START Chapter 15: The Cult


Holt Locke


"Elesa," my misdreavus cried out.

Despite the lack of any actual sounds, it felt like she was testing how the words felt in her mouth.

"Elesa is afraid."

"What do you mean love?"

"Elesa. Afraid."

"Please just tell me what's going on," I pleaded.

Nimbasa stared at me, boring her eyes into mine with an overbearing intensity. I could see something move beyond the phantasm of her form, just out of reach of what I could comprehend. It wasn't quite fear that overwhelmed me in that moment, but rather a looming sense of uncertainty at what laid beyond in the abyss of her eyes.

There was something gesturing towards me that was using my misdreavus as a catalyst. I looked closer into her eyes…

"Elesa is afraid."

A figure was speaking to me through Nimbasa. By squinting to see clearly, I was able to just make it out. Silver- no, white fur. A crescent obsidian horn gleaming underneath the pale moonlight. A pair of gleaming rubies peered at me, staring at me hungrily. Pearly white teeth, humanlike teeth, were pressed against each other into a crooked smile. This creature was unnatural, even by pokemon standards.

"Where is Elesa, Absol?" I asked.

The white creature cocked its head towards the other exit than the one Shira had used to leave. It flickered in and out of existence, making it harder and harder to keep track of its location inside of Nimbasa's eyes. Honestly, I had no idea if the absol was even real just or some mirage that Nimbasa had created.

I looped Goomba's pokeball onto my belt and made my way over to the far side exit. Misdreavus followed behind me, her glowing eyes acting like a flashlight in the dimly lit corner of that arena. With a grunt, I pulled open the rusty yet heavy metal door and clamoured through the gap.

"Elesa is afraid. Elesa is afraid," Nimbasa crooned.

"What's she afraid of? Some details, please," I huffed. Though I hadn't been running for long, the exhaustion from the day's events had already taken its toll on me. Just running over to the door was enough to wind me out.

Nimbasa just nudged me forward. I took that as my cue and kept pressing in that direction. The backs of my hands felt my sandpaper as I used them to rub my eyes. It was getting harder to keep them open.

Two left turns after that, I found myself in front of the central security room. Ahmed, the security guard who Elesa had told us about, wasn't in the room. I skimmed through the security videos, hoping to spot any kind of sign of his whereabouts….

The cameras instead showed ten to twelve figures standing in front of the gym doors. Garbed in dull mahogany and tan suits, they wore masks to just barely cover their faces. Masks of tree bark and moss, with holes for eyes and suspicious crimson stripes streaked across the foreheads. A sliver for a nose.

I was staring at their hideous outfits when the sound of the door startled me from behind. It was Elesa, wearing a black sports bra and covered in a sticky red substance from neck to abdomen. Her eyes were a blotchy red, as though she had frantically wiped away tears.

"Holt. Were you in on this too, you rat bastard?" she asked me. "Fucking cultist dickbags. Ugh."

She made a move as though to subdue me when I raised my hands, subtly signalling her to back off.

"What do you mean by cultists? Are you talking about these people that are at your front door?" I asked, gesturing towards that strange group on the security feed.

Elesa nodded, frantically looking through them, as though looking for someone in particular. Her shoulders sagged once she evidently did not find the person she was looking for. I took this chance to guide her to the chair and help her settle in.

"Elesa, if I'm gonna help you then I need a lot more context. Who are the cultists?" I asked.

"They're fanatics… a bunch of people from the youth centre down MLK and 12th. At least, those are our local parishioners." she mumbled.

"Tell me more. Tell me as much as you can, please," I pressured her. My eyes drifted to the camera pointed just outside of Shira's room, making sure that there was nothing or nobody to disturb her.

"Alright, I'll give you the basic details. Down in California, there were a couple of conventions for pokemon enthusiasts after the Catastrophe. State-funded conventions, so that the government could try and sift through any hidden experts in the field."

"Sorta like the boot camp thing that Surge was hosting in Olympia?" I asked.

Elesa just nodded, her smile tightening. "Most of the actual people with information to share? They stayed away from these things. Too busy out there trying to befriend a pokemon partner of their own. The Leona Monti Foundation has not been very active in California, since the governor basically declared martial law. Supplies are really limited," she said.

"So how does this cult thing fit into the story again?"

