"Grature Town," Lance announced, breaking the silence as they walked past the town-limits sign. "Well, it's better than Relar," the Johto champion remarked, putting his hands behind his head. It was true-- at least there were people in the streets in this town, despite it not being much larger than Relar. The off-white pokemon lab was in plain sight, on the corner of two streets a couple blocks away, seeing as it was... well, labeled as such.
"Could be worse," Anubis remarked, popping out of his pokeball once more, having taken his time to think. "I mean, at least you can't smell anything dead here," the dog remarked with a dry, sarcastic laugh.
"Not funny," muttered the Kanto champion, though having to break into a smile. At least seeing people made her feel better, instead of the area that just seemed dead and kept reminding her of the bird pokemon. She found herself looking at one woman, who meekly lowered her glance at the spark of confidence the trainer held. These people, like the ones in Relar, gave signs of life but no such hint of truly living.
"Wow," Lance muttered in barely above a whisper. "These people-- you can feel it... they really don't have a lot of hope, do they?"
"None at all," the Rukario answered after a moment, his ears twitching. "It's got to be damn bad shit, most people are--"
"Egotistical?" Lance suggested with a bit of sarcasm. The canine wasn't exactly known for his modesty...
"Well, I was going to say full of foolish certainty, but that works too," Anubis agreed, folding his arms slightly as he scooped up his own pokeball from the dirt, narrowly avoiding getting stepped on by a passerby, who was evidently in a hurry to get out of the streets. In fact, most people did, unless they couldn't move too quickly.
Of course it does, Sally 'muttered', the butterfree having traveled on her own, fed up with needing to stay in a pokeball.
After another pause, Asterik rummaged through her pack to pull out the map of the region she had found, crumpled and dirty, but still usable. "Well, 's a dead end from here, so if we want to get home, we need to head back to- whatsitsname." She paused to read it from the map, displaying the fact that... Well, she was horrible at remembering names. "Relar."
Rolling it up, she took the moment to express what she had been thinking while continuing to walk. "I... Lance- you can go home if you'd like. I'm staying here," she announced, "To figure out what's wrong. Why pokemon are being-" A lump in her throat that needed to be swallowed, "Killed. If you don't want to, fine by me, but..."
"What do you think I am?" Lance asked quietly, though he shook slightly as he walked, staring at his feet. "I'm not a wuss, though people tend to think I am. And there's no reason that this should be happening." At this, the Johto champion growled slightly. "The natural order is being disrupted... while it can be good, like the alliance between pokemon and humans... nobody wins in this," he muttered, looking up before looking over at the bird trainer. "There's something wrong here. What kind of respect for pokemon would I have if I didn't get my ass in gear?" Lance inquired, before smiling slightly. "I'm sticking around."
"Then hey, looks like I'm not going back to Sinnoh after all," Anubis remarked-- he had intended to part ways with the trainers once they left back for their homes. He grinned, making one paw into a fist and punching his other palm, careful not to allow his hand-spike to impale his other paw. "Time to kick ass."
Asterik gave a genuine smile to the both of them, nodding. "Glad to hear it- Well, not the whole disrupting-nature part, but... That you're on-board." A pause, "I wouldn't've let you leave, anyway," she joked, "Just thought I'd put the option out there."
Right, and I'm a human, Sally remarked, as Asterik stopped walking, turning on the spot.
"You ARE?"
Oh, shut up. muttered the butterfly pokemon as her trainer gave a light chuckle and continued walking.
"So can we get our pokedexes to-- whatsisname, Sequoia," Lance remarked, pulling his characteristic scarf out of his messenger bag, tying it around his neck as he walked. "And get on the road?" he asked as he flipped the two loose ends of the scarf over his shoulder, his voice back to its normal quiet tone. He picked up his walking pace just a bit, quickly arriving at the greyish-white building that was their destination.
Arriving literally seconds after him, feet still sore from trudging through the snow [which could slow someone without shoes down considerably, Asterik held open the door for both other trainers and the pokemon that accompanied them, then stepped in, herself.
Without a word, Lance walked in, Anubis remarking in a singsong voice about "Follow the Leader". The dog understood exactly how bad a situation this was...
But he was all but addicted to fighting, and finding out he had the chance to kick ass -- and lots of it -- was an excellent revelation.
"Alright, where are you..." Lance muttered, looking around. The lab had a bit lesser quality than the others they had been in-- the lights flickered and it was less organized, but still quite decent, above most places.
"Well this is different," Asterik remarked, taking her first tenative steps in with the psy pokemon sitting on her shoulder, feet tapping on the somewhat-grimy tiles. It seemed as if someone hadn't cleaned in ages. "Just a bit of sprucing up and this place'd look pretty good..."
