A man was sitting at a desk, looking at the readouts on his computer screen. A frown appeared on his face, darkening with each passing minute. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door.

"Enter."

A younger man entered, breathless. "Sir, I have some important findings!"

The older gentleman waited for the younger to catch his breath, then said, "Out with it. What do you have to show?"

"Sir, I have some bad news. The test subjects have mutated."

"I already know this. If that is all..."

"No sir. I mean the other test subjects."

The older man leaned in, his frown replaced with fear. "You don't mean..."

"I'm afraid so, sir."

"Arceus help us."

"Sir, I doubt that even He would want to help us now."


I awoke, sweat beaded on my forehead. Last nights' unexpected attack left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I looked over at Gardevoir, still sleeping peacefully. I wondered if I should give her a name before the shit hits the fan. Something told me that our time was running out, faster than usual. I got up, walked over to her and shook her shoulder.

'Mmfph...'

"Wake up sleepy head."

She opened her eyes slowly, trying to shake sleep out of her system.

"So, Lily, you think we're the only ones left?"

'Who's Lily?' she asked.

"Your name. You like it?"

As her response, she leaned over and hugged me tightly. 'Thank you!'

Her overwhelming burst of happiness was making me slightly giddy myself, but sadly, I had to break up the moment.

"Sorry to break up the moment, but we have to get moving to the next city."

She relinquished her hold on me and looked sad, but I could tell that she was still happy deep under for me giving her a name.

'Do you know what city is next?' she asked.

"To be honest, I don't. All we can do is forge on and hope we find survivors."

'What makes you so sure that we'll find any survivors?'

I laughed. "Lily, all I'm sure of is that there'll be Pokemon, dead bodies, a shitload of infected, maybe one or two uninfected, and us. Especially us, 'cause we're not going to stop until we find a cure, or eliminate the infected so that everyone can rebuild."

We had taken shelter in an abandoned building, relishing in the fact that there was still some food left in the refrigerator. I was up half the night, jumping at every little sound, while Lily had simply passed out on the couch that was there. I had to start playing Solitaire with a deck of cards that I found laying around. But my own jitteriness and paranoia caused me to give up.

Suddenly, Lily giggled.

"What?" I asked.

In response, she reached out and peeled something off my face. An Ace of Hearts came away, glistening somewhat with what looked like my drool. I must've passed out myself - on the haphazardly placed cards.

"Why didn't you notice that earlier?" I asked, embarrassed.

'Because your face was half hidden in shadow, so I couldn't see it,' she replied with another giggle.

I slapped myself in the head. "Well, we better get going. Chances are that if we found this place, others may have found it too."

'But the fridge was full when we arrived!'

"Doesn't mean that something else found this place."

She shuddered involuntarily. 'You don't mean...' she trailed off.

"Yes. Now we better get packing," I said, grabbing the shotgun, making a mental note to find out the name of it so I wouldn't have to keep calling it just a "shotgun".


After we had packed as much food as we needed for about a week, we headed out, locking the door from the inside. I had also packed a hunting knife - for various reasons. It was only then that I realised my mistake.

"Oh...shit."

'What's wrong Daemon?'

"I forgot the shotgun."

Immediately I turned around, cursing myself for forgetting such an important item. I guess that staying awake for half the night must've fried my thoughts. Instantly, I remembered where I put it. I had placed it down as I was packing canned fruits from the pantry. I leaned close to the door, listening for any sounds coming from behind it. A few rustles and a tinkle were enough to tell me that something was inside. I took out the hunting knife from its sheath in my boot and held it like I remembered how from my martial arts classes with various human and Pokemon trainers. Stepping back from the door, I brought my right knee up to chest height and aimed my right foot at the door.

'Aim just below the handle, and it will always break,' I thought to myself, remembering breaching techniques from one lesson.

Lashing out with my foot, the door caved in with a loud crack, the entire door falling to the floor. I saw an outline of a person, but I couldn't be sure. I leapt at it, pressing the knife to its throat. Suddenly, I felt a spike on my own throat along with a hand (or was it a paw?) on the back of my head. Frozen, I knew that if I attempted to show aggression towards either being, I was dead.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" a voice growled in my ear.