"I was just getting to it. So, a group shows up to the convention in Santa Monica. Maybe six people, total? Their leader, a dude who calls himself the Kaizo, pulls up with a huge stash of pokeballs. Allegedly, these had been directly stolen over from the main factories in Michigan. First edition too, just barely past the prototype stage. And then he sends out this giant, hulking bog monster. Swampert, I think."

"So I'm guessing this is some clown that played a bunch of ROM hacks or something?"

"This clown managed to take out an entire security detail with just two pokemon. Kaizo pretty much declared himself immune from any kind of government. President Nguyen had to work overtime to cover this up. It's basically why California is almost a rogue state now."

"Isn't the governor doing something? If his whole state is-"

"She's doing quite a lot," Elesa cut me off. "Governor Danielle Alejandra is currently doing everything she can to contain this within the state. Most of the boot knockers up in Washington D.C. have no idea the amount of work she's doing, stabilising. California has the highest number of trainers in the entire country, half of them are already under the control of the Church."

"The Church. Are you ever gonna tell me what exactly this church is?"

"The Church of Nuzlocke. That's where these cultists are from," Elesa said.

"Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me," I snorted. "Nuzlocke? That's really funny."

"Trust me, it's not a joke. They are a serious organisation that is threatening the structural integrity of our country."

"Nuzlockes were just a fun way to play the game, that's all. You can't honestly expect me to believe that there's a terrorist organisation out there that's walking around, calling themselves the Church of Nuzlocke."

"Whether the name itself is juvenile is the least of my concerns. When Alejandra cracked down on their rallies in Orange County, they got together with a group to burn down a couple of buildings in protest."

"Stores? Were they looting something?"

Elesa shook her head. "They burned down an entire school, UC Irvine. Then they painted a bunch of propaganda messages into the ground. The Five Mandates of the Church of Nuzlocke."

I chuckled, using my free hands to help Elesa wipe the blood off of her neck. She quietly thanked me before launching into her explanation.

"Mandate I, all lives have an opportune moment for sacrifice.

Mandate II, it is noble to be sacked should the opportune moment arise.

Mandate III, cheating death is not allowed. Death is absolute.

Mandate IV, always cherish your sacred pokemon partners.

Mandate V, never settle for mediocrity. To die plain is the worst death."

"Jesus. That does sound like the brain child of some gigachad finance guru and a hardcore gamer," I said. After we wiped away most of the blood from her chest and midriff, I finally mustered up the nerve to ask the question that was on my mind. "So what exactly happened to you?"

Elesa glared at the security feeds before lifting her eyes to face mine. "Ahmed. That bastard betrayed us. He's one of them. He's one of the cultists. And this is his blood that you're wiping off me right now."

I paused to gag at that, only stopping for a second before continuing to clean her off. The pale security guard who nodded his head as we entered, was one of the supposedly fanatical 'cultists.' That fact was a shock to say the least. Nimbasa began nudging my back, excited at the mention of the espionage.

"So tell me, what happened? Did you two battle?"

Elesa shook her head. "The Church has been trying to expand their sphere of influence from California. Southern Oregon is basically a warzone, with Governor Alejandra's troops fighting off small cultist regiments. The people you see outside? They're an advance squad. Since Portland is where the first gym is supposed to be created, it's got a big fat red target on it now."

I frowned. "So what happened, exactly?"

"I was in bed, like, halfway asleep. There was this weird pitter pattering noise in the hallway, which kinda woke me up. A fucking lilypad with arms and legs tip-toed into my bedroom, man."

"Lombre?"

"Yes, it was Ahmed's lombre. I never liked that little shithead. Anyways, it was about to splash me with some high density ball of energy, but something intervened. This little critter burst through my window, shattering the glass. He tanked the energy ball for me before passing out from the exhaustion."

Elesa showed me a pokeball, the resting form of an emogla laying inside of it.

"Before Lombre could try and finish the job, though, I managed to send out my blitzle in time to defend myself. So if it wasn't for Emolga, I'd probably be a smouldering corpse in there."

My mind threatened to wander back to the emolga in Pinwheel Forest, but I forcibly shoved it back down. This was neither the time nor place for hapless speculation.

"What happened to Ahmed? A straight answer, this time," I asked.

Her face darkened. "Alright then. Straight as an arrow, Blitzle rushed him. Speared clean through him. Hence the…" she pointed to herself, "...mess. I got out of there right afterwards. Once I can get to a phone, I'll call the local authorities to take care of… the body."

