It was a strange thing, not waking up to sunlight every morning. Every time she blearily opened her eyes, her muddled brain questioned why the light had a greenish tint, and why the air crackled with electricity.
Then she remembered that she was underground, and the green light was the electrically charged crystals embedded in the rock above her head that served as lights, and the tiny pops the air made were due to the Elekid morph and his Electabuzz father that passed over everyone's room in the morning, charging the rocks and waking them all up.
She sat up, yawning widely and stretching, her thin 'pajama' shirt (a tank top with two many holes around the neck and base to be worn with decency in public) refusing to stretch with her and ripping a little more at the arm. She slumped back, going limp, frowning at the tearing sound, and started with a displeased expression at her further destroyed shirt.
The noise awoke the Meganium curled up at the foot of her bed, and happily the six-foot sauropod-like Pokémon bounded on top her, forgetting that she weighed over two hundred pounds while her master barely topped 120.
Gaby choked and unceremoniously shoved the loving grass type onto the floor, rubbing her now-sore ribs and giving Affection a dirty look. Her antenna wilted and she shuffled her little 3-toed feet, making a soft, apologetic cooing noise. Gaby tickled under her chin with her tail, which brightened the Meganium's mood, and stood up to change out of her tattered shirt and shorts into the issued uniform: a pair of fitting dark brown pants with lighter stripes on the sides, of a material that was easy to move in, her old plain white t-shirt (now more akin to white than brown-gray, as she had washed it in recent memory), and a short sleeve, buttoned jacket, of the same color as the pants but made in a looser material. As always, her rag of a bandanna remained fixed to her head, though since she had decided to bathe in a natural hot spring located on the complex with it on, it was also a little less disgusting.
Affection trotted after her heels, enjoying her freedom and galloping happily after her when she fell behind Gaby's brisk walk. The people here were firm believers that Pokéballs should only be used in transportation or dire emergencies, and never when alternatives could be arranged. Though her team had never had any problems with staying in their energy forms, she had released them all to wander freely around the complex as they like, with two exceptions. While the caverns were spacious enough to easily hold the average Pokémon (about 4' tall), and made wider to comfortably house their human and Pokémorph members (who usually ran between 5' and 8' tall), and even made slightly larger to give space enough for several people to move comfortably in the hallways, the 15' by 15' tunnels were still very uncomfortable for her 17' Lugia to move around in, not to mention he took up the whole hallway. So, he generally contented himself with staying in his ball, or else visiting one of the several large pools he loved to soak in. And besides, being this far down in the ground, the air was uncomfortably warm for Silversong, who preferred the deep-sea temperatures that hovered just a few degrees above freezing. Needless to say, as Gaby was part Lugia herself, she was just as displeased about the constant sticky warmness that followed her everywhere she went.
The other exception was, of course, the over-eager Meganium that haunted her footsteps wherever she went, and for unknown reasons seemed completely unbothered by the heat.
She bumped into a sleepy-looking man tousling his red and black hair with his hands, stumbling one step at a time to the breakfast hall. He was dressed in the same uniform (as virtually everyone was, unless, like Tyson, your physical features made it impossible for you to wear normal clothes), though it was much less wrinkled and cleaner than her own.
He coughed, and suddenly a Mew was floating ahead of her, clothes hanging off it like a young child in their parent's oversized clothes, the belt just barely keeping the pants on him, the sleeves hanging far past his little paws. Despite the sudden transformation, Seth didn't seem to notice, and simply blinked tiredly a few times and continued floating forward to the promise of toast, porridge, and MooMoo Milk.
She grinned and caught him around the middle, making him flail and lift her off the ground with unconscious psychic ability. He squeaked a few 'Mew! Meeewww!'s out before he realized it was just Gaby, eyed her sourly, and sunk back closer to the floor. With a brief flash of light, he reverted back to his human form, clothes intact, and simply glared at her. His therapy here with other lab-made Morphs over the past few months had helped him get a better handle on his uncontrollable switching; while he still popped unwillingly into Pokémon form, and occasionally sprouted a tail mid-sentence, he could now revert back into a fully human form. He'd stopped caring about having the tail and big fluffy Mew ears, though, and generally just left them, and he still couldn't will himself into a Mew.
"I hate it when you sneak up on me," he grumbled at her. His face looked very tired, and she suspected he'd been up late again, just as she often was.
