Red Genesis
through smog and blood
by the call of gods
from waste and death
the phoenix shall rise again
now pure.
through smog and blood
by the call of gods
from waste and death
the phoenix shall rise again
now pure.
Goldenrod City
The people of the city go by, bustling along as always. They don’t stop to look up at each other; they simply walk on, for they all have somewhere to be, and even if they don’t they have no reason to slow down. It is late afternoon, and the sun is beginning to turn red in the sky, though the sun seems far away for all the smog in the air here. Is it my mission, then, to make the sun come closer to Earth?
Perched atop a short building in the busiest square in the city was a man in a dark coat. He looked down at the people wandering by, his ruby eyes full of disdain. What was it that these people were hurrying for? Did they think that they were doing something meaningful, or did they simply wish to get to their meaningless destinations more quickly? Would they worry when things went wrong, or was the world all fun and games when you didn’t know what you had done to the past…?
He held his black hood on as he looked at the sky. As always, it was raining ever-so-slightly here, making it even more depressing to look through the smog and rain to the warm glow of the setting sun. Had anyone noticed him, sitting up here so conspicuously? It was doubtful—people didn’t seem to look around enough these days, to see something interesting or out of the ordinary. They were simply too content with that ordinary life… they wouldn’t understand if it hit them in the face: a revolution was coming, and they could not stop it. He could only further it; no one could stop it, not after the grand Alpha Pokémon had so willed it. Would they try to stop it if they even knew? He wondered silently, breathing in the disgusting air.
His free hand fidgeted slightly as he ran his fingers across the small device. A detonator. With this, he would show the foolish, crowded humans what was coming to them; he would show them that the revolution was on its way…
A mad grin crossed the bomber’s inhuman face as he waited.
Ecruteak City
In the streets of the city’s west end, a pair of well-dressed girls walked along. Well, more like the shorter of the two dragged her dark-haired friend off in some strange direction.
“Tanya! Where are you taking me?!” the taller of the two girls, resisting being dragged by her extremely chipper friend, called as they ran through the crowd. Her lab coat cut up in the breeze as she did so; they were both wearing their coats, marking them clearly as researchers.
“To the theatre! My favorite dance act is here tonight, so we should definitely go see them!” Tanya grinned widely, not even looking back at her friend. “I know we should be hurrying on to Blackthorn so we can study whatever it is the boss sent us after, but I wouldn’t miss Pasha and Tigre for the world, and you should agree with me!” Tanya was much less… professional than her partner, but that didn’t stop them from working well together.
Karen, the unfortunate victim of Tanya’s scheme, had no idea what the dance act consisted of, but she was up for taking a break from travelling… they had been going since they left the lab in Sinnoh this morning, and that was enough flying for one day. Besides the fact that trains are even less fun than planes, she mused. They had been sent to Johto together to look at some samples in an affiliated lab in Blackthorn City, which they didn’t trust being flown cross-country. Both Tanya and Karen were researchers of Pokémon, after all. “Then can we at least slow down and grab a bite to eat? I’m tired of airport food…”
Tanya stopped on a dime, almost throwing Karen across the street. “Good idea,” she said, short brown hair waving about in the wind. Her large brown eyes scanned the area, then settled on a fast food joint nearby. “How about there? That looks good.”
Tanya wasn’t a particularly imposing girl; she was about a year younger than her partner and quite a bit shorter, with wild brown hair and dark eyes. She had a pretty average build with much more impressive assets than her friend. Her skin was pale, but not nearly as sickly-pale as Karen’s; it had a much more yellow tone than white. But she always wore long sleeves under her lab coat…
Karen nodded. “Ok, but let’s walk there. We have an hour and a half before your precious dance show starts.” Tanya laughed and nodded sheepishly. With that, the two headed to the restaurant, not at all worried about what the day may hold.
Blackthorn City
“Get out of the way!”
“Why’s she just standing there?”
“Hey, this is a busy intersection, lady!”
Standing in nearly the middle of the road was a somewhat strange-looking young woman. She wore a hooded coat with the hood fully up, but her face and hair escaped smoothly to move with the breeze. Indeed, her hair was long and white, beautifully silky as it hovered around her thin body. Right around her face, a bit of dark brown hair fell, framing her baby blue eyes and blank expression. Her black coat billowed with her hair, but managed not to betray what lay beneath.
Suddenly, her expression became alert, and she looked around. Then, mouthing incoherent words and nodding slightly in apology, she ducked out of the street and onto the nearest sidewalk. She shook her head slightly, looking at the ground from five feet up. No one around would know why she had stopped like that while crossing the street, but she knew: something bad was about to happen… she just happened to be able to tell that, and that’s why she couldn’t help but stop. It surprised her. She didn’t look up as she walked along, hugging her coat close to her body. She watched her bright white shoes and dark brown pants trot on as she walked toward the edge of the city.
She bumped into another pedestrian and almost lost her hood, then mumbled out an incoherent apology. After that feeling, she just wasn’t fully there. She was a creature of Disaster, after all—but the intensity of that sensation was more than she was used to, which is what distracted her so. She needed to get out of here, to where it was safe.
And so she kept walking.
((You are all currently living in (or visiting) Johto—specifically one of the three cities Goldenrod, Ecruteak, or Blackthorn. It is mid-afternoon wherever you may be, as the day begins to wind down and the sun starts to set a little. The weather seems fair enough, though as usual it’s drizzling in Goldenrod, which is the largest of the three cities I mentioned. Ecruteak and Blackthorn are nearly the same size now.
Johto is probably the healthiest country at the time, except for the coastal areas. There have been earthquakes and storms reported, but it is simply better off than many others. Kanto is not so bad, either, though more of the country has been affected by massive earthquakes exploiting faultlines and the Diglett Tunnel. Hoenn has been rendered nigh uninhabitable by hurricanes coming from the eastern sea, and the decay of its forests has left many old cities without a foot to stand on. Sinnoh has been completely divided into West and East Sinnoh by Mt. Coronet, as there is no longer any good way to pass it. You can’t fly over it due to the magnetic fields; the inside of the cave is target for frequent rockslides and is now impassible. The only way to go is to go around Mt. Coronet. Either way, the many coastal areas of the country have suffered greatly, and West Sinnoh is in very poor shape since it lost its forestry, though a couple of cities remain.
In general, there are more desert-style areas than ever before, though areas where forests once stood are more like marshy wastelands. Plains have become deserts or dry wastelands. All of the air is rather polluted; trains and airplanes carry people from city to city. However, the mountains around Blackthorn are tall, and there is a chance that life remains in them; the same applies to the depths of the caves and islands with underwater entrances. Remember that pollution is rampant, though cities have filtration systems keeping the air near the ground clean.
Take a moment to show me where you are; I won’t wait too long, though, before things start to happen. So sorry for taking too long... @.@))