"Are you ready to head on out, then?" I asked her. Elesa paused for a moment, before shaking her head. "I need to get Shira and then we can get out of here. It's not safe to stay, if the Church is as strong as you're telling me."

"I am not abandoning the Portland Gym," Elesa said coolly. "Mr. Vermuth has entrusted it to me while he finishes up business in Seattle. Business that you had a part in starting up. I won't run away like that."

"That's insane. It's pretty clear that these people are not just fucking around when it comes to pokemon training. Granted, your blitzle seems pretty strong, but so do all these cultists," I said. Though I imagined it to be a decent argument, my companion remained unwavered.

"I don't fuck around either," Elesa said. "Ahmed caught me when I was pretty much asleep. I'll be able to thrash the rest of the little cunts with no skin off my back. Plus, I still got a few other people I need to check up on. They live in the gym itself or across the Willamette."

"I can't be crossing any bridges with you," I carefully said. "If the situation with the Church is as bad as it seems, then I'll need to head to California as soon as possible. Not enough time to-"

"Look, I get it," Elesa said. "Just help me clear the building. You can leave whenever you want after that."

I nodded. There wasn't much else left to be said, so I didn't want to press the matter of her staying. Elesa fished out a bloody keycard out of her nightgown. At my questioning look, she pointed towards the scanner next to the doorway.

"This room is probably the hardest place to sneak up on someone. It has all the cameras, so I don't want to leave it unguarded," she explained.

"So you're just gonna lock it up and leave? Wouldn't Ahmed also have one of those cards?"

"Doubtful. Unless he duplicated this one," she patted her bag. "We can go get Shira first, since you're so worried about her well-being. I think Roland and Mathieu are fine for now. They've been briefed on what to do if the cultists attack."

"So this was all a planned eventuality?" I asked.

"It could've been here, or it could've been up in Washington. I don't know, Holt. They're not gonna stop expanding."

Silently, she pressed a button located underneath the security desk. With a whirring noise, several hatches opened up right next to the air vents above. A trickle of what appeared to be some kind of dry gas poured out of the hatch, along with the frozen forms of a half dozen metal spheres.

Then the spheres blinked, indicating that they were actually magnemites. Shivering from the exposure to liquid nitrogen, they eagerly flooded around the still-warm circuitry in the room.

"In case someone gets sneaky with the keycard scanners. At least with these guys in the room, they won't be able to track us with the security cams."

As if to prove her point, Elesa approached the screen monitor, only to be zapped away by an angry magnemite.

"Is it normal to keep them frozen like that?" I asked.

"Only when Mr. Vermuth's magneton isn't here to translate for us. They're definitely a lot smarter than we give them credit for. Doesn't mean that they'll always listen to what we have to say, however," Elesa explained. "Mr. Vermuth captured their leader as his partner. So we keep the rest of the group around, in case any of the gym trainers happen to bond with them."

"Good to know. Let's head on out, then?" I gestured towards the door.

We took about five steps away from the security room when I could hear the sound of a woman's scream. I knew then, that this voice most certainly belonged to Shira. And that she was in trouble.


Shirona "Shira" Matsumoto


When the man with the bleeding chest stumbled into the medical bay, the only logical thing to do was panic. At least, Shira firmly believed that to be the truth.

It was the fact that she was able to see through him, through the puncture wound in his chest, that made her feel sick to the stomach. She immediately hurled up the rest of her dinner, as well as a sizable amount of lunch.

"Girl, get out of my way," the man moaned, clutching fiercely onto his injury. "No wait. Please help me. I am probably not going to survive if you don't help me out."

"I- I can't…"

"The gym leader's niece? Elesa. That sneaky bitch just attacked me out of nowhere. She's been working with a local terrorist group, you see? She gutted me. I'm begging you, please help me out."

"Okay… uh, terrorists?" Shira asked.

"They're called the Church of Nuzlocke. A local cell of them was spotted hiding out in Hawthorne yesterday. I found this shredded report in the boss man's trash earlier today. It was torn apart, like someone didn't want him seeing it. So I snuck out to try and call the lieutenant…" he wheezed.

"And you think Elesa is in on this?" Shira asked.

"In on it? Her fucking horse thing just impaled me with its goddamn electric horn. If it wasn't for my partner Santos keeping me alive…" He shuddered.