"I don't know, the mess sort of has a homey feel," Lance remarked, his voice having only a hint of sarcasm. It was true-- his home in Blackthorn had an amazing tendency of being a tremendous mess. Comes from cleaning on maybe only a once-every-six-months basis.
"Ack," a new voice remarked, as a man -- perhaps around 30, 35 years old -- kicked himself out on a wheeled chair, blinking a couple times. "Ah," he said, quickly cleaning his glasses. "I expect you're the trainers Rowan sent off on a pokedex expedition, yes? Probably here to give me the pokedex data due to the crash of our communicatons..."
Well, at least they didn't have to explain themselves.
"Uh... Yeah," Asterik muttered, giving the professor an odd glance before handing him her pokedex. He seemed somewhat familiar, in that weird sense, but she couldn't place a finger on it.
What's with the nut? Sally asked in a private mental channel to the trainers, A couple turns short of the poffin?
"Doubted," both the Johto champion and the dog said (quietly) at roughly the same time, shrugging before Lance handed the professor, who had pushed himself on his computer chair over before taking the small computer-like device, pushing himself (backwards) back to a table before finally standing up, adjusting his glasses again.
"Don't get yourself caught up on speeches, by the way," Sequoia added, plugging the two pokedexes into his computer briefly to upload the data, before truly tossing the electronic encyclopedias back to their owners. "You can get going now, if you want, you know. Just a hinderance, you know?"
"... but a bit odd," Anubis admitted, blinking.
"Well, uh- nice to meet you," Asterik fumbled before turning back to the others and shrugging, picking up the pace to hold the door for them. Sally gave a mental laugh at her attempts at being nice, returning to her pokeball since nothing of importance seemed to be happening at the moment.
"I'm going in," Anubis remarked as soon as they walked out, instantly dissolving into red light that was absorbed by the pokeball he had on his own waist, which was then picked up by Lance, who returned it to his spot on his belt.
"You still have the map?" Lance inquired as he began to walk back towards the end of town, looking over at the Kanto champion. Yet he really didn't need it; he knew that they had passed a crossroads a mile or two back, indicating the path to the next city. But still-- never hurt to have a map.
"Yeah," the Kanto champion affirmed as she pulled said map from her pack once more, giving the dirt-encrusted features a once-over before handing it to Lance. "Where do you think we should go from here? I mean- the first thing would be to go to a gym, wouldn't it?"
A teen, not much younger than they, gasped at that. "No- no, don't go to a gym!"
"... Excuse me?" Asterik muttered, looking back at the blue-haired, wild-eyed person who seemed to care enough to try and warn them. Judging by the blue, she had at least a spark of defiance.
"I don't know- I've heard of bad things that happen at gyms," explained the kid, "Really bad things. You two seem... Nice. Good. Like change." A pause as he admired the way they stood out in vibrant colour against the grey-washed town. "But," he quickly muttered, "I wouldn't go if I were you."
"I don't think we have to be afraid of much," Lance remarked quietly, trying to avoid eye contact with the warner -- he was still shy as hell, after all. But he sighed, pulling out a red and white ball from his messenger bag; the oldest one he had, as it was battered, scratched, and generally mutilated; but the drop of water marking on it still showed faintly. His Feraligatr; bad memories abound, but equaled out by good ones.
There really wasn't too much to worry about as long as he had him, as far as he was concerned.
"Still- if you're dead-set on it..." The kid frowned, cautiously pointing to a town on the map. "The closest gym is located here, in Hetauf." She then backed away, offering a sad smile. "It'll be good to see people coming back from there and being able to speak about it. Good luck, and if you need me, find me. I'm Kaelah," and then skittered away.
"Geez, talk about flighty," Asterik muttered, "But I wonder what's so bad about the gyms that it scared 'er so much..."
"I wouldn't doubt too much," Lance reminded her, sighing slightly. "This place is odd, so who knows...?" But he shook his head slightly, putting the ball back into his bag and putting his hands behind his head. "Let's just get going," he finalized, falling silent. As soon as it kicked in what they were doing-- he had found himself at a loss for words in all essence. Despite the fact that he didn't talk too much anyway-- he had just gotten used to talking to the bird trainer, but even then.
"Yeah," Asterik agreed as she folded up the map once more. "Hetauf, huh? Watch me forget it in a matter of minutes," she grumbled to herself, continuing to walk in silence. As the two travelers moved along, so did the sun - It had already reached the climax a while ago and was now fading, giving the true impression that Sytar held: Dark and gloomy, every stretching shadow holding a possible answer but many more questions to go with it.
"I have to say," he remarked after a while, frowning slightly. "This place is kind of creepy at night..."
He wasn't afraid of the dark -- he never had been, which was why he had managed to find his way through several pitch-black caves before without illumination. Despite the fact that it DID take a while. But yet... the dark here was odd. It genuinely DID freak him out.
