The update is very late, sorry for that, but you don't need to hear my excuses. I am trying to implement a new writing schedule though, so there shouldn't be anymore three month waits for the seven of you following this story.

I don't feel like talking much right now.

AUGUST 19th

My eyes snapped open, fire in my spine and electricity in my legs, sending me upright in an instant, driven by a feeling somewhere between fear and shock. I looked around frantically, and relaxed calmed slightly, but only slightly- only slightly. The area held no immediate discernible danger, but was alien beyond belief.

Wooden logs piled on all sides of me, a decent sized room for any log cabin. But despite the lack of exposure to the elements, hail hung in midair, and fire- a small flash of head- held suspended and frozen in the air.

As I saw the hail above my head I rose my hands to cover my head, bracing for the moments the sharp clear ice crashed towards my skin. After several tense seconds, I lowered my arms and re-evaluated, confusion passing through my mind.

'Time is... nonexistent' I realized, as the crystals defied gravity, the flash of light was contented and did not spread or expand. I rose unsteadily to my feet, not constrained by the law of time in this particular instant. I ran my fingers through the air and grabbed on of the pieces through the hail, grabbing a small piece out of the air and pressing it between my fingers.

'It's not cold. And sharp- glass, not ice.' I decided, letting go of it, allowing it to hang suspended in the air. I moved next to the small flash and ran my hand near it, testing to see if it was as it seemed, and recoiled from the heat 'But the fire is fire. Definitely fire.'

I turned around and walked back the way I came, intent on investigating a piece of furniture, a dresser, careful to duck around the glass I made my way across the room. A faint and shrill buzzing cut through the timeless silence, seizing my attention. I turned slowly following the direction of the noise to a single broken window.

One cautious step forward, then a second, followed by a third as I moved through the alien world.

"Hey wake up" Jenny's voice urged "We need to get ready to go."

My eyes slowly creaked open at the officer's prompting, finding myself in the same room I had found with Lawrence and Jenny the day before. I rose slowly to my feet and stretched my back, throwing my arms in the air as I yawned before tiredly shutting my mouth and looking at the clock on the wall "People usually don't get up until the hour hand is on the OTHER side of the clock, why are we up so early?"

Jenny dismissed my tired complaint "Lawrence said he wanted to go by dawn, and we don't even know where we're going yet, we need to get everything together and decide which way to go." Jenny explained "But we found coffee, if you're tired from staying out too late last night."

"Was I?" I asked "I don't really remember much of what happened last night. Last thing I remember from last night was finishing up what I was doing. And coffee? What kind of water treatment plant has coffee?"

"Apparently this one, Lawrence found it in desk drawer, he seems to be good at sniffing the stuff out".

"Alright, where's Lawrence?"

"He's in the next room over, trying to look over a map in order to figure out our options. I think he'd want to know that you're awake now, so we can start discussing soon." Jenny paused for a moment, trying to find words to continue "What Lawrence said yesterday. About your memory, is it true?"

"I don't see why he would lie about it, but it is. I can't remember what happened before a couple days ago" I said.

Jenny winced at my frankness "What about that girl you buried though? Did you remember her?"

I stood absolutely still, but inside I pandemonium, first confusion- after all, why did I bring her? When the memories came back into conscious thought I became afflicted with an intense storm of emotions and conflicting of reactions, and rage came out on top- senseless, brutal rage, self-justified rage.

And as quickly and abruptly as it appeared, it was gone.

I steadied myself as I prepared my answer 'Sometimes a half truth can answer a question better than a whole truth' I reasoned 'Besides, I'm not broken piece of china, I will not let people think as much. Also, given Lawrence's reaction its best not to do anything to cause more trauma.'

"She was the first thing I saw when I woke up, and I hadn't noticed what had happened to her yet. Something was coming, so I grabbed her and ran."

"And after you realized?"

"You know what they say about a job half finished."

Jenny's eyes softened slightly, her brief interrogation ending "I'm sorry that you had to go through that"

'You have no idea' "Its not your fault, not really anyone's fault. Just a classic case of 'wrong place, wrong time'" I feigned nonchalance, exaggerating with a shrug of my shoulders at the end "Any ways, you said Lawrence needed to discuss something, was it our destination?"

