"Identification?" the electronical voice asked.

Khelfin answered with dry voice that sounded a bit too rough for someone his age. The Apocalypse had hit him hard.
"Fossil Hunter 07, Khelfin Kjolmar" he replied.

There was a short beep and the doors opened. He walked inside the building while his Porygon followed him closely. Porygon was covered in dust to make it look like he had been fighting alongside Khelfin for years, while in reality they had only met recently. But they had to convince their employer that Porygon wasn't presented to him on a silver platter by the competition.

A young woman in a lab coat approached with a serious facial expression. When she spoke, the main thing you notice is the formality of her tone.
"Welcome back, Fossil Hunter 07. If you haven't changed your mind, I will present you your first mission for the Genesect Corp."

Khelfin nodded while Porygon made his short beeping sound.
"That is why I am here. Do I get paid upfront?"

The woman pressed her glasses down her nose with her index finger before placing it back where it was before.
"Bold and direct. Don't make me regret hiring you."
She paused shortly and a silence filled the room before she continued.
"But I like it. Follow me for your mission data."

Khelfin wasn't sure what to think of Mrs Amy but she wasn't exactly the life of the party. Then again, neither was he. No one was really cheerful since the world almost ended and most of the population is now gone. Khelfin had gotten a lot more quiet than he used to be. As he followed his employer to the next room, the silence was almost eerie.

Aro stood there next to the desk as Petros examined the fossil that he had brought back. Petros was one of the Senior Researchers and Scientific development lead at Genesect Corp. Due to the nature of the job Aro had to bring all findings from his field work to the lab to be examined before anything else could be done with them, it could sometimes take hours for Petros to DNA scan the fossils and find out which Pokemon they belonged too.

“I don’t want to speak to soon but I think this may be a piece of old amber. Encased within the Amber will be the DNA of a Pokemon no doubt.” Petros muttered still looking down his microscope at the specimen before him.

“Thank you Aro, now I believe you have been called into Study room 427 by Miss Amy” He continued this time looking up at Aro.

Aro rolled his eyes and frowned, he was grateful to the Genesect Corp for saving him, but sometimes he couldn’t help but think that they should be more grateful to him, after all he had become their best fossil hunter.

“Thanks Petros, I’ll be back soon with some better fossils” He sighed as he left the room, knowing that Miss Amy wasn’t his biggest fan.

He followed along the narrow silver corridors before reaching a large open room. Inside the room, a lot of machinery, half of which Aro still hasn’t seen in use. The other side of her room stood Miss Amy with a new face. He studied the appearance of the new male and then that of his Pokemon, something didn’t sit right with Aro.

He slowly approached Miss Amy, hearing her drab monotone voice getting louder as he approached. He sometimes wish he had been killed so that he didn’t have to hear her voice ever again.

“You wanted to see me Miss Amy?” Aro said rather unenthusiastically

Miss Amy pointed her open hand towards Khelfin.
"This is Fossil Hunter 07: Kev.. Carl.. ehm.."

Trying to supress his frustration, Khelfin corrected her.
"Khelfin is the name. Khelfin Kjolmar. And this my partner Porygon."

Miss Amy didnt't seem to be care that she got it wrong and kept a straight face. She turned on some kind of device that projected a holographic map of the area. A dot marked a spot on the map.

"There should be a fossil there for you guys to retrieve. However, the area is swamped with hostile wild pokemon so it's an two-person job at least. Please share your field experience with Fossil Hunter 07 as the two of you retrieve the fossil."

Khelfin looked at the marked spot and knew exactly where the location was. This journey would definitely benefit the Mewtwo Corp by the time the mission is completed.

"Fine by me if we both get fully paid but if we have to share the money, I will be going solo. No offense to you, bro."

Miss Amy clicked her tongue. "Do not worry, 07, both of you will get the full payment. I would ask you to work on your social skills but then again, they are no longer important in this new world. Now get moving you two, chop chop."

