A/N: I deleted the other Pokemon story of mine, unfortunately. There were too many inconsistencies with the OCs, especially with the past of most of them, to fit them into that story, and I didn't want to PM their authors to change them, what with me already accepting the OCs…SO I TOOK THE WORST POSSIBLE PATH AND DELETED IT AND MADE ANOTHER ONE. But it's summer, so I'll be finishing most of my OC stories during this period, hopefully!

I don't own Pokemon! Just my OCs! Enjoy Chapter 1!

.

I want to live,
I want to die,
I want to have a name to call my own.

.

.

The sky was clear, for once.

There wasn't a lot of smoke today, which I'm glad for. It was rather dusty lately, which made traveling a lot harder. Not to mention, my flashlight was dimming and I was running out of spare batteries. The clunky version I was using was a little out of date and used a lot more resources than the later models.

But, I didn't have enough materials to sell. Nothing valuable at least. Except for my friend.

He was hanging in the little ball swinging by my waist. Sleeping, as usual.

He was the only thing that really kept me sane in this insane world. Kept me sane when everything was silent and the only thing that could talk were the voices in my head and him. However, a majority of people would think living as a vagabond was stressful, but I think it also kept me free in some way.

The people tied down to a makeshift town tended to die earlier, anyway.

Despite the blue sky, the rest of the landscape was mostly the same. The mounds of rubble and crumbling stone structures still littered the area, even though most of the land was forest now. The roads deteriorated enormously over the past few months; I swore it was asphalt, but now it was just a lot of dirt.

Most of everything here was dirt. It's strange to hear dirt crunching underneath my feet, but the ground wasn't just dirt now; even stone was reduced to powder after the attack. But because of that attack, sometimes I'm lucky enough to find some kind of metal on my travels.

Kind of like now.

Out of the corner of my eye, something glimmered. Nothing glimmered out here on the roads, unless it was something valuable. Maybe it was copper. Hope silently swelled in my empty stomach, unlike the constant growling piercing the peaceful air.

"Come on out, buddy," I clicked the button on the Pokeball and a bright light flashed for a moment, dying away to reveal the only friend I've had for a long time. The only contact with a living being for months, actually.

My Zangoose bent down on all fours, his eyes perusing the area around me, fur on end. Too many times have I been ambushed by rogues in similar positions as I. Apparently, I take a long time releasing my Pokemon, and when I do, I let down my guard.

But he's always there with his claws, always there to protect me for when I can't protect myself.

"I think there's some metal around here, I saw it shining earlier," I tightened my ponytail, readying myself for the hike up the mountain of rubble. "Might be a pole of some kind."

Zangoose growled, but prowled up with me, his expression the same angry expression that normally dominated his features. It wasn't like he was angry at me; it was the neutral expression that he had.

It made me wonder what my neutral expression was. Was I always mad? Or maybe I just looked indifferent? I hadn't seen a mirror for a long time, since maybe the last camp I stopped at to sell my goods.

As both of us finally made it to the top, I dug around the shining scrap of something. I could feel the dirt sticking in my fingernails, but it didn't make a lot of a difference, since my fingernails were already grimy. I managed to dig around it and Zangoose sniffed at it curiously, his nose almost touching the metal.

Turns out it was part of a larger pole. It mostly surprised me that it was intact.

Now I just had to get it out of there…

Zangoose looked at me with an exasperated expression, then at a high-speed, burrowed around the pole, clearing out a large portion of the pole.

"...I forgot you had Dig, huh…" I smacked my forehead and Zangoose just shook his head disappointedly. Sometimes, I forget that things are a lot different now. "Well, now we can split it up into smaller pieces, with those claws of yours."

In a swift move, he sliced the section of the pole with Crush Claw, the separated parts clanging to the ground loudly. Suddenly, the area felt a lot quieter than it was before.

"Hold it, Zangoose." I pressed my lips together, eyes squinting. There wasn't anything amiss, but…something felt wrong. Obviously. He looked around with me, his ears pricking up.

"Zangoose," he hissed, and with his claw, pointed at the distance. People were coming. Loud, rowdy people. Those were the types to steal from others, because they thought they were stronger, just with numbers. Those were also the type of people I avoided like the plague. All they did was take from others.

"Alright, gotta hide, gotta hide…" I looked around rapidly. There was nothing to hide behind except for the huge mounds of rubble, but they would definitely be checking the piles out. Then again, better something than nothing.

Piling dirt back onto the metal pole, I hid, pulling Zangoose close to me, feeling the rise and fall of his chest against mine. It felt a little warmer, but maybe that was just the sweat of my palms against his fur. He growled lowly, but didn't resist the squeezing of my arms around him. The people obviously were a danger if he wasn't trying to get away from me.

"God, everything is great out here in the open, huh?" They were loud, something that I never was. Irritation boiled in my veins.

"Man, living without those rules really satisfies the body!" Someone yelled and several birds fluttered from the overgrown trees on the sides of the path. "Who would ever wanna go back to the camps?"

"Not me!"