"How is he keeping you alive?" she asked, almost to herself. His chest injury appeared freshly delivered, violently red yet sprinkled with tiny patches of green. "Pokemon healing powers?"

"Nothing that crazy. He's a lombre, so he's more naturally gifted at manipulating water and grass. Santos is just supplying me with Leech Seed. He's also keeping my body in one piece, by manipulating the water and making sure my organs aren't immediately failing," he said, coughing into his sleeve. Specks of blood seeped through the cloth, alarming Shira once more.

"So that's how you're still alive," Shira muttered.

"Yes. All I need you to do is to hold them off while Santos keeps the healing going. You don't even need to fight anyone. Just… talk to them, will you? My other partner, Zubat, is just outside in the hallway. He'll let us know if anyone is approaching."

"Why do you think Elesa will listen to me? Won't she just attack me too?" Shira asked.

"She won't hurt you. Not unless you lash out first. If she goes after you, then she's basically declaring war on the Leona Monti Foundation. Nobody fucks around with Antonin Monti, not unless you have a fucking death wish."

Something moved inside of Ahmed's chest. Shira screamed. He stumbled forward and latched a bloody hand against her mouth, stifling her voice. Beads of sweat were forming on his brow as he tried not to cry in agony.

"Quiet! Fuck... You're gonna bring them straight to us," Ahmed hissed.

The movement in his chest lurched out a few sprouts as he voiced his displeasure. Shira assumed it was a side effect of the Leech Seed, something was growing inside of the man himself. They remained there in silence while Santos's power desperately knitted his flesh back together.

It had finished healing about a quarter of the way through when they began to hear footsteps in the corridor. Shira heard them first, immediately tensing up and even unclipping Budew's pokeball from her belt. Ahmed said nothing, merely shifting into a better vantage position to the door.

Another few seconds of silence. Somewhere in the building a clock ticked away the seconds.

Someone barged into the door, an electric horse braying with fury. Shira could see the tips of its head coated with a fresh layer of blood, corroborating Ahmed's story. The sickening feeling from earlier returned as she struggled not to lose what little remained in her stomach.

Shira threw herself in between Ahmed and the blitzle, who looked about ready to run right through her to get to the injured man. "STOP!" she screamed. "He's hurt!"

"Step aside, Shira," Elesa said, stepping into the room. Next to her was Holt, who had a look of terror in his eyes. She noticed his eyes trailing her body, checking to see if she was injured in any way. His gaze relaxed once he finished the rudimentary inspection. "We just need to take care of the bastard that's behind you."

"I can't let you hurt him. He's in a lot of pain. He just wants to talk," Shira argued. She kept her eyes locked on Holt, silently pleading for him to take her side. If he noticed her, then he made no sign of it.

"Let's just calm down everyone," Holt said, spreading apart his arms. "Shira, the man behind you is part of a larger group that's pretty dangerous. He already tried to kill Elesa once."

"She's lying!" Shira cried out. "You're talking about the Church of Nuzlocke, right? Ahmed tried to tell Matis about them. That's why Elesa wants him dead! We need some time to get our stories straight, to figure out the facts and-"

"That's the biggest pile of horse shit that I've heard in a while," Elesa laughed. "Ooh that's rich, pinning your little crimes on me. Do you think anyone will buy it, Ahmed? Do you think that anyone will really believe that I'm working with that good-for-nothing cult? Mr. Vermuth is my uncle, god damn you. I am trying my absolute best to keep this gym together…"

"You've surely got enough time to sit down and talk it out right?" Holt asked, turning to her with less certainty than before.

"What is there to talk about? Ahmed tried to kill me. So he's clearly a traitor. He's been feeding information to the Church ever since we hired him," Elesa said.

"That's not true!" Ahmed roared. A blood vessel in his eyes seemed to pop as he tried to vent out his frustration. "It was your uncle that hired me. He knows I'm good. He knows that I'm his man. You? You've never been interested in running this gym. Blitzle was just given to you by a random stranger? Oh please… that pokemon was clearly a gift from the Church!" With bloodshot eyes, Ahmed stared down the blond model standing in front of him.

"You were nothing before Mr. Vermuth picked you off of the streets, pig. Instead of keeping your head down and being all grateful for this job, you're instead trying to sink this whole operation."

