Like usual, she woke up just a few minutes before her own phone alarm. She checked. For some, those few extra minutes of lost sleep were a lamentable loss, but to be honest? Those were just a few extra minutes she could laze around and do nothing. Plus, the actual alarm was kinda secondary to the sheer KNOWLEDGE that she set up an alarm, giving her the necessary peace of mind for quality sleep, instead of tossing and turning and jolting up in the middle of the night because her brain decided it overslept or something.
The alarm started up, and was swiftly turned off. Its sound quickly ramped up to the point it was loud enough to wake the dead, and there was no reason to actually wake up every single soul in a hundred meter radius.
First thing first, something to chew on. Thanks to her daring and swift bank caper, she had managed to get something a bit closer to her own menu back home. A single protein bar for starters. Danish biscuit flavoured. Honestly, tasted like sugar with a subtle hint of something else.
Too subtle.
Whatever.
Next, she checked on the spicy agar-agar jelly made before the night. Yup, three portions ready. Honnoji usually ate two per day, and there was one extra just in case. If nothing else, she could eat the thing herself, maybe with something on the side. A bit too much afterburn otherwise.
Looking around, she saw a tent made out of pure, crystal clear ice just a bit away. Inside, Okehazama was still sleeping. Waking Glaceon up was a terrible idea, though from what she understood, that icy shelter was pretty good at muffling surrounding sounds. Probably air pockets.
Just a bit away, above a tree branch, a Combee hovered. A creepy little Combee with an empty stare, just hovering there and overlooking the camp. And now that the drone saw her leaving her tent, he was going to report so to Nagashino, who was probably going to appear by the time the camp wrapped up, unless something happened. It was Nagashino's idea to sleep away from the rest of them, but considering how uncomfortable she felt around the Vespiquen, it was probably for the best.
No, she was not THAT entomophobic. If anything, Bug type Pokemon mostly did not even look like regular insects. It were Vepiquen's actions that made her uncomfortable. Nagashino veered way too close to that line in the sand marking moral event horizon, at least in her own books. Maybe even went past it. Frankly, if Honnoji did not feel like they NEEDED the Bug Type, she would've veered far away from her.
Shaking her head, she switched her attention to more immediate matters.
First, she summoned both of her actual, normal, not-a-part-of-an-Apocalypse-scenario Pokemon. Owari was a little woozy for how early it was, but quickly woke up once he saw a bowlful of assorted berries and kibble waiting for him. Metapod - finally evolved from Caterpie just a couple of days ago - looked at her grumpily for a few seconds, before deciding to eat as well.
The Bug Type was still not happy with her for having to eat all those horrible Revival Herbs. The fact that he was also far less mobile after evolution did nothing to improve his mood - but at least, she was now able to fulfil that promise of taking the poor guy to new places.
Once the duo ate, they went their separate ways. Metapod used String Shot to latch onto trees, rocks and other parts of the terrain to explore around the camp on his own. Not a fast, nor a precise process, but it beat trying to roll to places. Owari, meanwhile, took his rightful place on her lap, as she carefully groomed little rascal's fur.
In about a hour, the ice tent suddenly bursted into a shower of glitter dust, Okehazama emerging in all his vain glory, striking a pose. She made sure to clap. Judging by Glaceon's gaze, he did not buy it. Whatever.
Wrapping things up with Owari, she returned the Eevee to his Pokeball - while the Ice Type did not seem to have any particular problem with the kid, she was not going to try her luck. Providing Okehazama with his meal - meat, that he immediately froze, before digging in - she went out, a bit away from the camp.
Finding a relatively quiet place beneath thick shade - she only heard rare, distant cries of Pokemon, and a bit of wind - she summoned Honnoji. Despite the quiet and dim lighting, the poor girl still went through several long seconds of agony from sensory overload. Probably from the sheer difference between inside and outside of the device. Which was not ideal, that's for certain.
Like always, she gave Absol space - it was a bad idea to crowd her. Just like it was a bad idea to touch her. She could not even imagine grooming Honnoji's fur into something more manageable and presentable. She could only hope that preventing Apocalypse had nothing to do with winning a Contest. Only Okehazama was ready for that possibility, and he was probably still going to lose on account of deeply rotten character. She was not sure if that was a thing in Contests.
Once Honnoji managed to power through the initial shock, they returned to the camp, where Absol was served her breakfast - one of the spicy jellies, and a few juicy berries to boot. Honestly, she did not know how else to help the poor Dark Type, especially with her water intake. Drinking something was still impossible, and the gut told her that dripfeeds were completely out of question. But at least, she was certain that Honnoji did not get worse, and in fact managed to more or less recover from that shoulder dislocation.
Small wins and all.
By the time Absol began eating, Okehazama finished his frozen meal, and now demanded being groomed as well. Unlike Owari, he never settled for just 'looking good'. No, the Glaceon was very, very precise in how he presented himself, and he made it her problem. Going through the process, following his guidelines half of the time, she once again spent over what, two hours on making sure the vain prick looked the way he wanted? A bit over that.
By the time she finished with Okehazama, Metapod returned from his journey, and was promptly returned to his Pokeball. Then, she wrapped up the camp, and had another protein bar - strawberry flavoured. Tasted like strawberry flavour, rather than strawberry.
Whatever.
By the time she finished with this approximation of food, Nagashino flew into the camp, followed by a few dozens of Combees, the rest of the tens of thousands probably somewhere nearby. Over that hill, in that grove, a couple of hundreds of meters in the air, and anywhere in-between, in fact.
"Alright, everyone, we are just a hour away from the place. Remember the plan?"
Nagashino nodded, buzzing something out. Okehazama just looked at her haughtily. She took it as a 'yes'.
"Good. Let's go then"
It took… Yeah, about a hour of hiking through the assorted mountains in relative silence before they saw their destination.
A decade or two ago, there was a small town on the Ane river. It was a decently prosperous settlement, and a local commercial centre, with its mall providing goods and services to most towns in vicinity. Then, the 'Anegawa' shopping mall suddenly closed after a number of incidents. Then, after yet another number of incidents, the League constructed a concrete sarcophagus around the building, closing it off from the world, save for one, heavily guarded entrance.
By now, the town around the sarcophagus was completely abandoned, save for a few buildings right next to the entrance, all repurposed for the needs of the site research team.
And they had to go through those researchers to get to the fourth member of the team. Something told her it might take a while.
With a sigh, she quickly went through a third protein bar. Double chocolate. She only tasted half a chocolate. Well, whatever.
She entered the abandoned town.
