Story Notes:
Uploading here and on ff.net. I think some people migth like the setting and don't browse the ff.As far as i guess, disclaimer goes there, rigth?So, i'll add it there.Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
When the Bombs Fall
Wieviele starben? Wer kennt die Zahl?
An deinen Wunden sieht man die Qual
der Namenlosen die hier verbrannt
im Hoellenfeuer aus Menschenhand
***************************
The day was hot. Arid, windless air was baking the place and every living entity present, be it human or Pokemon. But then, that kind of weather was the reason why everybody wanted to spend their hard-worked earnings on this goddamn island during the summertime.
Alto Mare, third most heavily loaded tourist's destination, recommended by all major lifestyle magazines and vacation prospects. Avoid the hot noons by visiting the various museums for knowledge and the recreational centers for fun. Spend the afternoons in restaurants and operas to gain some 'culture'. And stay the nights in pubs and discotheques, to get stoned, dance and pretend to be sober.
Tourists flooded the area. They loved it. So did the citizens; the warm climate and earning money 'just because you lived there' certainly made them happy. Not even the blasted war could shatter the harmony and peace of this place.
But this day was definitely too hot. The streets were empty, and all the beaches, even the low-graded ones, were overloaded far beyond their capacity. Usually there was equilibrium between these two elements, walkways and sands; but balance never lasts forever.
Even the guardian spirits had the urge to take a day off and cool themselves by any means available; swimming in the ocean, for example. Were she in her pokemon form, she would have had to swim far away from the beaches, as the sight would scare some and confuse even more. Not to mention, she was still somewhat scared by the prospect that another band of wicked meanies might try to kidnap her.
Therefore, while taking all the necessary precautions, Latias, in her human likeness, was swimming half a kilometer away from the Alto Mare's quayside. There, the waters were refreshingly cold and calm, with little to no swaying of the waves. It was an ideal place to lay down on her back and watch the sky.
One would think, "What a perfect way to spend that boiling day!"
But one would be wrong.
As Latias was looking at the sky, she noticed something in the horizon; a small, fast-moving dot. As she tried to make out more details, she noticed several more dots following the first, each leaving a blazing trail of flames behind.
Then, out of the great blue expanse of ocean, about twenty kilometers or so away... another blasted out of the water.
And again.
And again.
And few more times again.
Each had the same fiery tail, and looked like... looked like...
Looked like what? Latias quickly began to turn the pages of her memory. She had seen that shape somewhere, she had heard the word some time ago, but where and when? Then she knew.
Bianca had shown her some... strange papers. She called them "goddamn propagandist leaflets of the goddamn war," and they had had some interesting pictures on them. One of them depicted a demonesque man eating a newborn infant. Text, written in rather interesting font and even more interesting blood-like red color said, "Do you want to die, killed by these Kanto child-eating cold-blooded murderers? Support our troops, cheer for them!"
When Latias had said that the picture was funny, Bianca gazed at her coldly. Latias hadn't understood why.
Another one simply had a large picture of a strutting soldier with "VICTORY!" written in very large letters underneath the proud warrior in the camo suit.
Yet another paper had a large titleâ�""This is the way they are going to murder you!" Underneath the title were pictures of some strange things she had never before seen and some words she had never before heard, or understood, like 'sniper rifle' or 'laser guided bomb." But now, she remembered one thing from it.
The word "rocket" beneath the photograph depicting something similar to the thing she had just seen seconds ago.
'So, these are rockets!' she had thought. 'They look so funny!'
But Bianca said that they were "dangerous." How could these be dangerous? She just couldn't understand humans sometimes.
The sudden sound of sirens blowing in the city cut short her pondering and made her look around to Alto Mare.
Now, she began to remember even more things Bianca had lately said to her. In a very aggressive tone, if she recalled correctly.
"Listen Latias, and remember, as this is a matter of life and death. If you hear those fucking sirens, throw away anything you're doing, no matter how important it is, and find a safe place. And by safe place, I mean a basement. Or better, the other side of the world."