Jenny gave a quick shake of her head "No, he has something different in mind for you and I while he figures out what we should do. I think he'll want to explain it himself, he's in the next room over on the right."

"Alright, thanks" I said, already moving for the door and giving Jenny a curt nod as I exited the room.

The hallway was just as I remembered it, except that Magnezone was now patrolling it with vigilance. I patted it on the head twice as I attempted to circumvent it in the narrow hallway, to which it gave a monotonous 'bzzzzzzzt' and resumed its duty.

The room in which Lawrence was in was similar to the first, but more bare. It was smaller, and almost entirely empty except for a clock, a set of shelves, and the chair and desk Lawrence sat at, meticulously scrutinizing the complex paper that turned roads into lines and cities into small black ink drops. The paper appeared to have been written on, several scratches of lead stretched across its surface.

As I entered, Lawrence turned his attention towards the door "Mornin' kid, looks lie you're starting your day bright and early eh? Well, maybe a bit less bright than early." Laweremce chuckled at his joke while I stood there, apathetic. Lawrence gestured to a corner of the room where a shelve on one wall met another "Yeah, guess its not so funny when you're tired, there's the coffee maker, and here" he said reaching in a desk drawer and pulling out a cup and handing it to me.

I nodded in thanks and walked over to the coffee pitcher and began pouring myself a cup "So Jenny said you had something in mind before we left?"

"Just a little something to help our chances." Lawrence affirmed.

"Alright, do tell"

Lawrence pulled out another map, this one on a much more narrow scale, showing Goldenrod City. "Okay, so we are here" Lawremce said, pointing to a small patch of land bordering the west coast of a peninsula on the region map "Now Goldenrod is a big city, it housed most of the population on this side of the peninsula, so there is a large area in all directions that is almost entirely uninhabited, save for a few farms scattered here and there with maybe a town or two nearby."

"So there won't be many supplies to scavenge, can we make the trip with what we have?"

"Sprinting nonstop while eating almost nothing?" Lawrence responded "Then, we'd starve to death in any direction before we hit a good place to restock."

"So we need to find more supplies nearby to help us make the trip?"

"I was thinking more about decreasing the travel time." Lawrence said.

A light bulb went off in my head "You want to find a car, so we won't have to carry our supplies and that we don't have to wait so long between scavenging."

"No, we need a truck, with all the slopes and hills around here the front and back of a car would be ripped to shreds. We need something with a higher axle to get where we need to go. Once ya get us a truck, we can pack up and get going." Lawrence explained.

"Alright, then where do we get a truck? The city is too dangerous, and we destroyed the sewer entrance, so we couldn't get back in if we wanted to. I don't think the suburbs we passed are safe either, the corphish have probably advanced."

"There's a bunch of farms on the hills around Goldenrod, I don't think the water pokemon will leave the city, so it should be safe."

"Alright, when do we leave?"

Lawrence simply looked to me and gingerly rose to his feet, wincing slightly in pain as he did so, favoring his left leg, a detail that did not go unnoticed "What happened to your leg?" I asked.

Lawrence grimaced "The tentacool I was fighting yesterday got in one good hit. My leg is all bruised and swollen, I think I would only wind up slowing you down."

"Are you sure it didn't manage to sting you?"

Lawrence shrugged "Maybe, it feels a little numb, but I think its just the swelling. If its not, then it just means we only have to worry about numbness, I don't think its gonna get worse any time soon." Lawrence waved off the concern "Point is, you and Jenny are on your own. I can't walk all that long on it, so I'll just stay here and make sure there's nothing we missed, then when you get back we can load up and head out." Lawrence said, bending over and looking into the desk, apparently looking for something.

"Alright then, where do we start?"

"I already told Jenny, she'll tell ya on the way." Lawrence replied only half paying attention "Ah here, something for the road" I extended my arm and caught a small unidentified flying object. I turned it over and inspected the front of it.

"Potato chips, I guess the person running the plant was a bit of a hoarder huh?" I finally raised the cup of coffee to my lips and sipped it cautiously, before scrunching my face.

I haven't been so happy to taste something so bitter since.

The potato chips were stale as it turned out, but beggars couldn't be choosers. Contrary to my suspicions, a lack of food for the last few days did not manifest itself as constant hunger- that passed after the first few minutes- but when food was available, any sort of food, it was difficult to resist it.

