... g-go?"
Go where? I thought despairingly. Goldenrod's radio was out, Ecruteak was as dead as Olivine and there were thugs running about. Survival seemed like a weak prospect in this situation. Still, I found myself agreeing with Ned. There was barely any food and barely a point to staying holed up in these ruins, especially if more thugs were appearing. I wanted to live - I wanted to survive. I wanted to find out who almost killed Ned, and I wanted to find out exactly what had happened. Why this tragedy happened.
"Alright, Ned," I started, completely set on what I was going to do. "Here's the deal. You, I, Gregory and Pepper, will go. Adventure, if you will. We'll only be searching for one thing."
"Food?" Ned said hopefully, so hopefully I was almost sad to shoot him down.
"We search for why. Why, and why only. Once we have answered why, we have to go our separate ways. Understand?" I said it confidently enough, but I began to wonder. If the world was as dangerous as it seemed, perhaps it would be good to have an ally like Ned. Looking over him now, he seemed like exactly the stereotype I placed him to be. Fat, sweaty, loser. Harsh, but accurate, it seemed.
"O-Okay." Ned pushed his glasses back up his face and stuttered. He didn't seem to like the prospect of splitting up either. Our destination was far off, though, and neither of us were prepared for what lay ahead. A quick glance at Pepper's eager, innocent eyes was all the inspiration I needed. I'd survive. Today, tomorrow, forever, if I had to.
It was only one week after it had stopped raining fire.
That's what they called it in Johto. The Day it Rained Fire. It had a certain ring to it, I'll admit. It couldn't describe the type of horror the entire region - perhaps the entire world - had endured. There wasn't much to do now, and there were only three things that I could do.
One, scavenge for any food - or any people - still left in Olivine City.
Two, constantly check the radio for any signs from Goldenrod. Since the day of disaster, there had only been static on each station.
Three, cry. Which, I happened to do a lot of, and happened to be very good at.
My name is Stephanie Storm. I am 15 years old and I used to be a student, but I suppose now I'm just a survivor. I used to have a family - my younger brother David and my mom Karen and dad Richard. They perished that day. They had decided to go for a day at the beach while I chose to stay in my house. Doing homework. I noted it was the only time that homework had ever paid off, but I suppose being the last survivor in the entirety of Olivine City was an arguable situation.
The things that I had inherited from my parents were countless, especially considering the destruction. Their food, their clothing, their possessions, but there were things that I had inherited that I didn't even want. Thick, dark brown hair that never seemed to stay straight or do what I wanted, pale skin that made me look like a ghost, scrawny limbs and weak ankles. My nose was crooked to the right and my teeth had been covered recently in wires and metal shrapnel which my dentist like to call braces. I wasn't pretty in any respect, sometimes I tried to listen to my mother when she told me I was a "beautiful unique little snowflake and people that couldn't respect me for who I am, are no good at all".
But... she is dead, so what does it matter, I find myself saying sometimes.
Houses were half destroyed; roofs had caved in, ashes had flown into the wind, various furniture had been dragged out in my effort to find survivors and anything useful, and bricks lay scattered amongst the dried yellow and black grasses. Fire had burned the houses, while the wind had swept away fences and signs and left them impaled in several things such as neighboring houses, to corpses. I had gotten rid of the dead bodies as soon as I could. However, the smell still lingered.
The infamous lighthouse managed to survive, although the creaking drove me mad. Its flawless ivory-coloured bricks had been singed and were now a mix of gray and pure black. The light flickered and sometimes rotated in a circle, only to stop and return to being stationary. Its antenna, however, had snapped right off, and I had found it along the beaches and I had a habit of carrying it around like a weapon nowadays.
The water was turbulent and the waves on the beach seemed to reach up with desperate fingers and pull in whatever object they could into the relentless tide. Despite it being a calm day, the sea was furious. Legends my grandfather used to tell me when I was a child about the Lord of the Sea came to my mind. If there was a legendary Pokémon down there, perhaps it was angry of what had become of the surface world.
Or perhaps it was angry that it didn't get a chance to take part. I thought glumly. I dismissed the thought from my mind. It's not like I needed any more despair in my life.
A Larvitar I had nicknamed Pepper stood on the edge of the ocean, watching aimlessly as the ocean grabbed at her tiny toes. She seemed to be indifferent about the destruction that had claimed my town, and somehow I could not blame her. She was only a Pokémon - Pepper had not known my home like I had. Olivine City perhaps was a blemish on the nature that she loved.
"Pepper," I called while I rushed to her. I was desperate for company. Pepper, the tiny Larvitar with a scarred face, was the only friend I had left. We had known each other for a couple years after I had found her in the hills beyond Olivine and fed her. I had never once thought that she was mine, per se, like how some people called themselves trainers and raised Pokémon to fight in glorious competitions.