Bianca never swore near Latias; another sign of Bianca's and Lorenzo's increasing nervousness over the past few weeks. When Latias inquired, "Why?" both responded, "War." Latias dared not to ask what that word meant. Bianca was already on the verge of crying as she said that, and Lorenzo looked ready to throw anything he could get in his hands.
But there were no basements in the ocean! What she was going to do?
She heard a strange booming sound above her. Looking up, she saw the source of the noise.
Something flew above her head at an incredible velocity. A rocket.
Some kind of primitive instinct kicked in as Latias made the connection between the sirens and these 'dangerous' rockets. She tried to turn her head from the city, close her eyes, and dive in the water at the same time.
Second later, she went blind as white light enveloped the world. Her eyelids closed and she turned her eyes in another direction, and still there was too much light for her retina to handle.
And in her mind, she heard the screams of the dying city.
She stayed underwater for as long as her lungs could allow her. Her naturally lower body temperature and strength as a legendary pokemon allowed her to stay submerged for many minutes.
When she resurfaced, hot, oxygen-less air hit her lungs as she gasped for breath. Luckily, some breathable air was coming with the southern wind that began to blow, or else she would have suffocated.
As she was already tired from swimming all the day long, the lack of air exhausted her even more, making her body heavy and difficult to move. Forcing her muscles into motion, she began to swim towards the island. With each move she made, it was harder to do another one.
Then she noticed. The connection to the Soul Dew was... broken?
Mentally, she made a scan of the isle trying to locate the gem, seeking out its power. But there was nothing.
The Soul Dew was there no more.
Extending her abilities, she began to examine the island in more detail. Because she had been blinded by the flash, she had also been unable to see the biggest mushroom made of fire she could ever have imagined. If she had seen it, she wouldn't have even tried to scan the area.
All the people on Alto Mare had either disappeared completely or... were dying. Their lifeforce was diminishing. Everybody was dying in this hellhole. What had happened?
That attempt to locate any survivors with her mental abilities used all of her strength. Exhausted, she finally gave in and lapsed into unconsciousness, as the ocean currents carried her away.
These were the same currents that, with nothing to keep them in place, would smash Latias's island into annihilation.
***************************
He was dazed, his mind unclear. What had happened?
One minute ago, he was talking to his friends in the hallways of one of the Sinnoh's Pokemon League Office buildings, where he was submitting his entry forms for the Sinnoh Conference, in which he would participate later this year. Maybe this time he would defeat the Elite Four and claim the title.
He told them to wait for him, as he had the need to go to the place where even kings go on their feet. He left them waiting near the door to that sacred room.
Same as always. Unzip. Piss. Zip. And get smashed against the wall by the door being blown off its hinges.
With his vision slowly getting darker, and the feeling in his legs fading, he managed to somehow crawl back to the corridor. As one side of the hallway was lined with windows, the first sight that greeted him after getting out of the room was that of an enormous, fiery mushroom cloud on the horizon.
He turned around to see what had happened to his friends.
The girl...
Glass fragments, broken by the blast wave, had made their way into her body. One especially big shard cut through her stomach like some kind of grotesque spear, impaling her to the wall, while countless other pieces made numerous cuts on her skin, blood seeping on every square inch of her body. She was still alive, but in so much pain that she was going to die even if the paramedics were now tending to her.
His lifelong friend...
The sight was too gruesome, too nauseating. His head was cut clean by the glass.
There weren't any other people in the corridor. His heart skipped then as he remembered something just as important.
His Pokemon were outside. He had left them so that they could play and relax while he was getting these bureaucratic things done. What had happened to them?
"Oh God, let them be okay... unngh..."
He dragged his sore body through four meters of glass-strewn pathway until his mind finally gave in and he blacked out.
In the last second of his consciousness he heard some voices in the distance. So far away, but slowly coming closer to him.
***************************
"Fucking coward."
Pehler spoke these words in anger and shock.
First, he had been ordered to murder millions of innocents. Now O'Connell had killed himself in an attempt to escape the responsibility of the crime.
