"And if you'll just sign here please." A green gloved finger poked at the dotted line upon the paper.

Black ink swirled onto the page as the trainer signed her name, a pokéball resting upon the granite countertop beside the form, with a forlorn face before placing the pen back in its holder.

"Hey, don't feel so bad." The breeder scooped up the completed form, bending down slightly to gaze into the trainers downturned eyes with his own pair of brown. "Look at it this way; you've actually done the best thing for her giving her to us, and from what you've told me about her temper most trainers I know of would've just released her rather than bringing her to a ranch where we cater to her needs and possibly find her a new home." A re-assuring smile erupted beneath his nose that bent a bit too far the right to have been born with, while eyebrows rose to meet the red bandana before he disappeared beneath the counter to file the form away. "And anyway you can visit her any time you want, okay?" He popped up again.

The trainer nodded in response still feeling retched inside for just abandoning her Pokémon but a bit better thanks to the breeders efforts, whose name was Dylan going by the name card pinned onto his grey uniform shirt. She watched as plucked up the pokéball, the Camerupt within giving a glare through the semi translucent red glass, wondering if she was doing the right thing handing her Pokémon over to these people. She had received the Camerupt through a trade so she had expected some retaliation but the damage the Camerupt had caused whenever it was let out was just horrendous , and of course the trainer she had received it from had done a runner so there was no way of giving it back. Handing over the Camerupt to Floccesy had been the trainers last resort option if she couldn't get the Camerupt to calm down within a week or so.

"Have you said goodbye yet?" Dylan asked.

The Trainer nodded solemnly before exiting causing the bell above the door to ring joyfully.

Leaning upon the countertop with a sigh Dylan examined the contained Camerupt, apparently named Carly as stated by the recently completed form, who looked relatively healthy from what he could see of her well-kept fur, the defined blue circles along her sides being proof of good hygiene, though the volcanoes upon her back looked to be giving of an unhealthy amount of smoke which thee Pokéballs internal circuitry hurriedly got rid of. But of course he'd have to release her from the pokéball before giving a final verdict and seeing as the reception area he was currently in was already too small to swing a Mouth let alone a Camerupt around, with so many shelves overflowing with various Pokémon care products for sale, he'd have to go outside.

"Alight Carly lets go find Lenora to help give you a proper examination." He stated cheerfully, in an attempt to shake the awkwardness of the situation, as he tucked in the pokeball among his own four in the small bag that strapped around his waist like a belt.

There were two doors to the room often called a reception, just to sound sophisticate, one which the trainer had just gone through that led onto a small porch out front and another behind the counter at the back of the room nestled between two large piles of bagged Pokémon food, separate piles for the herbivores and carnivores. Passing through this door Dylan was led deeper into the barn, staff only of course, where various Pokémon were housed if they were ill, had special needs or just for a check-up. Now on the other side of the door Dylan turned to face the wall where a large board was hung just beside the door.

Now this board was a very important board that allowed Floccesy Ranch to run as well as it did At the top of the board were the names of each person who worked on the ranch arranged in columns that the ranch owner wrote in every morning the jobs each worker would have to do in their columns, whoever was working in the reception that day often had the least filled column and that person today was Dylan, as the workers completed the tasks they would then return to the barn for a quick drink and a snack while placing a tick next to their completed task.

Dylan clicked his tongue repeatedly as he traced his finger along the board, stopping at Lenora name and scrolled down instead to the first unticked task. He smirked upon seeing the task she had been given; Basculin feeding, one of the most hated tasks on the ranch next to killing Pokémon for their meat (while not many restaurants offered such meals there was still a demand for it).

"Right then so she's either hiding somewhere or down by the river trying not to get bitten to pieces." He noted with a nod and turned around to walk down the aisle with stalls containing Pokémon on both sides.

A few of these stalls had drip bags hung upon hooks feeding antibiotics and sedatives into the Pokémon, while each of the works on the ranch carried a small device that connected to a pokéball to heal the Pokémon inside much like the machines at a Pokecenter would, although at a slower rate, there were some injuries that required a longer recovery process that such machines could not offer.

The aisle ended with another door which led into the garage where the buggy and trailer where normally stored whenever not in use, both of which were currently nowhere to be seen replaced with the deafening sound of heavy rain drumming against the metal roof and sides as the wind spun around inside through the wide open door.

"Eyuck." Dylan commented upon the ghastly weather feeling a lot more thankful that he had been given reception duty for the day. He tapped the ground with his right foot in thought, the brown boots tapping only adding to the racket. He was perfectly capable of giving the newly arrived Camerupt a checkup by himself but he much preferred doing so with Lenora around as she was so much better with the whole medical side of things and always did her blonde hair up in a neat little bun before doing anything…

A loud crash of thunder accompanied the flash of lightening slamming Dylan back to reality to where a shadow in the garage doorway greeted him. Dylan almost leapt out of his skin in fright, brown eyes open wide hurriedly traced the shadow to the owner who wore a hooded cloak that hid their face terrifyingly well as well as any clothing underneath.

"…Hello?" Dylan approached the figure standing just outside in the rain trying hard not to stammer. The figure remained silently. "Sir…are…are you okay?" He took a tentative step foreward, his mind screaming for him not to for some reason and eyes struggling to pick out any features but coming up with nothing not even the damp patches that should be there as the heavy rain drops would've demanded. Something was very wrong.

ARE YOU TO BE THEIR SALVATION?

Dylan leapt back in terror, his left elbow striking a propped up broom that clattered to the ground, as what could only be described as a voice shouted in his mind but his ears swore they hadn't heard. "Who…who are YOU!?" Dylan made no attempt to his fear as his voice escalated to a shout. Who or what ever this thing was he wanted nothing to with it! Any logical thought had flown out the window as Dylan scrambled to the door which had previously passed through from the barn.

OR WILL YOU FALL…

He pulled desperately at the handle but the door remained firmly shut ignoring the breeder's panic stricken state. Dylan turned back to the stranger pressing his back firmly against the door, ignoring the handle that stabbed into his side, praying that Arceus would remove whatever that thing was and let the world never see it again.

…TO DEVASTATION?

And that was it for Dylan. His knees buckled as his mind snapped sending him sliding to the ground with the wall offering no support to his weak grasping hands. He swayed on his knees as his eyelids demanded to be shut just before he fell to the left, skull connecting with the hard concrete.

And thus the first chapter is done. This idea has been spinning around in my head for a few days now so I've been meaning to get it down and all the details, like names yes I'm looking at you Dylan, sewn in. Anyhoo hope you enjoyed it and in the next chapter the gang should be arriving. :D

Now as you can see Dylan is an OC because I couldn't find any ranchers or breeders that I liked of which I really wanted to use for this story so I threw him together from looking at the sprite, but you shall be glad to know that other than him and his pokemon no other OC's directly related the story should be appearing. Other than that stranger of course who I have no idea where they fit in in all this mess at all and maybe some stranger now and then.

Another quick note I have to make is that due to the manga of Highschool Of The Dead being effectively dead (hehehehe) I will being attempting fill in the various gaps with aid from Google.