"If you eat those things that fast you'll choke" Jenny reprimanded me, as I happily munched and crunched away at the snack food on the road back towards the city. The walk was mostly silent, there was no fear or nervous energy, but neither was there anything to be said. The truth for me and Jenny had already sunk in, even though I'm not sure we knew it ourselves at the time. There was no "what if that", "when will this happen", or "why is this happening", there was just the task at hand.

As per Jenny's warning, and with a twinge of self conscience embarrassment I slowed down considerably, no longer grabbing handfuls of the thin pieces and slowly pushing them into my mouth, instead taking smaller, individual pieces. "Better" Jenny praised, before reaching into her small daypack and pulling out a canteen filled with the water from the plant "Eat slowly and drink this as you eat, it will make the chips expand in your stomach."

I accepted the water gratefully and did as she advised, eating a small handful and the complimenting the salty snack with a swig of water. "So" I asked between mouthfuls "any idea idea where to start looking?"

"West of where the sewers ended, Lawrence thinks there's some farms up there that we might be able to get a truck from." Jenny responded.

"And what do you think?"

Jenny bit her lip and looked down towards the path we were walking on "I think that if its as safe as Lawrence thinks it is, we'll have a hard time explaining to old farmers why we need to steal their truck."

This gave me pause. In the world where I was born in, I had only met three human beings, and one of them was dead at the time. It was easy to forget that other people exist, possible many other people still exist, when I had so little contact with them "You think that there might still be people in the area who are alive?"

"I think that its not as safe as Lawrence thinks it is" Jenny deadpanned, and when I looked at her strangely she explained "I don't think you remember this, but when all the Pokemon went crazy, its wasn't just water types."

"Yes, Lawrence said that his Pokemon passed out from it, including Magnezone."

"Yeah, well, I saw some other Pokemon attacking people yesterday, non-water types. And we are in the middle of the forest, filled to the brim with Pokemon. I'm surprised we haven't run into any trouble yet."

My hand brushed against my waist unconsciously, looking for what was there for reassurance.

The handgun felt unnatural to carry- and the circumstances how we gained it back in the sewers were no less odd- though I couldn't deny that it did somehow fit comfortably into my hand, that my wrist seemed to be accustomed to the weight, or that there was a something automatic and natural as my thumb wrapped around the grip, as my finger lined itself perpendicular to the trigger, ready to snap into place and protect myself with lethal force with the twitch of a finger.

So carrying the gun was reassuring and unsettling.

"Hang on to that, you may need it" Jenny said, seemingly reading my mind.

"I don't know why Lawrence gave me this" I said "I don't remember using a gun a day in my life"

"And Lawrence specifically remembers not using a gun a day in his life, you might have some muscle memory going for you, and you're the one who's in the middle of the woods looking for a car, not him."

We had been fortunate that Jenny still had everything she packed from the trip, including her pistol and seven extra seventeen round magazines. The 9mm bullets managed to fit nicely into the pistol that Lawrence found, fitting ten rounds in the single magazine, plus one in the chamber with Jenny's assistance.

"An- hold up" I said, a small mound of odd, damp soil catching my eye. Jenny stood still as I walked over to it, crouching over it to inspect it. I ran it between my fingers, feeling its odd small grains run between my fingers. "I think its ash, from yesterday, before it rained. It probably came from up the hill and the rain carried it down here."

Jenny walked over now and inspected it as well "I'm not sure, its hard to tell. I think we should go up the hill to investigate."

I pondered this, turning the idea over in my head several times "What do you think is up there?"

"I wouldn't know, but if it was a house that got burned down yesterday then there might be a truck there that's still in working condition."

"The fire had to come from somewhere" I rebutted "or something. It might still be hanging around there".

"Fire types are pretty rare, I think, and most wild pokemon don't learn fire moves without effort." Jenny assured me "If something did cause it, its probably gone by now, driven off by the rain. Just in case though, we should be quiet, no need for unnecessary risk."

I looked at the hill, steep, but not impossibly so, relatively thinly wooded, with little brush and fewer (but still many) trees. "Well" I said, "lets get going then." I head Jenny make a noise behind me, the sound of a pistol being removed from a holster specifically, and took it as a cue to pull out my own, aiming it in front of me and towards the ground, the thumb safety rendering it inert, but my thumb in a position to give it back its firing potential, if I needed it.