His lifeless body was on the floor of the command center, blood oozing from the hole in his left temple, a big gaping hole on the other side, parts of his brain covering a few nearby computer terminals. His fist still had a firm grip on his Luger semi-automatic pistol.
"Hope you feel eternal pain in Hell!" Pehler shouted while furiously kicking the corpse of his superior.
Other than the dead body in the command center, there was another strange thing in the scene.
No missiles were targeting the complex. Cities, villages, even forests. But this place was... clean? Impossible, but it somehow had happened.
Therefore, the place was still 'open,' soldiers ready for anything but not yet moved to the shelters.
The commander still didn't give orders to his soldiers to move into the bunkers.
Two more seconds...
The communications officer shouted at Pehler. Only these two were standing now in the hub of operations.
"Sir, one of missiles changed the trajectory, and is heading here! ETA is fifteen seconds! For fuck's sake close the blast doors now!"
A few minutes ago, he had begun to murder the world. Some missiles had already reached the designated targets, the rest of them were still in mid-air.
Now, he was going to leave his men behind. But there was nothing he could do. The missile was going to hit in fifteen seconds.
One quick swipe of his keycard, and the heavy steel-lead doors cut the place off from the outside world, trapping the two in the subterranean command room.
Outside, as the soldiers saw the door's movement, they began to run for it.
None got through to the secure shelter. The doors closed before their eyes.
"What the fuck, let us in!"
"What did that meaâ�""
The soldier never got to finish his sentence as his body evaporated that very millisecond.
Inside, a rumble shook the place. Lights began to blink. And then the power went down, veiling the place in darkness...
***************************
Somewhere far away...
Something clicked. And whirred.
It was the sound of servo motors repositioning the satellite dish.
Somewhere else, fifteen thousand old LED diodes once again lit on, illuminating the room. Soon, the terminal activated again after a one-thousand-year period. Many commands started printing, so quickly that no eye could read the continuous output of letters.
Then, the screen cleared again, and another set of messages appeared.
"Receiving transmission from all-seeing eye system."
"Activating main grid."
And tthe terminal shut down again.
In the another part of that strange place, another room had been illuminated by the dull light made by the displays.
A set of three screens, three per three meters in size, each turned on.
This room was considerably bigger, but except these three screens and one keyboard panel in the middle, nothing was there. Practically empty, the place looked very clean, save for the dust. Without it, this room would have looked almost as sterile as an operation theater in a hospital.
The screens began to display various data.
On one was a map; a bird's eye view photo of the immediate territory of the complex. On a second was a tactical map made with vector graphics. On the third, a set of commands printed.
"All-seeing eye detected enemy launch."
"Detecting radiation. Missiles confirmed to be nuclear warheads."
"No intel confirmation. Using IFF heuristic algorithms."
"WARNING: IFF transponder not responding. Unable to tell friend from foe."
"Assuming hostility by and towards every party involved."
"Trajectory calculator detected 4 immediate dangers."
"Launching purgatory system."
"WARNING: Insufficient energy for 3 target enemy missiles."
"Performing destruction on the closest one."
"Projectors 01, 02, 03 active."
On the second map, trajectories of the warheads was shown. One missile then disappeared.
There were four nuclear missiles targeting the surroundings of the ancient system's location. One of these missiles exploded mid-air as if something hit it, not reaching the target but throwing off the radioactive remains below.
The rest reached the destination.
The whole place began to rock furiously as the ground shook more and more with each blast. Two minutes later, earthquakes stopped.
And another set of commands appeared.
"Performing post-hit tests."
"Outer shell has been damaged. Estimate approximately 30%."
"Inner shell has not been damaged."
"All components appear undamaged, not enough energy to perform additional diagnostics test."
"ARK system is safe."
Then, one more message appeared before the screens were turned off.
"Recharging batteries."
***************************
The man woke up again in his eternal prison.
