Jaden

The factions that rose to power following The Collapse functioned as independent political entities. Each faction controlled its own territory, and was headed by officers who commanded strong pokémon. People who had been pokémon trainers in just about any capacity comprised military power. Other members were typically builders, producers, and scavengers. Anyone who sought a faction's protection committed themselves to its ranks, and contributed to the community in any way possible. All factions shared a common goal: survival. Jaden was a member of The Falling Stars. He had been assigned to a small party to salvage supplies. Factions often sent agents into the derelict towns and cities in search of food, medicine, tools, and the like. It was treacherous work – ultra beasts were brazen creatures. And any seemingly abandoned house or school or windmill or lighthouse could be sheltering brigands.

The orange glow of dusk was sinking beneath the horizon as the indigo sky began to fade, revealing the first stars of the evening over the cul-de-sac. It was a cute little community lined with a series of identical homes. They were white houses, with grassy yards and large window panes for bright, airy interior layouts. They had certainly been prettier in their prime, in the days before the lawns had grown three feet high. The contents of houses such were worth more than gold. Many of them were even equipped with backup generators, and retained refrigerated goods to the present day.

Jaden sat in the back of the black SUV, parked in the middle of the asphalt circle, legs dangling over the edge. Behind him stood a measly stockpile of packaged foods and bottled water. A front door opened and Penny emerged cradling three huge frozen steaks in her arms, her cyndaquil, Cinnamon, following closely behind. She was a short, petite girl of sixteen with lily-white skin, a waist-length cascade of wavy copper-colored hair, innocent icy blue eyes, and at least ten thousand freckles. She shot a big grin towards Jaden, in silent celebration of her finding.

"Where were those?" he asked, impressed.

"There was a freezer behind the water heater."

"I thought we'd gotten it all," he went on as he slid a cooler from the pile behind him towards Penny. He opened it to reveal a chest full of ice, and some frozen poultry, and helped her unload her haul.

"That's because you don't look hard enough," she teased, grinning.

"You have a good eye."

Penny threw her gaze up at the blackening sky, "One thing I like, is how you can see way more stars now. Have you noticed that?"

"Yeah. It's nice." He had not.

It was initially Jaden's suggestion to bring Penny along for scavenging. He had pleaded with his superiors that she was a deceptively strong trainer, and deserved the opportunity to prove her usefulness. In truth, he only wanted to take her on missions with him.

"Let's find the others," said Jaden as he hopped to the ground, swung the SUV's back cover closed behind him, and made for the driver seat.

Penny scooped up her cyndaquil from the ground and cradled it in her arms, making her way to the passenger seat. Jaden started the engine. They drove out of the cul-de-sac, windows down, up the street, around the corner, and found a white SUV lazily parked half in the street and half in a driveway. Two more agents, Carter and Lilith, emerged from the house to which it belonged, empty-handed. Carter was about thirty, tall, sinewy, and blond with blue eyes that never seemed fully open but missed nothing, and a scruffy beard of brown and yellow and red. Lilith was about twenty, a slender olive-skinned woman, green-eyed with full breasts, straight jet black hair that fell to her narrow waist, and a face that seemed to condemn everything she saw. A man's gaze did not easily escape her. Carter approached Jaden's car as Lilith opened the passenger door of the other car and hopped in, appearing not to notice them.

"How was your haul?" asked Jaden.

"Miserable," replied Carter, flatly, "People have been here before. Half of the houses have nothing. You?"

"We found frozen meat in two houses."

"Nice."

"Should we call it a day?"

"I need to hit a recharging station. There's one not too far out of the way from here. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea for you either."

Jaden glanced at the battery level of his car, "Yeah, you're right."

Carter went back to his car, pulled out onto the street, and then he was off, Jaden following a short distance behind. They drove out of the suburbs onto a lonely country road, rolling green fields on either side, with the occasional barn or grain silo in the distance. These had once been farms, but years of neglect allowed nature to reclaim the land. Penny stared out the window with her cyndaquil on her lap, her head following this and that as things came into view and then disappeared behind them. Jaden wanted to start a conversation, but remained silent for lack of a topic that Penny was likely to find interesting. He cursed himself silently. He had four years on her – entertaining her should be easy.

The glow of the day had all but faded by the time they reached the charging station. It was a small white building on a patch of asphalt just off the side of the road. A large canopy hung above the recharging area, where cars were parked and connected to the massive batteries beneath the ground. Carter pulled in, and Jaden followed. The cars stopped, and the drivers exited. They each extended a cord from their car, and linked it to a receptacle on the charging station.

Jaden glanced at the building behind them. He considered suggesting to search the inside, when the double doors swung open and all thoughts were flung from his head.

Two men emerged from inside with unfriendly faces. They were each probably in their forties. One was fat and bald with arms like bags of rocks. The other was slim with thin black hair brushed back, and wore an eye patch. Jaden took a quick look around – there were no other cars in sight.

Carter stepped towards them, "Can I help you gentlemen?" he asked, sharply.

"Yes you can," replied the fat one, just as sharply, "We're not giving away power for free."

"We don't want any trouble," warned Jaden.

"Neither do we," replied the fat one, amused. "We just want something for what you're taking."

"You really have no idea who I am, so I'm going to give you two one more chance to fuck off," growled Carter, reaching into his coat pocket.