As I looked closely at the being under my blade, I noticed it was human - uninfected. I eased up on the pressure, and it gasped.

'I should ask you the same thing,' another voice projected behind me. The spike withdrew, and I stood up, sheathing the hunting knife and extending a hand to the person I had almost killed. A soft, feminine hand took my own, and I pulled the person up. A girl, no older than sixteen, stood in the dim light of the approaching day.

"Sorry for the warm welcome," I said.

"Well, thanks for not killing me," she replied.

I turned around, and was met with the angry glare of a Lucario.

"You haven't answered my question," he growled.

"I thought she was another infected," I replied, shrugging.

"And what are you then?" the girl asked.

I looked back at her, a sad smile on my face. "The first test subject. I'm immune to the virus, so I hoped to eradicate this epidemic with the help of my Gardevoir, Lily."

At that introduction, Lily floated inside, a frown on her face.

'How did a young person and a Lucario manage to stay away from this virus and the infected for so long?' she asked.

"Well, I hardly need to point out that as a Lucario, he's pretty good at kicking ass," the girl replied.

"But now, the question is how did you two do the exact same?" the Lucario asked.

"We actually ran into one last night," I replied.

"And survived? How?" the Lucario asked, incredulous.

'If you can, levitate the shotgun in here; it's in the pantry,' I projected to Lily. Audibly, I said, "Well, the answer should be floating in here soon enough."

At that, the grey shotgun floated in, and I took it as it stopped in front of me.

"An AA-12," the girl said.

"AA-12?" I asked.

"The Auto Assault, or Atchisson Assault 12. That's the weapon in your hands. How did you manage to get one?"

"Searched around. You'd be surprised at how many weapons you can find in abandoned police departments. But there isn't enough ammo for this thing. I mostly found stun rounds and other non-lethal ammunition in the armouries."

"Then you should load this magazine in it," she said, handing me a box magazine. I looked at the top shell, and saw that it was green.

"What's the difference?"

"Frag-12 rounds. Essentially a miniature grenade in a shotgun shell, made only for the AA-12."

"Kick-ass," I replied, putting the magazine into a pocket. "And I think saying AA-12 is a little much - even saying shotgun is getting tiring. I think I'll call this DI."

"Die? Why name the gun that?"

I laughed. "Not D.I.E., just D.I., for Divine Intervention."

The girl looked stunned. "Isn't that a longer name than AA-12?"

"Yeah, but -" I was cut off as a large crash resounded through the little house.

"I think that came from outside," the Lucario said.

I edged towards the fallen door, picking it up and slowly placing it back into its original position.

'What are you doing?' Lily hissed at me.

"Shh, if something's outside, I don't want them knowing that we're here, so stay quiet, and maybe it'll pass," I whispered back.

Just as I placed the door back into its frame, the Lucario cried out, "LOOK OUT!" just before I was thrown back by a massive being that had just muscled its way straight through the doorframe.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, getting back up. I took a quick look at what had sent me on my back, and my blood ran cold. Without thinking, I raised DI and pulled the trigger one-handed. Bad idea. Another four-round burst impacted the being and the recoil turned me around and back onto the floor. I scrambled to my feet and shouted, "TAKE IT OUT DAMMIT!" while turning back towards the thing. Next thing I knew, I was flying through the air again, this time impacting a wall. Looking up, I saw the tinges of black forming around my vision.

'Dammit,' I thought. 'Time to try something new.'

I shook the disorientation from my system, and dropped the drum magazine, put in the box magazine, and cycled the bolt. It was then a scream shattered my concentration. Snapping my head upwards, I stared in shock as the behemoth held up both Lily and the girl with its tentacles. Shouldering DI, I took out my hunting knife and dashed for it. Without warning, a bright blue orb flew past me and impacted the giant, causing it to stumble. Now was my chance. I went for the girl first, because I knew that Lily could hold back the beast with her Psychic powers until I reached her. Dodging random swipes and tentacles, I sliced off the ones holding the girl, then moved to Lily. As I managed to cut off the tentacles holding her, she glanced up behind me, and her eyes grew wide. I spun around, and all I saw was brown matter swinging at me. My first instinct? Block with the knife, and parry, taking out DI in the process.