But this time, something was different. Before today, he had felt cold each time he woke up. This time, however, he felt as if he was boiling inside from the hotness that surrounded him.
Also, he felt much weaker. He felt as if his lifeforce was being sucked off his body. With each second, he grew weaker and weaker, as weak as a newborn baby.
And somehow, he knew that another inhabitant of this place was suffering the same.
How strange. He knew, but had no reason to think like that, to think that there was anybody else there. So, what was that feeling he felt, that he somehow wasn't alone?
Then, suddenly, the place began to tremble. He could tell it, as the liquid began to vibrate strangely.
Before it ended, a sudden prick in his arm. And he again fell in the embrace of Morpheus.
***************************
"Stop that or I'll shoot!"
Nobody cared about some random security guy aiming his pistol and yelling at random people. Who would care, anyway?
The shopping center was overrun by the mob. Some Pokemon were helping their owners with getting everything that could be taken.
That man, seeing the surreality of this scene, realized that he was unable to do anything to stop them. Thus, he holstered his gun and began to loot the place with the same zeal as the flooding mass.
If he got through this, he'd get fired for sure. But then, hey! It's the end of the world! Open 'til last customer!
Outside, air raid sirens began to wail, as PA megaphones began to announce the standard safety procedures to those citizens who didn't know what to do. People who heard them tried to get to the nearest one of Jubilife's many bomb shelters. In the mall however, the noise was too loud for anybody to hear that something was brewing outside.
It didn't matter. Even those shelters couldn't provide adequate protection against nuclear weaponry. All of them died the same way.
People stealing toys in the market. People bracing themselves in the shelter.
The next second, they were there no more, as their bodies ceased to exist.
***************************
There wasn't a place unaffected by the war. Practically every inch of the planet was touched by the destruction.
There wasn't a city that was left intact. Every human settlement was leveled. Only rubble remained.
That day, about ninety-five percent of the human population died by direct hits. Radioactivity, burns, and the collateral damage began to affect the survivors that somehow got through the initial ordeal. Many of them died later.
Of Pokemon, approximately five percent of species went extinct. The rest found themselves on the verge of following.
The world's population was effectively reduced by 99.5%.
The world became quiet.
An deinen Wunden sieht man die Qual
der Namenlosen die hier verbrannt
im Hoellenfeuer aus Menschenhand
***************************
The day was hot. Arid, windless air was baking the place and every living entity present, be it human or Pokemon. But then, that kind of weather was the reason why everybody wanted to spend their hard-worked earnings on this goddamn island during the summertime.
Alto Mare, third most heavily loaded tourist's destination, recommended by all major lifestyle magazines and vacation prospects. Avoid the hot noons by visiting the various museums for knowledge and the recreational centers for fun. Spend the afternoons in restaurants and operas to gain some 'culture'. And stay the nights in pubs and discotheques, to get stoned, dance and pretend to be sober.
Tourists flooded the area. They loved it. So did the citizens; the warm climate and earning money 'just because you lived there' certainly made them happy. Not even the blasted war could shatter the harmony and peace of this place.
But this day was definitely too hot. The streets were empty, and all the beaches, even the low-graded ones, were overloaded far beyond their capacity. Usually there was equilibrium between these two elements, walkways and sands; but balance never lasts forever.
Even the guardian spirits had the urge to take a day off and cool themselves by any means available; swimming in the ocean, for example. Were she in her pokemon form, she would have had to swim far away from the beaches, as the sight would scare some and confuse even more. Not to mention, she was still somewhat scared by the prospect that another band of wicked meanies might try to kidnap her.
Therefore, while taking all the necessary precautions, Latias, in her human likeness, was swimming half a kilometer away from the Alto Mare's quayside. There, the waters were refreshingly cold and calm, with little to no swaying of the waves. It was an ideal place to lay down on her back and watch the sky.
One would think, "What a perfect way to spend that boiling day!"
But one would be wrong.
As Latias was looking at the sky, she noticed something in the horizon; a small, fast-moving dot. As she tried to make out more details, she noticed several more dots following the first, each leaving a blazing trail of flames behind.