As he walked towards the exit next to Aro, he looked at him like he reminded Khelfin of someone he used to know but he couldn't place his finger on it.

"I didn't mean to be rude back there, I just really need this money. What was your name again?"

Aro watched as Miss Amy brought up the holographic map and started to explain their mission. When she was done Aro took the map and slid it into his bag. While doing this he rolled his eyes as he heard Khelfin talking about money, there was nothing that Aro despised more than money hungry people, luckily for Khelfin he couldn’t see Aro’s expression.

“No problem Miss Amy. Same mission, different day right?” Aro sneered before she walked off.

Khelfin turned to Aro and started what seemed like some basic small talk.

“Hey don’t worry about it, we all have our reasons right?” Aro replied. “The name is Aro”

As Aro carried on walking leading Khelfin through the maze like silver corridors, one thing kept capturing Aros attention, the Porygon. Obviously a Pokemon traditionally used by Mewtwo Corp is going to raise some looks but there was something completely unusual about this one. He quickly shrugged it off before reaching their last stop before the mission.

“This is Mission Control Room, it’s where we can grab any gear we need for the mission. In this case I have everything we need but one thing” Aro explained before entering the room.

The room itself was at least double in size compared to any other room in the building filled with Researchers and Hunters alike. Aro walked over to a small door to the side of the room, which almost went unnoticed in the chaos. As he approached the door a computerised voice spoke out.

“IDENTIFY YOURSELF”
“ Fossil Hunter 03 - Aro Stone” Aro replied
“ACCESS GRANTED, HUNTER” The voice said before opening the door to a pitch black space.

Aro walked into the space and crouched down.
“Red. Come on buddy we gotta go” Aro whispered.

Into the light stepped Aro’s only Pokemon, a Tyrunt that was given to him by Genesect Corp once he had completed his rehab training. The Tyrunt seemed calm and collected around Aro, which were both words you wouldn’t usually use to describe Tyrunt. A red beam collected Red into his ball as Aro exited the room.

“Now we’re ready rookie, try not to mess up too much on this mission, after all you wanna get paid right?” Aro smirked as he lead Khelfin out of the Genesect Corp Centre and out into the wasteland.

Khelfin watched Aro take out his partner Tyrunt and wondered what it was like to befriend a revived fossil. Sure, Porygon had been created to fit Khelfin's needs but most of the time it looked so emotionless. Quite different than the Pokémon he had before the Apocalyps. Khelfin decided to keep his thoughts to himself and didn't comment on the Tyrunt either.

When Aro made a comment about Khelfin's financial motivation, Khelfin frowned slightly.

"Ofcourse I want to get paid, that is the whole point of a job. I would prefer to follow my dreams and all that but guess what? It turns out that when the world nearly ended and things wil never be the same as before, there aren't a lot of options."

He rolled his eyes as they continued their path. To prevent an awkward silence, he changed the subject.

"So, did you have a lot of Pokémon before.. you know.. before?"

"Over there?"

Maya gave Genesect Corp´s labyrinth of corridors a disapproving look. She knew there was no point in worrying over what any of the odd devices surrounding her were, nor why they really needed the help of someone like her, yet hesitation continued to crawl in her mind as she familiarized herself with the building.

Ms. Amy´s face tightened. "No, I was saying they were over there. They´ve left the building now." Maya hadn´t known her for very long, but she already knew she didn´t like her. She reminded Maya of those teachers who were bitter about their lives, back when schools were a thing. Ms. Amy adjusted her glasses and continued. "This mission would benefit from another set of hands, and the specimen we´ve assigned to you is still in dire need of training."

Both of their gazes fell to the archen they had given her. It fidgeted around restlessly, even more so now that both of them had been staring at it. Despite Maya´s efforts it was still untrained and very curious. At least he wasn´t nibbling on her shoes anymore. She sighed and said nothing, heading out the path she had come from.