"What fucking operation? You're the one turning this gym into a sham. Trying to smuggle out government-issued supplies to the fucking terrorists."

"Holt, we've heard enough from this maniac. Are you going to help me take him down, or do I need to do this by myself?" she asked, turning to the man in question.

Shira couldn't bring herself to do much else other than to keep eye contact with Ahmed. His chest wound was now almost fully opaque, covered enough for it to not matter any more. As for the conversation surrounding them, she had no idea on what to believe. She took a deep breath and just observed.

If Holt had looked uncertain before, now he just looked plain conflicted. "I guess we can detain him until we can get a hold of Surge. If he can tell us anything else about Kaizo, then it'd be useful for Shira and me…" he said.

Ahmed just stared at him, unblinking. His face morphed into one of confusion. "Who the fuck is Kaizo?"

At this, Holt froze. His arms snapped to a strange alert and his eyes wandered over to Elesa's hands, which were hidden inside her waistpack. Time trickled to a halt, as the two of them stared each other down. Elesa broke the impasse by pulling something out of the bag…

"Nimbasa, confus-" Holt started to say.

"Blitzle, Discharge," Elesa said coldly, snapping on some weird rubber gauntlets that had attached weighted cords brushing against the grounds. The electric horse pokemon brayed before shooting out a wave of weak shocks that covered his entire vicinity. Holt was hit with the brunt of the shock, falling to one knee as he bore the paralysing effects of electricity.

Shira tried to dodge out of the way of the Discharge attack, but merely tripped backwards on a stool. Her hip collided against the edge of a drawer as a few strands of electricity reached the tips of her body and coursed through her.

It wasn't enough to quite paralyse her, but she could definitely feel her insides getting all jittery and numb. It was like she'd been dunked in a vat of burning cold water before getting immediately pulled out.

Ahmed, who had recognised Elesa's sudden movement, was quick to hide behind the bed, dodging the blitzle's attack entirely. With Santos the lombre still recovering from his previous tousle with Blitlze, he didn't appear to have any options to fight the electric type pokemon.

That left Holt and Shira as the only ones who had pokemon that were ready to fight. At least, Holt could've probably taken on Elesa, if not for the fact that he had been directly exposed to a lot of lightning.

Shira on the other hand, was pretty much screwed in this regard.

"Budew, I need your help, darling!" Shira said, sending out her own pokemon partner. "Use Absorb, just like we practised, on that blitzle!"

The green energy from before came out as little more than a wisp as it trickled over to the horse pokemon. Blitzle just snickered, easily bodying the attack and sending out an arc of electricity in retaliation. Budew yelped in surprise, falling backwards from the zap.

Elesa just giggled. She literally giggled at the sight of her pokemon against Shira's.

"Never settle for mediocrity, Shira," Elesa sang. Her stoic expression from before morphed into one of childlike giddiness. Her perfectly styled hair had a few strands singed at the tips, burnt away by the intensity of the lightning attacks. "Mandate number five."

Nimbasa, Holt's misdreavus, soared upwards in an attempt to pepper the blitzle with some ghost type attack. She was barely able to do more than nick him at best, while tiring herself out in the process.

"Holt, snap out of it!" Shira cried out.

His eyelids were in some fluttering lull, while she could only really see the whites of the eyes themselves. Shira looked around to see if there was anything she could use as a weapon, locking eyes with a panicked Ahmed. He'd managed to wrap one of the bedsheets around the wound in the time it took for Budew to attack. The blood was still seeping through his sheets, but he looked a lot stabler than before.

"Poor Mr. Locke. My uncle was absolutely gushing about him, you know? Saying something about how he single handedly saved a bunch of whining little kids from a bomb attack. It wasn't a fucking bomb attack, you know?" Elesa said, sneering. She drove a heel into Holt's ribcage, eliciting an exhale of pain.

"What do you know about the Bus Bombing?" Shira asked.

"It was a koffing, not some cheap homemade bomb. Gosh, it's so frustrating to think about. All Freddie needed to do was not be a dumbass, and collect all the equipment from a bunch of kids. Our reports said that they were greener than grass. It would've been so easy, literally stealing candy from a baby."

"Whose koffing was it?" Shira asked.

Elesa just smiled, showing off her perfect white teeth. "Secret."