"It wasn't really 'sneaking', it was more you being completely oblivious to all your surroundings," she said in retort. "That'll get you killed in the field."
"Oh, no one informed me the hallway between my room and my food was a place where I have to be on my guard from the forces of evil," he said, dripping with irritated sarcasm. Gaby just beamed annoyingly at him. He gave a little grunting growl and slapped her in the side with a furry pink tail.
The entered the massive cafeteria area, where there were hundreds of scattered, mismatched tables, chairs, stools, and benches, on which sat a variety of peculiar creatures. There was a Houndoom girl, with flowing black hair and white horns, tanned skin and an embedded necklace of bone encircling her collar, with what looked like a skull as a pendant from a distance. She was chatting amiably with a sandy-haired human, sitting next to his Kangaskhan-morph wife, playing with the little mostly-human baby in her pouch, though his skin was bluish and his hair was green. A flock of Bird morphs that always seemed to be together were playing cards at one table; the sleek and sharp-eyed Fearow morph looked like he was cleaning his fellows out, judging from their glares in his direction. A small girl with violet-blue skin and a winding tail instead of legs was curled up next to a Bagon, both asleep in front of their half-finished meals.
There were over a hundred beings in the eating area, going about their daily lives, ready to depart to their jobs as engineers or scientists, combat trainers or nutritionists, teachers or scouts. The massive subterranean establishment was not, as Gaby and her gang had initially believed, simply a military base used to strike out at evil labs worldwide, but a refuge, a safe haven and society that outcasts could go to live as normal of a life as they could, raise families and live in relative security under tones and tones of rock.
She wondered why the hell it had taken her so long to find this damn place.
"Oh, they beat us here," Seth said, and started off towards a table near the right wall. He'd spotted Lily, Kati and Tyson sitting at a round folding card table, Lily (the tallest), sitting shortest on a stool, and Kati (the shortest), sitting tallest on a long-legged chair. Tyson had secured a folding metal chair and ate his porridge and toast in ease, while the other two had minor difficulties.
"Gaby, Seth, nice of you to join us," Lily said, looking up at them. "We couldn't find chairs for you, so I'm afraid you'll have to stand."
In synch, both Psychics simply fell back and floated upward, Gaby with her legs crossed, Seth with one leg over his other knee. Lily shot daggers at them, ruffled her blue-and-orange wings in a disgruntled way, and bit into her bread savagely. Tyson and Kati both laughed, and the former caught Gaby's eye. He gave her a smile, a bright, glowing smile, and he could see the color of her eyes flicker, but only for an instant before she looked away, the tiniest pink illuminating her tanned cheeks.
"Is Kieran back yet?" Kati asked, looking around to see if he had followed them. She seemed to be constantly asking about him, where he was, where she could find him, what his shifts were, et cetera, et cetera. Gaby shrugged, leaned forward, and yanked Tyson's piece of toast right of his mouth and jamming it in hers. He stared incredulously at her for a few seconds, got up, and dragged her off towards the lineup for food, to prevent her from stealing any more of his own breakfast.
They'd come quite late, so while that meant they would only be in the line for the few minutes, the food was likely to be old and second-choice. After living on berries, roots, and stolen Hiker foods, she was not going to complain about hot oats with sugar, wholesome bread and cool Miltank juice.
"There's been no word on him, has there?" she asked, allowing herself to express the concern and worry in her voice. Around Kati, she didn't dare let her uncertainty show, but Tyson was different.
"None. Sorry. I check with Marty every morning to see if there's been a signal, or if he showed up, but still nothing. It's not good," he said tersely. She liked that he was honest with her, not coddling, but for a moment she wished he had been. Kieran had been gone over a week with two other Scouts, investigating rumors of an explosion in the eastern part of the Hoenn continent. Nine days, and still they'd received no transmission, and they hadn't returned by the deadline. Kieran had been sent because of his familiarity with that area, though Lily would have gone instead if she hadn't been promoted to Lt. of Aerial Security three days before. She loved that position: it allowed her to stretch her wings and practicing kicking ass, her two favorite things. There'd been no serious threats yet, but if there were, Lily would be ready.
Seth had probably come in the handiest of any of them, even over Gaby: his knowledge of genetics and lab equipment earned him a place among the doctors and scientists. It was true that he had left his father's lab when he was only a young teenager, but he was a brilliantly fast learning and already had all the fundamental knowledge he needed to succeed. It had taken the people and Pokémon here a while for them to trust Sakio's son (a detail which had initially nearly gotten him thrown out), but over the months he had proven his worth and earned their confidence.