"I think we've had enough of you," I said, jamming the barrel into its midsection. "Now die." Squeezing the trigger, round after round of Frag-12 entered the beast, until I heard a metallic click.

'Oh, shit," was all I got to think before - yet again - I was sent flying. Luckily for me, I landed right beside my discarded drum magazine and spare shell that had ejected when I cycled the bolt earlier. Picking both up, I locked the bolt back, placed the spare shell into the chamber, snapped the bolt back, and hooked up the drum magazine once again. Levelling the weapon to my shoulder, I cried out, "EVERYONE AWAY FROM THAT THING!" at the sound of my voice, the beast looked at me, and I could clearly see the silvery metal of the Frag-12 rounds. I smirked, the squeezed the trigger once. A single round escaped the barrel, and impacted dead center of the clustered miniature grenades.

Ping

The sound was highly audible right after my shot, and everyone stared at me, wondering if I missed. Even the beast looked into its own abdomen, wondering if I had hit it. But once that curiosity faded, it looked back up and roared, a split-second before the rounds detonated, tearing it into shreds. Massive amounts of decayed skin and organs flew everywhere, covering us with gore.

"Ew, gross!" the girl exclaimed.

Wiping some residue off my own face, I was beaming. But then my adrenaline started to fade, and I felt every sore muscle and bone in my body.

"Oh, damn," I managed to say before blacking out.


What felt like hours later, I groggily came to. Blinding lights forced me to groan and close my eyes again.

'Daemon? Are you okay?'

"Someone turn down the damn lights, I'm blinded here," was my croaky response. Arceus, I sounded about 30 years my senior with that voice.

At that, the lights dimmed and I could finally see. A blurry outline of a round, pale face greeted me.

"Did I die and go to heaven or something? 'Cause I'm seeing an angel here," I croaked.

The pale face blushed, and moved back slightly. My vision corrected itself and I saw that it was Lily, bending over me, trying to see if I was alright.

'A little mistake, but I can forgive you,' she said with a smile.

I cleared my throat and looked around. We were in what appeared to be a hospital wing, with still-clean sheets of linen folded up into neat bunches.

"Where are we?" I asked Lily.

'Elaine said that we were in Fallarbor, the closest town to where we were.'

"Elaine?"

'Yes, Elaine and her Lucario, Seth. He was the one who carried you all the way here. I think you should thank them.'

"Yeah, I agree," I said, sitting upright. I groaned as my muscles protested against the movement and laid back down. "But after I get some more rest, okay?"

She nodded and said, 'At least I can help you with that." Her eyes glowed blue, and I fell into a deep slumber.


Lily's POV

As his eyes closed, I felt a tear well up in my eye. Flicking it away, I leaned closer to him.

'Don't do such stupid things again,' I whispered, leaning closer to his lips...

"Hey, Lily, is he alright?"

I quickly straightened, slightly furious that I didn't have a chance to show my affection. Turning around, I saw that it was Elaine, standing in the doorway.

'Yes,' I said, smiling. 'He just wanted some extra rest, so I used Hypnosis.'

"Ingenious," she commented, following the slight shimmer another tear gave off as it streaked down my face.

'I should ask you if you're alright. You were nearly crushed by that monster," I said.

"I'm alright. Seth managed to force that thing into loosening his grip on me with his Aura Sphere before Daemon cut the tentacles holding me." She was still looking at the tear that refused to drop from my chin. Wiping it away, I looked outside. The light was beginning to dim as a thunderstorm moved overhead.

'Incredible,' I whispered.

"What?"

I looked back at her. 'I think it's incredible that something as simple as a thunderstorm can occur at times like these,' I said.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. It puts everything into perspective, doesn't it? While everyone is running away from this virus, Mother Nature is going about her merry way and caring for the planet."

'It's peaceful,' I replied. 'But I wonder, for how long?'

Continued in Chapter Three...Chapter End Notes:A/N: Daemon, Lily and new acquaintances are ambushed by the same being that terrorized them the night before, and they defeated it. Now, as a storm passes, Lily and Elaine share a moment of peace when the rest of the Pokemon world is in chaos. More to come in future chapters...

- UBE Chie