Pepper turned and jumped up and down gleefully. "Steph!" she cried. I had taught her words such as 'hungry', 'thirsty', 'tired', and 'Steph' so she would know how to communicate with me. Pepper was such a fast learner. Cute, too. "Hungry," she echoed.
I dug through my jeans for the trail mix I found in an empty house the other day. The nuts were hard and the candies had all been eaten, but it was food. I held out the bag for her and she dug in greedily. I envied her. I couldn't tell if she was too innocent or too oblivious to realize that all the humans and Pokémon alike around her had perished. Yet, she was a friend in the desolate city and I couldn't turn away that. Pepper liked to follow her, and she especially liked to scavenge with her. Often, however, she would sit on the beach and just... well, stare. I even asked her, one day, what she was looking at, and she just replied, "hungry". She was always hungry.
Evening fell that night and I had considered making a fire but the summer air was warm and the persistent ocean had finally yielded and fell silent for a night. Pepper and I gorged on nicely preserved fruit cups we had found, and Pepper even learned how to say "fruit". I was proud of her.
The sound of footsteps deterred me from my short-lasting pride in my partner. Pepper heard them too; she dashed behind me as fast as her tiny feet could carry her and grasped onto the edges of my jacket. Whistles, hoots and hollers accompanied these, and quickly, I snatched Pepper in my arms - she was heavy! - and rushed behind the nearest destroyed house. It had never occurred to me why I ran - it was the first human contact I heard in a week, I should be happy, but I was glad that I didn't run out to greet them, after what they said next.
"Any survivors, ya think? Ya didn't find any in Ecruteak either, did ya?" A male voice, thick with a foreign accent that Steph didn't recognize.
"No," A female voice, cold and distant. "I doubt there are any rats in this s***hole either. If we do, they're probably going to be a child or an elder, that's for sure. What's the point of them?" She scoffed confidently. "Not like they're any use to us."
"Hehe, yer right as always. Well, maybe we should scan the place, ya know, to see if we can find anythin' that might satisfy us?"
The air was silent for a moment, and I saw two figures step out in the dark. They turned to survey the ruins for a moment, before I heard the girl whisper. "I think someone's here."
I froze. Surely, they couldn't be talking about me. I was hiding out of plain view and the ruined city had become so dark that you couldn't see much without a light, which they didn't have. The girl flipped on a flashlight, and I took cover behind the building, clutching Pepper in my arms. The two of us breathed heavily in our fear - our heartbeats matching each other in a panicked race.
A racket suddenly erupted, and shouts burst into the night. "Will, drag him out!" was all I heard from the girl as someone - a boy - screamed and the sound of gunfire silenced him.
At first, I thought the boy had been shot, but it was only warning fire. "Shut up, if ya value yer life," the man Will said. I peered out again and saw that they had pinned a teenage boy to the ground, who held his hands up to his face to avoid the glaring light from the girl's flashlight.
"P-Please, don't hurt me. I-I have nothing you want!" he whined loudly. The two that had dragged him out of the wreckage glanced at each other for a moment. I noticed the two had large, crimson 'A's embroidered on their black jacket sleeves. I couldn't tell if they were scavengers from a neighboring town or part of a bigger equation.
"If you don't have anything we want, why would we keep you alive?" the girl removed a small red and white ball from her pocket and opened the capsule carefully. A beam of light illuminated the area as a ten foot tall snake burst out of the ball into the area. With a ferocious hiss, the violet and gold snake leapt forwards and began to circle its prey.
The boy whimpered pathetically. "Please, please, spare me, I won't do anything, I won't hurt anyone-"
"Of course ya can't hurt anyone, yer pathetic," the man sighed. "Just leave him be, Rosette."
"No," she replied coldly. I heard the soft cha-click of the gun clip being changed. "If we show mercy here, we will never be forgiven."
Will seemed to have a change of heart. "Rosette, it's a kid. He's too weak to hurt anyone and he'll die out here anyway. There isn't a functioning city for miles."
Rosette growled. "You are too soft," she whispered dangerously, but began to walk away.
It was a few minutes before the two intruders were out of earshot. For the entire time, the boy had laid on the ground, only daring to breathe. I hesitated going near him, fearing he might scream and bring the two running back, but after a while I could feel Pepper's tiny hands tug on my jacket. She didn't waste any time dashing off to the boy either. I had no choice but to follow. I couldn't let Pepper run off into potential danger without me.
I tip-toed across the cobblestone road, careful to pause every once in a while and listen intently for footsteps. I reached the boy and observed his eyes had closed. Thoughts raced through my head. I didn't know what to do. Was he in shock? Was he dead?