Gaby herself, however, had been sent on no missions, appointed no security heads, and hadn't been near the lab, except for a checkup when she first arrived. For the first month, she had simply been gawked at, questioned, and pressed for details of her life. She had grudgingly obliged for weeks on end, answer this, smiling at that, trying to put on a modest face, but the attention was giving her so much of a headache she asked Kane, the leader she had met on her first day here, to get them all to stuff it. Suddenly, the inquiries slowed, and she was returned to a more peaceful day-to-day existence.
Then the boredom set in. The next few months she did nothing but train with her Pokémon, swim, and enjoy not starving, but the appeal of leisure time wore off as fast as the pool water dried on her bare skin in the subterranean heat. The worst part were the stories that she would hear from her friends: Kati and Tyson talking about this morph or that sympathizer that they had brought in, Kieran exaggerating his tales to resemble epics, putting danger at every turn when really the biggest threat had been a slightly grumpy Jumpluff. Seth's conversations were harder to follow, but he at least sounded happy doing his strange nerdy science work. Lily sounded full of spirit, with none of the distrust she had had during the first little while, and told stories of sparring fights she'd had and whose butt she'd wiped the floor with that day.
All of this, while Gaby was just sitting with her pals, bored out of her mind. Her attempts to reach Kane again had all failed, mostly because he was spending increasing amounts of time away from the mountain, and she only ever found out about his return after he had left again.
So, she had busied herself with education. Since she had been taken into the test tube at the ripe age of seven, she had the same worldly education as a young child. Though physically breeching adulthood, her mental age was years behind, and she secretly felt inferior when Kati rattled on about some commonly understood principal that even street-educated Lily understood while Gaby just started blankly, nodding her head and pretending to have a clue about what was happening. Kieran was her only consolation, since he had been raised feral and could only speak because he'd lived near a garbage dump for a few years; he tended to leave the table any time Seth started to talk about his work, preventing the headache he was sure to get if he stayed.
In the two months since she'd begun self-teaching, she'd learned quite a lot. Some things came easier than others: geography, for instance, was a breeze, since she'd seen a lot of the places herself. Basic math wasn't too difficult, and she understood things like the water cycle and how the planet moved, but life sciences went beyond her. She also tended to excuse herself during Seth's ramblings, as Kieran did.
Kieran. Where was he? She picked up her tray, now laden with breakfast foods, and started to make her way back across the room. Tyson, seeing her morose expression, gave her elbow a little squeeze, and offered a reassuring smile.
"Don't worry, I'm sure he just got lost chasing some pretty Vulpix vixen and forgot to check in," he said, jokingly. Gaby had to smile at that image.
"Yeah, but don't let Kati hear you say that, she'll go apeshit on you for even implying having other thoughts."
"Riiight," he said, eyeing the petite Pikachu nibbling at the crust of her toast.
She sat down, eating her slightly cold porridge and drinking her slightly warm milk, chatting casually with her friends. But her mind was elsewhere. It wasn't just Kieran she was worried about. She could see it in Seth's eyes too, the slightly vacant expression that both of them had when their thoughts wandered into more painful memories. Lily and Kieran would refuse to speak about the matter, for in their hearts he had abandoned them to live in the normalcy that they could never have. Seth, having lived as a human, was sympathetic towards his wishes, and Gaby…she was angry at him, yes, angrier than she'd imagined she could be, but…
Kip…
One week earlier
Sunlight streamed through the trees as he stumbled through the undergrowth that surrounded the seaside town. The air was sweet with summer flowers and salt, and even this far from the beach there were glimmers of sand shining up from the ground. He'd lost the road a long ways back and was pushing forward purely on instinct, but the sounds of the sea were growing closer every day, so he had to be getting somewhere.
Getting here had been hell. He'd lost his map early on, and had no idea where he was going. For weeks he'd wandered aimlessly through forests and fields, looking for any sign of human settlement, or just a passing trainer to ask directions from. It'd been somewhere around 6 weeks when he finally found Mauville, with no idea of how he'd gotten there when he thought he was closer to Petalburg, but finding himself in a city closer to home hadn't been a negative realization. He was half starved and exhausted, as were his Pokémon, so he rested in the Centre for another week before pressing on. He tried to buy a bike, but since he'd started travelling with Gaby, he hadn't had much need for money.