At this point, Holt had stopped spasming. His breaths looked to be more even, which was probably a good sign. At least, in Shira's eyes. Elesa hadn't seemed to notice his change in behaviour. Shira knew that she had to keep her attention.

"Why'd you join the church?" Shira asked. "Ahmed said that they're terrorists."

"Terrorist is a very loose definition. Shira, we're just trying to adapt to the new world. If the pokemon games were some kind of elaborate and prophetic messenger, then this right here is the real deal. People need to get stronger in order to survive. You understand that right? Mr. Kaizo is the strongest man in the world. He's going to help make sure that we're all at the peak of our potential."

"How is anything that you guys have done helping mankind?" Shira asked. She knew that it was a ruse, but her genuine curiosity trickled into her tone.

"Have you seen my uncle? He's an idiot, but he's probably one of the best brawlers out there when it comes to pokemon. He's also too soft. All those years in the military made him a sentimental clown of a soldier."

"Lieutenant Matis is-"

"Oh save it, Shira. He's too busy either pumping weights or teaching little kids like you how to throw a goddamn pokeball. You need to be willing to make tough decisions, if you're going to survive in the new world. Folks here in the PNW have been absolutely fucking coddled so far."

Holt twitched, his eyes shooting open. Shira said a little prayer in her head for him to recover as quickly as possible.

"Down in California, entire cities have been reduced to No Man's Land. You don't really hear about any of this shit, right? That bitch Alejandra's got such a tight grip on what kind of news gets out… At the end of the day, she'll lose. That's the price of fighting the Church. That's the price of Kaizo."

Holt was now slowly reaching towards his belt, where Goomba's pokeball was clipped. Shira wasn't sure why he was trying to release his newest party member, but wasn't going to break his cover by asking.

Shira perked up instantly at seeing his antics. "I'm curious! How does one go about joining a cult-"

Elesa immediately turned around to glare at Holt's moving form. She started to issue a command for Blitzle to attack him, when suddenly another smaller figure leapt forward and slammed into her face. It was Santos, the injured lombre.

She clutched her nose, the point of impact slowly bruising into a sickly shade of yellow.

"You bastard," she snarled. "You never attack a model's face. I was in Vanity Fair, god damn you."

Ahmed, staggering into a fighting position, just grinned weakly. He was clutching onto a lamp as a makeshift crutch of sorts.

"You're a very pretty girl, Ms. Vermuth. But my wife is much prettier," he said.


END Chapter 15: The Cult


A/N: Welcome back to another chapter of Catastrophe 23. I hope you enjoyed some of the lore drops that this chapter has provided. I am interested in hearing more about where you all believe that this story is going! I am constantly striving to improve it, so all criticism is welcome. I just finished reading Throne of Mud by Howling Armadillo which has been a real treat to enjoy. A Normal Journey by Aegis is another gem in the rough that I'll be keeping a close eye on!

Also, I have a discord now. discord gg /cY2ES8qP


Main Character: Holt Locke (24)

Nimbasa (F) [Misdreavus]: captured after she willingly joins him in Pinwheel Forest

Goomba (M) [Foongus]: captured in Portland International Rose Garden

Side Characters:

-Shirona "Shira" Matsumoto (23): graduate student in museology at the University of Chicago, friend of Tetsuya Mueller, now a fully-fledged intern for the Leona Monti Foundation and sent on mission to Seattle with her boss, Alice. Has a feebas named Baby and a budew that is unnamed.

-Clayton McArnol (47): owned a bar in Seattle with his wife who has since passed away, the owner of Rodie the herdier and currently acting as the leader of the Seattle Pokemon Trainer Committee. Has shown a surprising degree of skill with pokemon, with an affinity with ground types.

-Matis "Surge" Vermuth (36): member of the Leona Monti Foundation and elected as one of the regional leaders of the federal International Trainer Association for Seattle. He is known for his use of electric type pokemon, based on his former training as a U.S. marine and expertise in combat on-site engineering.

-Elesa Vermuth (20): worked for Matis "Surge" Vermuth at the Portland Gym, bears a striking resemblance to the lady in Pinwheel Forest. Is a collaborator or a potential member of the Church of Nuzlocke, an organisation dedicated towards perfecting the art of battling and the elimination of weakness.

-Samuel Oh (56): researcher at New York University

-Sabrina de Souza (28): research aide at New York University under Professor Samuel Oh, graduate student at Columbia University