"This is the... unnerving dark," Asterik tried to illustrate, "Like- normal dark is fine. But... This is forboding. Like you know something bad's gonna happen in this dark. As gloomy as it is normally, I'd take day-Sytar over night..."
"Gee, how poetic," Lance remarked in sarcasm, sighing and looking up at the darkening sky, frowning slightly; he simply had a bad feeling. Really, he didn't know why... but he did.
"Never said I was a poet," Asterik gave in a slight laugh, though falling silent, herself.
Of course, the forboding seemed well-deserved. In the shadows, a team of two crouched. The newcomers seemed strong- unharrowed by living in the region. "We must stop them," hissed one of the figures, shifting silently in the undergrowth, "I'll take the guy, you can take that chick..."
"Stop acting so serious about it," the second member replied quietly, crouching down as the other was. "You're not the one sitting on a bramble patch..." He paused, watching the two trainers on the road. "They can't be from here. They've got way too much... well, you know... life in them." However, he grinned. "Which means they've got rare pokemon. And they're probably experienced trainers... I think we hit the motherload, pal..."
"Well move," grumbled the other, then breaking into a smirk, himself. "Not only rare pokemon, but high-leveled? Not only the motherload, then- we hit SO much more than that! This'll be the best haul we've had in a long time- most of the people we get are the ones who're fresh out of the crazy professor's lab with maybe two pokemon, max!"
"Why do we rob people HERE, anyway?" the second asked after a minute, looking skeptically at the other. "I mean, if most people just have one or two pokemon..."
However, he paused. Best not to question the directives from the bosses. "Can we get on with what we're supposed to do?" he asked, trying to move from his uncomfortable brambly seat without being noticed.
"Asterik, do you hear something?" Lance asked suddenly, stopping in his tracks.
"I guess it's to stop the trainers from having any hope? Yannow- when they first start off they thing they're gonna be something big and then-" he paused when Lance spoke, staring out of the bushes at his target.
"Yeah," she whispered, but "No," followed it, louder for whatever it was to hear. "C'mon, let's just keep going."
Lance sighed, putting his hands back behind his head as he began walking again, keeping alert however, though his gaze was fixed on the sky. This place... was just so odd.
"Let's just get on with it," the second said, looking carefully at the bird trainer that was his target. They were about to cross their hiding spot... so it was better now than later. "On the count of three... one, two..."
"Three!" whisper-yelled the first robber, jumping out from the bushes to ambush the trainers. No- not a pokemon battle- he knew he would be hurt and badly defeated in one of those. But a trainer couldn't battle if they didn't have their Pokemon. Expertly snatching the balls from Lance's belt and shoving them in his pockets before the trainer could realize what was happening, he ran off, not waiting for his partner but planning on meeting up afterwords to share what they had gotten as he took care of the other champion.
Though the other one was a bit slower, he had the same exacty strategy-- though he waited for the bird trainer to blink. In the space of a few seconds, he had completely stolen the bird trainer's pokemon, dashing after his partner as fast as he could. Sure, they weren't the brightest bulbs... but... they could steal. That was the point.
"..." Lance stood for a moment, speechless, shaking slightly.
This... no, this was bad.
He had never been anywhere, in all almost-eight years of his pokemon training, without Rune's pokeball at the ready. After a moment of utter silence, he hissed a very simple three words.
"They DIE NOW."
And considering his usual demeanor... this would likely be a bit odd.
After almost seven years of having Flame by her side, the world suddenly... shrunk. Without the charizard and gyrados and the three legendary birds and even Sally... "Oh my GOD," she muttered, lip curling. Then, another three very simple words.
"I second that."
He was swearing quite fluently-- words that almost never crossed his mind, pouring out of him in a torrent.
And yet, despite all of it, there was only one thing on his mind.
They had no pokemon. They were... in a word... screwed. Unless-- oh god, not that again, he growled inwardly, shaking his head.
"We have to go back to Grature," he announced after a minute, obviously trying to cover up the fact that his voice was shaking, pulling his scarf down from over his mouth as it had been moments before.
"Get... New starters..." She muttered under her breath, the rage that fueled the fire gone, leaving a hollow emptiness in its place. "And get our Pokemon back." Silent for another moment, the... ex-bird trainer turned on her heel, going back to the town they had just left, even her footsteps having taken on a hush as if Sytar had already started to work on making her as dull and lifeless as its inhabitants.
Lance, however, had a completely different attitude. Gone for the time being was the quiet boy he normally was; replacing it was his own inner fire.
His passion for pokemon was almost scary sometimes. "We are going to get new starters and kick their asses," the Johto Champion muttered, eye twitching, "or we die trying."
This attitude would dissolve by the time they reached Grature, or at least by the time they reached the lab... and he would, as usual, be somewhat scared that had acted that way at all.
Oh well.