Suddenly, his hand seized the collar of my hoodie and he tried to pull himself up. I bit my lip to stop from screaming. He drew his face close to mine, and then in a single puff of breath, exhaled the word "puffer".
I thought at first he said "Pepper", and wondered how on earth he knew about her. Then, to my shock, I looked as a shining white object was suspended in the air in front of me. I grabbed it and pulled it down, realizing that the boy had asked for his "puffer", not for "Pepper". I wrapped the boy's fingers around the small medicinal specimen and watched as he inhaled from the puffer and slowly sat up.
"Thank you," he whispered breathlessly. "I don't know why you didn't do that sooner."
I was astounded by his rude words after I had saved his life, but I paid no mind to it. He was on the verge of death - or at least I'll let myself think that. "No problem."
The boy was a tad chubby. A mop of curly auburn hair on his head fell to the very edges of his thick brow. He constantly adjusted his thick rimmed glasses with pudgy fingers. His clothes were dirty and stained with food remnants. He frowned when I had addressed him casually. "Not you," he snickered. "I was talking to Gregory."
Gregory appeared just then. First, as a wide smile of pearly white teeth, then as pasty pupil-less eyes, followed by two purple crooked hands and a small, detached violet body. It took me a while to realize just who Gregory was. It was the boy's Haunter. Whether this boy was a trainer or just a friend to Pokémon, I had no idea, but my curiosity soon overwhelmed me. I had been within the ruins of Olivine for a week now, and not once had I stumbled across another human. To my knowledge, before this, it was just Pepper and I. How this boy evaded my watch was beyond my comprehension.
"Who are you? How did you get here?" I found myself asking, still crouched by him as he looked back at me through fogged lenses.
He took his glasses off and began to wipe them casually. "I'm Ned. S-Sorry about before. I d-didn't mean to be rude. Th-Thanks for giving me my puffer."
I raised an eyebrow. His tough-guy attitude from before had completely melted. "I'm Steph," I said softly. "How did you get here?"
"I travelled from E-Ecruteak. Since the town was destroyed, I had no where to go. Do you have any food?"
I found it a bit unnerving talking to this stranger with Gregory staring wide-eyed at my every action. Pepper was at my side, stomach growling. Everyone's hungry. I don't think there's enough to feed everyone. "I don't," I replied glumly. "I don't think there's any left."
"Then we have to move," Ned sighed, lifting himself off his feet. Gregory's clawed hands appeared suddenly on either of his shoulders, and the Haunter's mouth chomped onto Ned's head, but the boy didn't seem to notice. "If you stay here, there might be more of those people."
"Did you know them?" I inquired. I hadn't ever seen them before. I hadn't seen anyone. It felt good talking again with another human being. Ned shook his head and glanced off towards the road that exited the city. His Haunter disappeared when he shook his head and reappeared at his feet, tongue hanging out.
"I don't know who they are, but I don't want to run into them again," he sighed, obviously discouraged. "Um, Steph? You haven't seen any other humans? All I see are wild Pokémon. I haven't seen another human since today."
I shook my head and patted Pepper's head. She looked up at me with pure glee. "It's only been Pepper and I since today."
"Do you think maybe we should... g-go?"
Go where? I thought despairingly. Goldenrod's radio was out, Ecruteak was as dead as Olivine and there were thugs running about. Survival seemed like a weak prospect in this situation. Still, I found myself agreeing with Ned. There was barely any food and barely a point to staying holed up in these ruins, especially if more thugs were appearing. I wanted to live - I wanted to survive. I wanted to find out who almost killed Ned, and I wanted to find out exactly what had happened. Why this tragedy happened.
"Alright, Ned," I started, completely set on what I was going to do. "Here's the deal. You, I, Gregory and Pepper, will go. Adventure, if you will. We'll only be searching for one thing."
"Food?" Ned said hopefully, so hopefully I was almost sad to shoot him down.
"We search for why. Why, and why only. Once we have answered why, we have to go our separate ways. Understand?" I said it confidently enough, but I began to wonder. If the world was as dangerous as it seemed, perhaps it would be good to have an ally like Ned. Looking over him now, he seemed like exactly the stereotype I placed him to be. Fat, sweaty, loser. Harsh, but accurate, it seemed.
"O-Okay." Ned pushed his glasses back up his face and stuttered. He didn't seem to like the prospect of splitting up either. Our destination was far off, though, and neither of us were prepared for what lay ahead. A quick glance at Pepper's eager, innocent eyes was all the inspiration I needed. I'd survive. Today, tomorrow, forever, if I had to.
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