Then, out of the great blue expanse of ocean, about twenty kilometers or so away... another blasted out of the water.
And again.
And again.
And few more times again.
Each had the same fiery tail, and looked like... looked like...
Looked like what? Latias quickly began to turn the pages of her memory. She had seen that shape somewhere, she had heard the word some time ago, but where and when? Then she knew.
Bianca had shown her some... strange papers. She called them "goddamn propagandist leaflets of the goddamn war," and they had had some interesting pictures on them. One of them depicted a demonesque man eating a newborn infant. Text, written in rather interesting font and even more interesting blood-like red color said, "Do you want to die, killed by these Kanto child-eating cold-blooded murderers? Support our troops, cheer for them!"
When Latias had said that the picture was funny, Bianca gazed at her coldly. Latias hadn't understood why.
Another one simply had a large picture of a strutting soldier with "VICTORY!" written in very large letters underneath the proud warrior in the camo suit.
Yet another paper had a large titleâ�""This is the way they are going to murder you!" Underneath the title were pictures of some strange things she had never before seen and some words she had never before heard, or understood, like 'sniper rifle' or 'laser guided bomb." But now, she remembered one thing from it.
The word "rocket" beneath the photograph depicting something similar to the thing she had just seen seconds ago.
'So, these are rockets!' she had thought. 'They look so funny!'
But Bianca said that they were "dangerous." How could these be dangerous? She just couldn't understand humans sometimes.
The sudden sound of sirens blowing in the city cut short her pondering and made her look around to Alto Mare.
Now, she began to remember even more things Bianca had lately said to her. In a very aggressive tone, if she recalled correctly.
"Listen Latias, and remember, as this is a matter of life and death. If you hear those fucking sirens, throw away anything you're doing, no matter how important it is, and find a safe place. And by safe place, I mean a basement. Or better, the other side of the world."
Bianca never swore near Latias; another sign of Bianca's and Lorenzo's increasing nervousness over the past few weeks. When Latias inquired, "Why?" both responded, "War." Latias dared not to ask what that word meant. Bianca was already on the verge of crying as she said that, and Lorenzo looked ready to throw anything he could get in his hands.
But there were no basements in the ocean! What she was going to do?
She heard a strange booming sound above her. Looking up, she saw the source of the noise.
Something flew above her head at an incredible velocity. A rocket.
Some kind of primitive instinct kicked in as Latias made the connection between the sirens and these 'dangerous' rockets. She tried to turn her head from the city, close her eyes, and dive in the water at the same time.
Second later, she went blind as white light enveloped the world. Her eyelids closed and she turned her eyes in another direction, and still there was too much light for her retina to handle.
And in her mind, she heard the screams of the dying city.
She stayed underwater for as long as her lungs could allow her. Her naturally lower body temperature and strength as a legendary pokemon allowed her to stay submerged for many minutes.
When she resurfaced, hot, oxygen-less air hit her lungs as she gasped for breath. Luckily, some breathable air was coming with the southern wind that began to blow, or else she would have suffocated.
As she was already tired from swimming all the day long, the lack of air exhausted her even more, making her body heavy and difficult to move. Forcing her muscles into motion, she began to swim towards the island. With each move she made, it was harder to do another one.
Then she noticed. The connection to the Soul Dew was... broken?
Mentally, she made a scan of the isle trying to locate the gem, seeking out its power. But there was nothing.
The Soul Dew was there no more.
Extending her abilities, she began to examine the island in more detail. Because she had been blinded by the flash, she had also been unable to see the biggest mushroom made of fire she could ever have imagined. If she had seen it, she wouldn't have even tried to scan the area.
All the people on Alto Mare had either disappeared completely or... were dying. Their lifeforce was diminishing. Everybody was dying in this hellhole. What had happened?
That attempt to locate any survivors with her mental abilities used all of her strength. Exhausted, she finally gave in and lapsed into unconsciousness, as the ocean currents carried her away.