Gaby…He'd had to continually force himself to forget about his friends. It was daily pain for him to wake up with only his Pokémon around him, a hunger in his stomach that berries couldn't begin to satisfy, and a sense of hopelessness. The guilt was crushing, too: Gaby's expression when he'd voiced his doubts and fears swam before his mind's eye every time he closed his eyes.
He was miserable, but he had to believe he'd made the right choice. He was virtually useless in fights, with only a wimpy telekinetic ability that wouldn't even have made the elderly ex-gym leader Sabrina bat an eyelash in his direction. And when it did flare up, he couldn't even control it. Other than that, he was just a human, playing pretend with a bunch of real heroes. He couldn't hold his own in a fight without his Pokémon, he wasn't brave, he wasn't resourceful, and he wasn't destined for any greatness. He was just Kip Veeson, a stupid boy who thought Gaby was magical and thought she needed him to help her save the world.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Besides, he was exaggerating: the world didn't even need saving, just certain groups of genetic mutants in it.
So he'd left the town after another week, broke, bikeless, and with no provisions to carry him all the way to Lilycove. The Mt. Pyre was the shorter way, but since he didn't have the fare to pay the crossing, and doubted his telepathic abilities were strong enough to break into the captain's mind and convince him to let him go for free, he had to take the Route 118-119-Fortree-120-121 way to get home. Maybe once he got there, he'd rest for a while, have some good hot meals, and train to go tackle Ever Grande City…maybe his old friends would hear about him becoming champion and hate him less.
Fat chance.
Nevertheless, he set out, walking in sneakers so abused that he might as well have just been walking in his socks. He met some over-eager young trainers, naïve with their little friends, with big dreams. He even met some older than him, but they still acted like children in his eyes, goading him into battling, insulting him when he passed them by. They knew nothing about the real world, he realized: they thought life was just running around collecting badges, settling into a job, maybe having a family and watching their own kids run off to become wannabe Pokémon masters.
He shut down those thoughts quickly, since that was exactly the kind of future that he wanted now, instead of the meaningful one where he risked his life to battle corruption instead of trainers, and where losing was deadly instead of slightly unprofitable.
The heavy rains that had set in did not help his mood, or his traveling. The dirt roads became washed-out and muddy, and twice he'd had to retreat into the safety of the surrounding woods to avoid the stinging drops. The second time had been a mistake, since he'd wandered, lost, for several days and nights before happening upon Fortree City. He again took refuge in the Centre there, hiding out until the rains passed after another week, and waiting a few more days for the roads to dry up. Much to his dismay, it only began raining again, so with solemn determination he set out again, trekking through the sludge and sleeping in the mud, shivering, not wanting to force his Pokémon out into this mess.
He caught a chill from living like that, and was forced to stop and let his Pokémon take care of him. They took turns watching him and scouting for food, building a primitive and leaky shelter of fronds and sticks above his head, but he was grateful all the same. With their care, he recovered quickly, and set on again.
Unfortunately, he had lost his bearing, and the road, and his Raichu had unwittingly thought to use his newly-purchased map as roof material, so here he was, close to home, smelling the fresh air and salt, the end of his journey drawing near.
Funny, though; he thought he was getting very close, judging by the sounds of the ocean, but there were none of the familiar sounds of Lilycove wafting through the branches towards him; no bustle of people, no Wingulls screeching overhead, no children playing hide-and-seek in the trees. And it was daytime, so there should be sounds of life audible even at this distance.
Unless…
Panic gripped him, and he rushed forward, disregarding caution and tripping his way through the roots and brambles. The forest suddenly seemed hostile and constraining, hindering his movement, as if it were trying to keep him there. A new color seemed to seep through the trees ahead of him, a grey-orange haze. A scent reached his nostrils that would have struck him stock-still, if he hadn't been mid-trip. He pushed onward, hoping against hope that he was still delirious, that he was just sick and imagining this, or that he was trapped in another nightmare.
As if sensing his distress, Quickzap burst from his ball and bounded next to him, quickly out pacing his human master. The trees were getting more spread out, and more light was filtering in. He couldn't smell the salt anymore, or the flowers; all he could smell was smoke and death.
He broke through the trees to a sight that the darkness inside himself had already shown to him in Gaby's nightmare.