We stood at the aftermath of something great and terrible, Jenny and I. The summit of the hill was wreathed in ash where fire had run rampant- entire woods reduced to charcoal, a ring of darkness around the earth that the hill we stood on, and crowned with the corpses of morbidly butchered pokemon.

Medium sized pink lumps of flesh frequented the hilltop- their limbs either burned and torn asunder like a petulant child would a small doll, or others stood more intact, but decayed beyond reason and identification, at a rate that surpassed the abilities of nature.

These however, were second most common to the chunks of chitin, often scorched beyond recognition or present only in small pieces. Others were easier to identify, intact, but rendered two dimensional in a manner that was no less painful or horrific than the others.

Craters were both apparent and plentiful in the cliff, large pores empty of earth surrounded by scorch marks and scattered rubble.

Buildings were also present on the far side of the hilltop, or rather, the rubble that I believe to have once composed buildings. Red shingles that once lined rooftops, white boards that formed walls for the safety of the occupant. One particular building almost appeared as through something had scooped under it and lifted it out of the ground.

I holstered my weapon immediately, my hand going limp at my side. I walked up to one of the pink lumps on the ground, one of the less warped ones, and kicked it over gently "Miltank" I noted "This was a dairy once, I think there should be a truck here".

Jenny was more affected by the shell of a ranch, you could almost feel the waves of sorrow and terror crashing against her through her solemn silence.

I waited several seconds for Jenny to give input before deciding to take initiative with the shell-shocked officer "Lets head over to one of those buildings. The rancher probably had a vehicle to use, and if it could go up and down this hill it should work fine for us."

"What happened here...?" Jenny said softly to no one in particular, starting to come out of her shock.

"Well" I said bending over and picking up on of the pieces of chitin, this one apparently a scyther arm "As far as I can tell, it isn't as safe as Lawrence thought. If I had to guess, I'd say bugs came out of the woods, started attacking the buildings over there. I figure the people in it didn't take to kindly to it, and sent out their own pokemon to retaliate. Then the miltank got involved, and it all went downhill from there." I tapped the edge of the appendage against my finger, checking its sharpness, before shrugging it and putting it in my tool belt. Then I turned back to Jenny and said as callously as I could "Come on, focus, we have a job to do".

The last line did the trick, as her eyes focused suddenly and she seemed to steady herself "Better?" I asked "Jenny nodded slowly but surely "good, lets do what we have to do and get back to Lawrence."

The approach only took a couple minutes, but when feet are measured in corpses as surely as they are in footsteps time drags on. Despite my outward nonchalance uncertainty and anxiety still twisted in my gut like an ethereal knife. Every second served to add to my unease, though I consciously prevented my hand from reaching for the weapon on my hip for reassurance, I instead examined each of the buildings, this time each one within a hundred feet.

There were three buildings in total, a house, a shed, and what appeared to be a warehouse. The house and the warehouse both boasted similar architecture, simple and to the point, with maroon shingles and white wooden boards, though the warehouse also had a cobble border along its base, and a fence was built into the side of it, stretching a large area of pasture. The shack on the other side of the fence, in the pasture, was even simpler in design- yellowish cream planks for walls, a brown shingled roof, and a large, chocolate colored garage door.

At least, that's what I assumed from the pieces of debris flung around the vicinity. The house was almost entirely rubble and ash, leaving debris scattered where it once stood. The shack had been completely shattered, holes the size of an oven were punched into the sides of the small building, and the structure had almost entirely collapsed under its own weight.

The warehouse like structure caught my eye thought. It was also unique, holes of many different sizes checkered its walls and roof, and the building seemed to sag inward- the peaked ceiling rounding out, and the walls seemed to lean inward. The entire structure was flattened, so it couldn't have been much taller than I, but otherwise it appeared reasonably unharmed.

What caught my eye however, was the intact garage door on the warehouse. Like the rest of the building, the garage roof was at most six feet tall, but in one spot the roof seemed to slope inward intensely, only to halt about five and a half feet above the ground, as if supported by some unseen pillar.