Lilith emerged from the passenger seat and took her place next to Carter. The men's faces lit up as if they had never seen a woman.

The thin man laughed, "Is she going to fight too?"

Her eyes flared into a green rage.

"By myself I could tear you faggots to pieces," she hissed.

"I'll tell you what," the fat one went on tauntingly, "Leave the girl here and we'll let you charge your cars for free."

The thin one laughed again.

Lilith drew a poké ball and opened it, calling out a swampert. The creature materialized with a throaty cry. The men drew their own poké balls. The fat one sent out a roaring nidoking, the thin one a screeching victreebel. Carter called out a bronzong, which emerged from its capsule with a deep non-organic buzz. In an instant, the victreebel extended a flurry of vines and wrapped itself around Lilith's swampert, constricting it. The amphibian strained and struggled in its grasp. The fat man shouted an order, and his nidoking belched fire at Carter's bronzong, illuminating the area in a red-orange glow.

Lilith shouted "Ice beam!" and her swampert launched a cruel cold blast towards the flytrap pokémon. The victreebel cringed and screeched as the heat left its body and frost covered its leafy skin. It retracted its vines, overcome with pain. Carter commanded his bronzong to attack. It rose to the air above the flames, eyes glowing pink and purple. The air became wavy, as it exerted an extrasensory attack on the nidoking. The monster lurched and struggled and the flames dissipated, as the psychic pokémon struck and beat at it with an invisible force.

Carter and Lilith's pokémon were plainly stronger, and it was palpable on their opponents' faces. The two men continued to shout commands, but the bronzong and swampert had taken the offensive, and their own pokémon could do little to defend themselves. The victreebel fell first, collapsing to the ground in a slump of leaves and vines.

"Send it flying!" commanded Carter.

The bronzong cried out in its queer buzz once again, and focused its psycho kinetic energy to lift the nidoking from the ground, and launched it over the charging station. The creature groaned meekly as it sailed through the air, and then crashed into the ground somewhere on the other side of the building. By now, they had clearly rued their decision.

Jaden stepped forward, ultra ball in hand, "Got anymore pokémon? I want to have some fun too."

"Alright, this time you can charge up for free," the fat man said, much too confidently for the situation he was in.

"My bronzong could pull your spine out through your mouth if I told it to," Carter warned.

The two men glared wordlessly in a queer blend of rage and fear.

"This station is ours now," added Lilith.

"This is where we live, bitch!" shouted the thin one.

"You really want to die for this place?" replied Lilith as she rested a hand on her swampert's head.

"Go! Now!" yelled Carter as his bronzong floated beside him, ready for another command.

The thin man recalled his defeated victreebel to its poké ball, and then followed the fat one behind the building, howling curses and threats all the while. A flash of light appeared on the other side as the fat one recalled his broken nidoking, and then they began their trudge into the dark grassy field beyond.

Lilith returned her swampert to its poké ball. Finally, Penny emerged from the car with Cinnamon in her arms, visibly shaken. She set the little creature on the ground and joined the others.

Lilith turned towards Penny with a face that cut right through her, "Now you make an appearance? Now?"

Penny was wordless – icy blue eyes wide with shame. She opened her mouth as if to speak, but remained silent nonetheless.

Lilith went on, "The next time something like this happens and you stay hidden, I'm going to drag you out of your little hole and slap the shit out of you." She spit the words as if they were poison.

"Lilly!" shouted Jaden in Penny's defense.

"Shut the fuck up," she barked, storming through the double doors into the station building.

Carter sighed and shook his head, pressing a palm to his brow. Jaden chewed his lip. Lilith had a point – he had feared that Penny would not be able to pull her weight. She was the only one of the four who had no battling experience. Carter, Lilith, and Jaden had all been accomplished trainers in the old world. Carter followed her inside. They flicked on the lights to find a general store lined with rows and freezers of foodstuffs: snack foods, instant meals, frozen meat, water, soda, and miscellaneous supplies galore.

They discovered a trapdoor behind the counter, with a ladder leading to a basement featuring more supplies, a television, and four cots. At Carter's suggestion, they filled their cars with as much supplies as they could stuff inside. The SUV's reached capacity, and the indicators beeped to affirm that the batteries had been fully charged. Penny took her place with her cyndaquil in the passenger seat. Jaden swung the trunk closed, and then approached the double doors of the station building, where Carter and Lilith stood with the bronzong levitating nearby.

Carter turned to Lilith, "I'm staying here. Go back to base with Jaden and Penny, and tell Karina what we've found. I'm not leaving this place until we can take every morsel of food and every ounce of electricity."

"I'm staying with you," she said defiantly.

"No, Lil, I need you to take the car back. Penny can't drive."

Lilith rolled her eyes, "Of course she can't."

Jaden ignored her. "You're going to be alright by yourself?" he asked.

"If those shits think they're coming back here anytime soon, I'll set a feast for the birds."

His bronzong buzzed in agreement.

Jaden unplugged his car and took his place in the driver seat. Lilith pulled out from the station first, racing down the road with no attention to the rest of the team. Penny sat with her cyndaquil sleeping on her lap, head sunk downward, still wounded by Lilith's words. He pulled onto the road, in no hurry to catch up with the faint taillights slipping further away in the night. The car fell to silence, and minutes seemed as hours as Jaden drove them through the dark country roads.