These were the same currents that, with nothing to keep them in place, would smash Latias's island into annihilation.
***************************
He was dazed, his mind unclear. What had happened?
One minute ago, he was talking to his friends in the hallways of one of the Sinnoh's Pokemon League Office buildings, where he was submitting his entry forms for the Sinnoh Conference, in which he would participate later this year. Maybe this time he would defeat the Elite Four and claim the title.
He told them to wait for him, as he had the need to go to the place where even kings go on their feet. He left them waiting near the door to that sacred room.
Same as always. Unzip. Piss. Zip. And get smashed against the wall by the door being blown off its hinges.
With his vision slowly getting darker, and the feeling in his legs fading, he managed to somehow crawl back to the corridor. As one side of the hallway was lined with windows, the first sight that greeted him after getting out of the room was that of an enormous, fiery mushroom cloud on the horizon.
He turned around to see what had happened to his friends.
The girl...
Glass fragments, broken by the blast wave, had made their way into her body. One especially big shard cut through her stomach like some kind of grotesque spear, impaling her to the wall, while countless other pieces made numerous cuts on her skin, blood seeping on every square inch of her body. She was still alive, but in so much pain that she was going to die even if the paramedics were now tending to her.
His lifelong friend...
The sight was too gruesome, too nauseating. His head was cut clean by the glass.
There weren't any other people in the corridor. His heart skipped then as he remembered something just as important.
His Pokemon were outside. He had left them so that they could play and relax while he was getting these bureaucratic things done. What had happened to them?
"Oh God, let them be okay... unngh..."
He dragged his sore body through four meters of glass-strewn pathway until his mind finally gave in and he blacked out.
In the last second of his consciousness he heard some voices in the distance. So far away, but slowly coming closer to him.
***************************
"Fucking coward."
Pehler spoke these words in anger and shock.
First, he had been ordered to murder millions of innocents. Now O'Connell had killed himself in an attempt to escape the responsibility of the crime.
His lifeless body was on the floor of the command center, blood oozing from the hole in his left temple, a big gaping hole on the other side, parts of his brain covering a few nearby computer terminals. His fist still had a firm grip on his Luger semi-automatic pistol.
"Hope you feel eternal pain in Hell!" Pehler shouted while furiously kicking the corpse of his superior.
Other than the dead body in the command center, there was another strange thing in the scene.
No missiles were targeting the complex. Cities, villages, even forests. But this place was... clean? Impossible, but it somehow had happened.
Therefore, the place was still 'open,' soldiers ready for anything but not yet moved to the shelters.
The commander still didn't give orders to his soldiers to move into the bunkers.
Two more seconds...
The communications officer shouted at Pehler. Only these two were standing now in the hub of operations.
"Sir, one of missiles changed the trajectory, and is heading here! ETA is fifteen seconds! For fuck's sake close the blast doors now!"
A few minutes ago, he had begun to murder the world. Some missiles had already reached the designated targets, the rest of them were still in mid-air.
Now, he was going to leave his men behind. But there was nothing he could do. The missile was going to hit in fifteen seconds.
One quick swipe of his keycard, and the heavy steel-lead doors cut the place off from the outside world, trapping the two in the subterranean command room.
Outside, as the soldiers saw the door's movement, they began to run for it.
None got through to the secure shelter. The doors closed before their eyes.
"What the fuck, let us in!"
"What did that meaâ�""
The soldier never got to finish his sentence as his body evaporated that very millisecond.
Inside, a rumble shook the place. Lights began to blink. And then the power went down, veiling the place in darkness...
***************************
Somewhere far away...
Something clicked. And whirred.
It was the sound of servo motors repositioning the satellite dish.
Somewhere else, fifteen thousand old LED diodes once again lit on, illuminating the room. Soon, the terminal activated again after a one-thousand-year period. Many commands started printing, so quickly that no eye could read the continuous output of letters.
Then, the screen cleared again, and another set of messages appeared.
"Receiving transmission from all-seeing eye system."
"Activating main grid."