Lilycove had been ablaze, though now only small fires still burned, like the last embers in a fireplace. The city was black with ash, the buildings ruined, and there were soft noises of pain emanating from all directions, surrounding him. The sky was a clear day, but there were no cheerful bird cries in the sky on this desolate scene. Quickzap was already there, staring, ears flattened against his head, silent.
His legs started carrying him without his permission. The Raichu followed behind him. He couldn't believe it, not till he saw it with his own eyes. His slow steps quickened as adrenaline pumped through his system again, his legs aching but his mind seeming not to register it as he ran to the other end of the city, up the stairs to the higher level of the town. Bodies were lying on the white steps, though they were mercifully faced-down. He bypassed them and continued onto his own home.
It was in ruins. The house he had lived in for most of his life had been reduced to the beams and supports. The roof had crumbled in, crushing everything beneath it, and the house that had been built to withstand typhoons had been destroyed by flame.
Despite the obvious danger, he rushed inside, his Pokémon crying in alarm. Kip ignored him and rushed in.
He found his mother in the living room, her arms curled protectively around Smiles, her baby Wynaut. A smear of blood was on her cheek, but otherwise she looked unhurt, as did her Pokémon. Her capsules were splayed all over the room around her; one with a blue 'W' sticker was cracked (Smile's ball), and another was black and scorched; he couldn't tell which it was. He looked at his mother again. It as probably smoke inhalation that got her and her baby, and she looked as though she was just taking a nap. He couldn't bring himself to touch her, though, so he fled the room, tears stinging his eyes.
The upstairs was crumbled completely, so he checked the kitchen, dining room, and bathroom (all of which were unoccupied and destroyed) before heading to the basement.
The giant tank that his father had filled with water to house his beloved Gyarados was smashed, the water long dried from the intense heat of the flames. A horrible wailing sound was coming from a corner, and Quickzap rushed to find little Blue the Minun standing over his sister Red the Plusle, who was unmoving. The Gyarados was also motionless inside its broken tank.
Kip found his father crushed under a slab of roof that had fell three floors to rest on top of him. By some act of mercy, it had hit him in the neck and upper back, killing him instantly but sparing the Pokéballs fastened on his belt. The thought of approaching his father's corpse made bile rise in his throat, but he couldn't leave the rest of his father's team there. He sunk to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably by now, and delicately unfastened the bloody capsules from the corpse.
As he finished, he heard Quickzap shout his own name in a new tone: excitement. Kip turned to see the little Plusle twitch slightly, and bolted over, cradling the little thing in his arms. She turned her tiny head weakly towards him.
Suddenly, Red was the only thing that mattered in his world. He shoved his dead parent's Pokéballs into his pack and ran up the stairs, leaving the others to follow him, and ran out the door. He flew to the centre, which was also decimated and full of bodies of people and Pokémon alike, but perhaps he could get one of the machines working.
He was in luck. While the room was burnt and the ceiling collapsed as his house was, four machines in the healing centre had survived fire and falling roof. They were occupied with balls that their trainers (some of which lay on the floor around him) had put there in a desperate attempt to save them, so he gingerly moved some of them and set them on a counter. He grabbed a spare from a shelf and recaptured the Plusle (possible now, due to her owner's…he couldn't think about that), and placed it on the machine, punched a few buttons and prayed for a miracle.
A backup power generator kicked online, and the machine whirred to life, glowed for a few moments, and ceased. He grabbed the ball and released, aiming the beam at the flood next to the worried-looking Minun, and a rejuvenated Red materialized, blinking, disoriented, but alive.
Something grabbed his leg then, and he jolted. He looked down to see a boy with a mop of blood-matted shaggy black hair wearing all brown, though it was cut in some places. His hand was around his leg, and Kip knelt, heart beating quickly at the thought of a survivor, though the tears still flowed from his eyes.
He gasped when the boy looked up at him, and he saw a pair of furry black ears spring up from mass of hair. The tip of one was hairless and scorched, as was the end of the furry black tail sprouting from his lower back. Kieran looked just as shocked to see him, though much weaker.
"…How…" Kip started, then pulled the younger boy into a sitting position; he had always been small for his age, and he felt feather-light and limp in his hands.
"Kip…what are you…" Kieran started. He coughed. His face was stained black with soot. Kip looked around, and saw two other people wearing the same uniform, one human and one that looked like a Ferret morph. The human had a nasty crack in his head that had stopped seeping blood some time ago, and the Ferret girl was motionless, but too far away to judge if she was dead or just unconscious.