Raucous, annoying laughter. Zangoose gave me a warning stare when my fists curled up. I wanted to punch them so much…

In my angry daze, I forgot that the metal pipe was supposed to be snug in my arm. I felt it slipping from between my arms and scrambling to grab it, I kicked several rocks from the pile, watching in horror as they rolled down, crackling all the way.

Well, I'm screwed.

"You hear that?"

"Sounded like a little rat, tryin'a get by us…"

Their voices were getting louder and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. There was no way we could get by without a fight, and I wasn't sure whether or not they had weapons on them. A gun was probably the worst case scenario and I couldn't risk that. Zangoose's tail was bushing up and I reached inside my jacket, fingering the handle of the hidden knife.

I heard the crunching of rocks underneath their heavy feet and my heart rate accelerated.

Everything seemed to slow down once they reached the end. They were turning to look at me, and with a leap, I whipped the knife out and reached for his neck. I watched with a satisfied smirk as his face contorted in surprise and fear when my arm hooked around his neck.

When I glanced to the side, Zangoose had the other guy tackled, his claws at his throat, hissing like mad.

"S-shit! Bitch, get offa me!" The guy struggled wildly, until I showed him the knife and hovered it above his stomach.

"Lay it off," I snarled in his ear. "Leave!"

"F-fine! W-we're going!" He was stuttering uncontrollably, but the second I let go of him, he cackled and whipped out a longer knife. It gleamed and I pressed my lips together. Thankfully, Zangoose was holding off the other guy. By now, it was clear they didn't have Pokemon, which was common more in the camps than with the wanderers.

They must've been through a lot to survive for however long they had been wandering. Wild Pokemon had gotten a lot stronger and weren't very afraid of people now, which meant seeing a lot more bits of people on the various paths.

"You're so stupid!" He barked and waved his weapon around in front of him. "Come closer and I'll cut your friend here! He'd sell for a nice price!"

He was edging towards Zangoose, with that knife still extended and a cold sweat chilled me. It was impossible for Zangoose to concentrate on two struggling attackers, especially in the position he was in.

"Like hell am I gonna let you!"

I tackled the other guy before he could cut Zangoose, but in the process, the man's knife sliced my shoulder cleanly. At first there was no pain except for a sharp sting and the stench of salt hitting my nose. In that short period of time, I yanked the knife from his grip and stood over him, my foot crushing his chest.

But then the pain hit me. A throbbing overcame me and my shoulder stung like a thousand beestings'.

"Shit…" I muttered lowly, swaying off of the guy. He was coughing madly, unlike his petrified partner. Zangoose hadn't killed him, thankfully, probably just scared the pants off of him.

I pointed the tip of the knife to both of them, growling, "Don't you dare come back for us."

Zangoose scampered off to grab the metal pipe that had dropped and he waddled on two feet back to me, sticking the rod into my backpack until it disappeared. I guess we didn't get as much as we wanted to.

He eyed the seeping wound and growled something under his breath. "Zangoose…Zan…"

Although I saw him licking his own wounds, it was clear he was hesitant to do the same to me. Did he fear it would hurt, or did he not want to taint himself with human blood? I scrunched my face up and with my uninjured arm, scratched his head fondly.

"Don't worry, we should be near the camp. I can ask for help there," I forced out a grin, then rifled through my pack for some bandages. There was a strip left, barely enough to wrap around my shoulder, but it would have to do.

I needed to get to that town fast, then.

.

.

I wait with this final thought, that no one is my friend. Humans, at least.

A/N: I'm accepting OCs! :D Just like the last story, but I'll be finishing this one, guaranteed! Please follow the form and don't c/p your other OC onto a PM and send it to me...I lose information that I need, and you don't get the joy of molding another character out of nothing for me to use :)

This takes place in what's left of Unova, but all region Pokemon are accepted. However, moving from region-to-region is limited unless you're part of the rich world, in which case you're probably not a trainer. Just keep that in mind when you're writing the past section.

Here's the form: (Accepting through PM only! Also, delete the stuff in parentheses if you're sending them to me!)

Name:
Age: (preferably around 17-40)
Gender:
Appearance: (keep in mind that this is a post-apocalyptic type fic, so nothing is going to be of really good quality, unless you're the rich kind of person, but if it's not fitting with the rest of your character, I'll just notify you to change it)
Personality: (everyone has their flaws, everyone has their strengths, if something is off about them, I'll ask for additional info)

Family: (basic information about their parents, siblings)
Past: (refer to the apocalypse as the Attack, I guess; it's kind of a vague topic, but think of the Attack as all of the regions being destroyed by violent weather, death, disaster-like things caused by some mystical power?)

Pokemon: (limit of 2)
[For each Pokemon, put Personality, Moveset (up to 6 moves), History w/ Pokemon]

Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Fears:

Misc. Info: (whatever you want me to know about them, quirks, things they do when they're nervous, etc.)

R&R, makes me happy to see people commenting and reviewing my work, whether flames, constructive criticism, or praise!
-Vis