YEARS SINCE THE ARC
Preface
Run. Breathe. Right. Jump down. Pick yourself up. Look back. Damn. Left. Right. Run. Run. RUN. He blindly threw himself forward through the hot archipelago jungle of the outlying islands of the Kanto region. He couldn't see anything. It was nighttime when they struck and it had only been an hour. Right? How long has it been? Where are they? Where am I? Where is my faction? Oh gods, I'm gonna die out here. I'm gonna die. That damned tauros did nothing for me. Military monster, my ass. That damned thing did nothing for me. It's been a week since I've written to Mother. I didn't tell Mariana that she was –
His foot caught the twisted root of a tree and he fell harshly to the rocky, dry ground. He winced in pain from his new wounds, but his body astoundingly kept him moving. He had no other choice. He wanted to live. Oh gods, let me live. I'm so young. "I'm too young", he choked as tears streamed down his cheek from pain and fear. He felt his throat close up and his chest get tight. The fight and flight feelings that had kept him alive since this ordeal began were slowly fading, giving way to feelings of hopelessness and impending doom. No. He had to keep moving, anywhere. He heard something behind him, a breaking of branches and a soft hiss. Wind rustled the trees, moving the hot breeze through the land, and with it the stench of blood and death from the corners of the world. From Hoenn and Sinnoh.
He didn't wait to see what the sound was coming from and ran another desperate mile before his panic became paralyzing and his pain became unbearable. Haphazardly looking for any haven, a large tree with gigantic roots provided what looked like a little crook to take respite. He collapsed in between the cool bark of the large roots and listened. His legs were numb from pain and exhaustion and he strained to hear above the blood pumping through his head, fueling thoughts he'd thought he'd never experience. Nothing. I hear nothing. Thank Arceus. He grabbed his pack off the ground next to him, opened it and grabbed some bandages. He started wrapping up his leg, going over the things he'd been through just in the past month. His life had changed so much since his eighteenth birthday.
It was the Year 4,823 Since the Arc. His entrance into adulthood was overshadowed by the world war between the Pokkén nations. Hoenn and Sinnoh laid claim to the continent of Fiore and moved on Kanto and Johto. The two connected countries aligned themselves against the others and mandated all able-bodied men to join the fight. There was no promise of victory. There was no promise the men would return home. All of them, eighteen to fifty, would be sent to their local gym centers to train with their Guard and Gatekeepers. They would be given military Pokkén-monsters and learn to train them as quickly as they could. There was no time to wait. Gods, if I could go back. I'd tell Mariana I loved her. I'd ask her to run away with me. I should've… I don't wanna die. He didn't even name his tauros. It seemed so trivial during the preparations for war, but now, he wished he did. He used to say that one day he'd train a monster and earn his hometown badge, just to say he could. He would have gotten a job at the local foundry and marry Mariana. Oh, gods. Come on, dammit. Stay alive. Don't die. Get the hell outta here. He collected himself, grabbed his pack, took a deep breath and stood up.
And there, suspended above him, was the seviper he'd been running from for the last hour.
It was massive. The indigo reptilian devil was hanging from the low branches of the tree, as the higher branches would break under the weight of its girth. It was well over twenty feet in length and only a large man would have been able to wrap his arms around it. Its red eyes were stationed upon a massive head ordained with yellow patterns that mesmerized him. Looking into its eyes, he felt deep comfort that relinquished his shock and gave him a peace that would seem quite contradictory in a setting such as this. The seviper teased out its large forked tongue, fluttering it lightly as if it were a leaf in the hot jungle winds, savoring its prey that it had already won. The seviper glided yet even closer to him, now only a foot away from him. Those crimson eyes were all the soldier's tear-filled ones could see; they were the only things in the woods. Darkness enveloped the entire universe except for those eyes. Fighting through the space where his mind was previously, he could almost hear his thoughts, his silent screams, his paralyzed muscles screaming at him to move. They were begging him to do something, calling him by his name. What was his name? He wondered for just a second but abandoned the thought. He didn't mind it. Those devilish eyes could feel the fear escaping his eyes and could see his soul submit before the bite even came. And then it did.
"Atta girl. Good gods, what a chase." The leather-clad soldier finally found his serpent after hearing the sound of bones crushing as he got closer. He left his beast to enjoy its meal below as he climbed up the trees and looked above the canopies to get a perspective on the battle. At the top, he saw brush as far as the eyes could see. He saw bolts of electricity connect with victims on the ground below as the earth crackled with thunderous might. He heard branches break and sharpened leaves fly from the creatures that fought on the front lines. He looked above. In the air, fire spit from dragon mouths as they flew low over the trees. Even higher, aviaries clashed in the skies, causing trainer and beast to tumble to their deaths miles below. Beyond this wilderness, the island was surrounded by ocean where there'd be monsters of the deep fighting for naval superiority.
He heard the groans of the branches as his seviper stuck its head out of the leaves, awaiting its master's next command. Its forked tongue flirted with the tastes the air held, stopping only to pop it back into its mouth rhythmically, like it counted the seconds until it was told what to do next. The soldier reached out and scratched the creature between its eyes and moved over to it. He put his arms around its neck, laid his stomach along its long, scaly body and whistled in a singular manner. It listened, slithered down the tree and made its way to their next rendezvous point.