"I just got here…I…Why are you here? I thought you were-"
"Mission…sent to…investigate an explosion here…" he paused, coughing some more, though he seemed to be becoming more animated with each breath. He suddenly whirred around and looked at the machine Kip had just used. "My Pokémon….!"
"They're safe, don't worry," Kip assured him, nodding to the counter. Kieran relaxed again, then shuffled away from Kip over to the morph girl. He checked her pulse and lifted her up onto his lap, his large Mightyena ear at her mouth, listening for some sign of breath. His eyes widened.
"She's alive," He said. "Come on, help me with her."
Kip grabbed his bag, rolling Kieran's Pokéballs into it as well, and helped him move the girl outside. She had a gash in her arm and burns on her cheek, but other than that she was generally unhurt. They laid her on the ash-covered sidewalk and went back in together to check for more survivors. There were two; the night shift nurse who had run into the burning Centre to try and save the inhabitants, but who had been knocked unconscious by a falling support beam, and a young teenage girl, clutching her whimpering Raticate tightly to her chest. She seemed more or less unhurt, but had fainted from smoke inhalation. Her other Pokémon had, it seemed, been less lucky, their balls crushed inside the healing machine she had placed them in for safety.
"I still can't believe you're here," Kieran said in wonder, ogling Kip. "When we got here, most of the place was in ruins, but they hit it with a second set of firebombs and set the whole place ablaze once they knew we were inside. They-"
"Who are they?" Kip snapped. He could feel the anger bubbling inside him, cursing the picturesque blue sky and the wisps of clouds above it, damning the serene, sparkling blue see and the golden sand that kissed it. All he could hear was the blood pounding inside his head as the reality that his home had been destroyed, his parents and everyone he grew up with and knew here slaughtered.
"I don't know, they got us while we were checking out the Centre for survivors. I assume that they're some sort of group trying to send a message to known Morph sympathizers. Lily said your parents harbored her and Gaby when-" he paused, seeing the pain that had struck Kip's face at the mention of his family. "…They…they didn't make it, did they?"
"No," he croaked. He could feel his eyes watering again, and bent his head, less inclined to share his grief with the boy he had abandoned months ago. To his surprise, he felt a hand on his back, patting him comfortingly. He looked up, his vision blurred, to see that it was Kieran. He sank to his knees and held his head, sobbing, and Kieran sank with him, gripping his shaking shoulders, muttering indistinct calming words at him.
When at last Kip was drained of tears, he was too weak to move. Every breath hurt; his mouth dry was from gasping for air between heaving sobs, his was nose runny, his were eyes a blotchy mess. He was content to sit there for eternity on the pavement, and planned to.
"Y'know…" Kieran said, a little hesitantly. He gathered himself, then spoke again. "You could…come back with me. We could find out who did this. The Org has lots of intelligence workers, and if this was an attack on us specifically, they're bound to find out who did it."
Kip looked up at him. The prospect of vengeance was enough to stir him. It gave him strength to rise up off the ash-strewn concrete. He had nowhere else to go now. All his childish dreams of normalcy he'd had on the journey here seemed as stupid and ignorant as the trainers he'd met along the way. He was wrong to think that he could be a normal person again, after all he'd be through, but most of all he was wrong to abandon his friends, just so that he wouldn't have to deal with danger and difficulty.
He turned and nodded sharply at Kieran. His tail waggled automatically in response, and he gave him a quick clap on the back.
"Good to have you back, then," he said shortly. Kip nodded again.
"Right. But let's look for survivors first," the faintest smile traced his dry lips. "If something as midget-small as you could survive, I'm sure there must be other people who've hung on t-"
"I'M NOT THAT SHORT!" Kieran screeched in reply and ran off to the nearest house, and Kip felt more normal than he had since he left them.
----
Feel free to hate for the horribly lengthy delay between postings. I'd like to thank anyone who has stuck with me thus far for being among the most faithful human beings alive, and I'd also like to thank the many new readers who have discovered the world and characters of RG.
I hope this wasn't all too dark for you! I debating having it be Kieran's team that got crushed in the Pokémon center healing thing, but I settled with just having killed Kip's poor parents.
As always, feel free to contact me on MSN or email by dragon1 rogers . com (no spaces), or hotmail . com.
Preferably, the next chapter will not take several years to be written…but no promises!
Again, I thank you all with the entirety of my heart, and hope you will continue to read this story!
With appreciation,
R. T.