Streetlamps glow yellow in the cool nighttime air. Cars pass by occasionally on cracked cobblestone roads. Shutters and windows are closed on the few houses that are occupied.
Welcome to Rustboro - at the very least, welcome to one of its more sparsely populated areas.
Three hooded men roam the streets, leaning on each other for support, stumbling often. One of them collapses into the gutter, sending a small wave of muddy rainwater into the street. He begins to snore. His companions pay him no heed and continue in a drunken stupor.
One of them begins to hoarsely whisper a particularly vulgar melody, his exceptionally dry throat preventing him from belting it out at the top of his lungs. A frightened Poochyena sprints away into the shadows, abandoning a food-filled rubbish bin.
After half an hour of this, the two men part ways, doing their best to say their goodbyes but slurring too much to understand each other. The singing man continues on his zigzagging path toward his isolated house at the very edge of the city.
A pair of Haunter watch from an alley, intent on finding something to eat, and decide that the man is not worth their time. He stumbles on and misses his house, moving beyond the edge of the city.
He stops when he realizes he is no longer surrounded by tall, stone buildings. He looks round and is immediately sobered by what he sees.
A dozen pairs of red eyes stare back at him from the bushes on either side of Route 104.
He freezes in fear. A cloud moves away from in front of the moon, and the moonlight reveals more watchers. They crowd around the city, all of them staring unblinkingly. The entire area is bathed in a red glow from the sheer number of watching eyes.
The foremost creature steps forward.
Hundreds, thousands of Absol slowly close in on the city as one. The leader, unusually tall and slender, looks at the man. She somehow conveys a message to him.
"We come to warn you of calamity and harm. Alert the city. Rouse the masses. Make peace with your God, for many people will die here."
The man screams in terror and bolts back to his house, not stopping for breath until his door is safely locked.
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