And tthe terminal shut down again.
In the another part of that strange place, another room had been illuminated by the dull light made by the displays.
A set of three screens, three per three meters in size, each turned on.
This room was considerably bigger, but except these three screens and one keyboard panel in the middle, nothing was there. Practically empty, the place looked very clean, save for the dust. Without it, this room would have looked almost as sterile as an operation theater in a hospital.
The screens began to display various data.
On one was a map; a bird's eye view photo of the immediate territory of the complex. On a second was a tactical map made with vector graphics. On the third, a set of commands printed.
"All-seeing eye detected enemy launch."
"Detecting radiation. Missiles confirmed to be nuclear warheads."
"No intel confirmation. Using IFF heuristic algorithms."
"WARNING: IFF transponder not responding. Unable to tell friend from foe."
"Assuming hostility by and towards every party involved."
"Trajectory calculator detected 4 immediate dangers."
"Launching purgatory system."
"WARNING: Insufficient energy for 3 target enemy missiles."
"Performing destruction on the closest one."
"Projectors 01, 02, 03 active."
On the second map, trajectories of the warheads was shown. One missile then disappeared.
There were four nuclear missiles targeting the surroundings of the ancient system's location. One of these missiles exploded mid-air as if something hit it, not reaching the target but throwing off the radioactive remains below.
The rest reached the destination.
The whole place began to rock furiously as the ground shook more and more with each blast. Two minutes later, earthquakes stopped.
And another set of commands appeared.
"Performing post-hit tests."
"Outer shell has been damaged. Estimate approximately 30%."
"Inner shell has not been damaged."
"All components appear undamaged, not enough energy to perform additional diagnostics test."
"ARK system is safe."
Then, one more message appeared before the screens were turned off.
"Recharging batteries."
***************************
The man woke up again in his eternal prison.
But this time, something was different. Before today, he had felt cold each time he woke up. This time, however, he felt as if he was boiling inside from the hotness that surrounded him.
Also, he felt much weaker. He felt as if his lifeforce was being sucked off his body. With each second, he grew weaker and weaker, as weak as a newborn baby.
And somehow, he knew that another inhabitant of this place was suffering the same.
How strange. He knew, but had no reason to think like that, to think that there was anybody else there. So, what was that feeling he felt, that he somehow wasn't alone?
Then, suddenly, the place began to tremble. He could tell it, as the liquid began to vibrate strangely.
Before it ended, a sudden prick in his arm. And he again fell in the embrace of Morpheus.
***************************
"Stop that or I'll shoot!"
Nobody cared about some random security guy aiming his pistol and yelling at random people. Who would care, anyway?
The shopping center was overrun by the mob. Some Pokemon were helping their owners with getting everything that could be taken.
That man, seeing the surreality of this scene, realized that he was unable to do anything to stop them. Thus, he holstered his gun and began to loot the place with the same zeal as the flooding mass.
If he got through this, he'd get fired for sure. But then, hey! It's the end of the world! Open 'til last customer!
Outside, air raid sirens began to wail, as PA megaphones began to announce the standard safety procedures to those citizens who didn't know what to do. People who heard them tried to get to the nearest one of Jubilife's many bomb shelters. In the mall however, the noise was too loud for anybody to hear that something was brewing outside.
It didn't matter. Even those shelters couldn't provide adequate protection against nuclear weaponry. All of them died the same way.
People stealing toys in the market. People bracing themselves in the shelter.
The next second, they were there no more, as their bodies ceased to exist.
***************************
There wasn't a place unaffected by the war. Practically every inch of the planet was touched by the destruction.
There wasn't a city that was left intact. Every human settlement was leveled. Only rubble remained.
That day, about ninety-five percent of the human population died by direct hits. Radioactivity, burns, and the collateral damage began to affect the survivors that somehow got through the initial ordeal. Many of them died later.
Of Pokemon, approximately five percent of species went extinct. The rest found themselves on the verge of following.
The world's population was effectively reduced by 99.5%.
The world became quiet.