I drove the scyther arm under the garage door, using it as a lever to prop it open. The door slid about halfway open, rising up to my hip before coming to a jarring stop, at which a rough and shrill screeching of metal on metal gave me a clear warning of what was about to happen next.

Within the next moment the garage door and the ceiling it is attached to gives way, collapsing and falling onto me with a heavy; clang; and my body turned into a fireworks display of pain and aching 'I should have seen that coming' I scolded myself, as I clumsily shove some wooden boards off me.

Jenny is over quickly and helps lift the metal sheet off of me, grunting and then turning towards me in concern "Do you think you can still walk?"

I moved my legs and arms experimentally, before propping myself up and pushing myself to my feet "I think I'm fine, just a bit bruised." I shook my head in irritation as I struggled to rise to my feet as something caught my eye and I began laughing "But look at what we found!"

The truck was red and obviously well used, humble but hardy. A simple three seat cabin with a large bed of the truck, suspended on a set of sturdy tires high above the ground. It would do nicely.

I pushed myself to my feet and dusted myself off as Jenny approached the truck and pulled the door handle, swinging the door open "Unlocked, maybe they left the keys in here" Jenny said, shuffling through the vehicle and checking under the seats, presumably looking for them.

That feeling was back, that nasty itch that pleaded to be scratched, loudly. My nerves said something was off, yelled that something was off in a cascading crash of panic. It wasn't just the aftermath; something made those craters were certainly disconcerting- especially the massive one in the center of the hill- and the corpses of the pokemon certainly were foreboding, even if they did attempt to kill humans, though I had my doubts.

There weren't any human bodies, none. There weren't even any bodies of pokemon that were capable of using creating fires. Houndoom came to mind, they often roamed the countryside, but why would they ever draw so close to a city?

The feeling intensified suddenly and I attempted to push it off by bouncing slightly on my feet, and rotating my shoulders, to no avail. "I'm going to have a look around" I excused myself "Do you want me to leave you one of my pokeballs just in case?"

"Don't worry about it, I brought Manectiric. I'll send him out as soon a I'm done looking under this seat" Jenny replied, and a small part of my mind registered I had no clue what a Manectric was, but I dismissed it as simply a pokemon native to Hoenn. Thinking about it, I hadn't been able to identify Lawrence's pokemon either, and they were from Sinnoh, but I identified the miltank and scizor remains easily. Given all this, I was likely a Johto native, or at least, very nearly one.

I scoffed at myself, the initial excitement wearing off as I realized how obvious it was. Lawrence would have said something if my accent was odd, as he did with Jenny, and my pockets were almost empty back in the sewers. If I was traveling I would have brought a wallet and a passport.

Then I scolded myself for getting so distracted by something so menial.

"Well hurry up and send it out then, half of these bodies look like they could stand up and kill us before we'd be any the wiser. I'm not going anywhere with your eyes shoved under a chair." I said.

Jenny gave something halfway between a grunt and a sigh, and without even pausing from her search (she instead checks a small compartment under the steering wheel) reaches for her wasted and fumbles with the pokeballs at her belt, selecting one by touch, and then sending it out.

The ball's occupant stood at attention, as if it was a soldier receiving orders. It was an odd creature, dog-like, but with a sharper snout than most of the wild dogs of Johto, and much lower to the ground. Its fur contrasted with itself, an electric blue adorning most of it body finding and unlikely partner in the electric yellow crowning its head and tail.

"Manectric, stand guard." Jenny ordered the dog gave a guttural bark in response "Remember, these attacks are real. Only fight if you intend to kill, and remember anything you intend to fight will do the same to you."

The dog turned its sharp gaze on me an I felt as though the temperature of the air fell several degrees. I cringed slightly at its harsh gaze before regaining my composure "Well, it looks like you'll be fine, holler if you find something" I excused myself, and then turned and walked away slowly, exhaling in relief as I broke eye contact with the small hound. I walked for several more paces before finally wondering 'Where to?'.

I scanned the hilltop intensely, my eyes flitting towards the remains of Goldenrod and lingering for a moment before I turned back towards the hilltop 'All there is to see up here is death. The houses are almost entirely collapsed in on themselves. That just leaves...' my eyes turned on the forest surrounding the hill 'We already saw the far side on our way up, no point in heading back that way. Maybe I can check the area around the house, it might have something interesting.'

I circumvented the house and entered the treeline, walking carefully perpendicular to the slope of the hill. I traveled as quickly as I could through the woods, having no desire to stay in a place where anything could hide in any corner, and where corners were plentiful. I walked about for five minutes before I stumbled upon an oddity.

I didn't no exactly what it was, it was large and white and its shape could only be described as a long lump. I cautiously grabbed a short stick from the ground and poked it cautiously, noting the firm resistance the lump gave as well as the sticky consistency of the material that composed it.

'What is this?' I wondered, before reaching for the scyther arm that I had at my belt and decided to bring it down upon the object of interest. The scyther arm made contact, only to stop suddenly upon meeting the object. I pulled on the arm harshly but it remained stagnant until I twisted it, prying the organic blade from the unknown material.

My curiosity was not yet sated, and I brought down the arm again onto the object, this time it embedded itself deep into the object, with so much ease it caught me off guard. I attempted to bring it up again, this time tearing a chunk of the material off 'Its a polymer, like my jacket, but its not well mixed, there's the incredibly hard fibers and the softer more sticky ones'. I tried again with similar results, and peered into the small hole I made.

I sat there for a moment, just staring at what I had unearthed from the Ariados webs. Then I reached for the handgun at my side for extra protection and exited the forest.

When I emerged from the forest Jenny was in the truck, slowly driving it across the hill, slowly turning it around the numerous craters in the hilltop. Manectric sat diligently in the back, keeping watch in the treeline, and gave a bark as I emerged, opting Jenny to look back towards me.

I jogged across the field, not wanting to spend much more time in the area after what I had found, narrowly weaving around each hole. As I crossed the field I paused a moment, a familiar smell filling the air I occupied.

I sniffed the air again, following the scent until I came upon a significantly larger crater, this one dwarfing all the others, and also surrounded by black scorch marks. I slid down the hole and met the bottom in a crouch. I closed my eyes and prompted my memory to identify the smell.

'The air smelled of ozone as Magnezone fired into the water'

'The street was pungent with the smell of rotting flesh and a softer, more subtle smell of ozone'

'"The burns and the death you told me are consistent with electric shock." '

I sensed a presence behind me, just at the moment I required it "How long were you in the sewers Jenny?" I asked, my back turned, crouched and deep and thought.

A momentary pause followed, before I heard her say "Almost right after I arrived. So a few hours after everything started."

"I see" I said "You fled down into the sewers during the attack" I could practically feel Jenny tense and prepare to retaliate "After you saw there was nothing you could do of course. Its not criticism, just an observation."

"Yes, any hope of a sustained defense fell apart immediately, the battle was over by the time my feet were on the ground" Jenny half growled, obviously not completely forgiving my insinuation.

"So you were still in an airplane when everything started then. You saw what you were flying into, why not fly past? What could possible motivate you to jump into that death trap? Lightning, no doubt, but from what?"

"Stop beating around the bush" Jenny growled "I know perfectly well what you're asking, and I'd tell you if you stopped wasting time and said it."

"What was it that caused this?"

Another pregnant pause "I'm not sure" Jenny sighed "It almost knocked the plane out of the sky thought. It was large, catlike, yellow. We never got close enough to distinguish. It was on top of the radio tower I think, and I might have seen some purple, and maybe some black stripes."

'Their final moment was frozen, and they held what had once been what I could only assume were cellphones. They would not say farewell to the ones they loved, for their arms were outstretched to take pictures, their death was spent in awe, not fear.'

'Raikou. The Thundercat' My mind supplied, putting my memories to rest.

The moment of reprieve was so brief that it may as well had not existed in the first place. My hands clenched at my side and I rose to my feet as if I believed that the mere act was defying the cat-god, striking him. My mind roared furiously in disbelief.

'Raikou, the legendary pokemon! It hides in the darkest corners of the Earth for hundreds of years, until we think it is but a legend. And the first time we learn of its existence, it strikes at us without provocation!'

'It was the tip of the spear, it was the reason this happened! There is no chance that it just happened to be in the area at the time of this, and that something so ancient would take part without reason. It was an intentional attack!"

'Raikou, I don't know if you started all this or were just another arm of attack, but I will finish it!'

'I don't know what I lost, but you will pay dearly for every last thing you took from me!'