The grim sight of the wasteland she now called home remained the same as it ever was, save for a pair of silhouettes.

"Yo!" she shouted. Fortunately for her, they hadn't been out for long.

Aro was slightly taken back by Khelfin’s response, he was right, people’s needs did change over the course of the events. He didn’t want to apologise though, Aro believed time was too short to regret things. After a few awkward moments Khelfin started to speak again. This time he asked about his Pokemon, his old Pokemon. His expression softened a little.

“I don’t....” Aro stumbled “...I think so...It’s still pretty blurry...” He unraveled before stopping in his tracks.
“Can you hear that?”

From a distance they could see a girl trying to make her way towards the pair. She seemed to be in hastily but lost state.

“Erm..: yo?” Aro laughed
“Do I know you?” He glanced as the girl as she came near, she wasn’t someone Aro recognised but she was coming from the research lab entrance. He saw her gear and started to put it together
“...two at once, you have to be kidding me...” Aro muttered under his breath.
His face changed quickly as he turned to her again.
“New Recruit?.... What’s your name then newbie?” He said with a subtle grin on his face

Khelfin had just the coordinates of their destination to the Mewtwo Corp without Aro noticing it. He tried to keep a clear head about his true goals while maintaining the perception that he was also interested in the fossils. Then again, what if he went for both things at the same time? No one would be harmed by the fact that he worked for two employers at once. However, the memory discs for the Mewtwo Corp would pay him a lot more so they were the priority if it came down making a choice.

A girl came running to them and by the comment Aro made, Khelfin could tell she would be joining them. He listened to her introduction while not drawing too much attention to himself. Meanwhile, Porygon circled around Aro's Tyrunt with a certain curiosity as if it tried to scan it.

Neither of them seemed particularly excited over the backup, but she wasn´t expecting a warm welcome anyways. "My name´s Maya, got sent here since this mission´s apparently important enough for more people." She jabbed her thumb in the air, pointing at her archen. "I got hired to train him, so it´s not like I can complain."

Her archen´s head twitched, eyes wide open, staring at the other pokemon. He approached the two pokemon but would take several hurried steps back every time the porygon got close in its circling. She looked unsurprised by this.

"I know Zombie looks weird, but I´ve tested him out in battle a couple of times, and he can hold his own pretty well." That´s all that´s important in this world, isn´t it? A part of her wanted to say that out loud, but she knew being a downer wasn´t going to get her anywhere. That and, she didn´t like the idea of beating herself up before heading into what was probably a dangerous mission.

Aro smiles as Maya introduced herself and Zombie the Archen. Zombie seemed to be curious of the other two Pokemon present, which consisted of Porygon circling Red and Red snapping his jaw in Porygons direction every now and again.

“Nice to meet you Maya, I’m Aro and this is Khelfin.” Aro chimed in.

His attitude had slightly changed, he seemed to be a bit more at ease when he saw Maya and her seeming sense of ease about the conditions. Aro knew he wasn’t the life of the party to most but deep down he knew there was nothing more that he wanted than to feel somewhat happy and at ease about his situation. Unfortunately he knew that was easier said than done.

“ Come on then, we best get going before Miss Amy starts sending out a rescue squad” he laughed vaguely.

After a while of battling through the harsh wasteland Aro’s map started beeping. He held up his hand in a fist signalling for the others to regroup.

“Ok so we are within radius of the fossil according to the map. We need to keep our wits about us. Wild Pokemon may not be as much of an issue but Outlaws and Mewtwo Corp are another thing.” He said with caution.

“Under NO circumstances should we split up, wether we like it or not we have to be a team on this mission. Got it?” He said rather forcefully.

He quickly nodded towards Red before starting to grab out a small device that measured fossilised concentrates in the ground.

“Let’s move out!” Aro said before starting to move again.

When Aro seemed to take the lead, Khelfin didn't protest much. It was only natural since Aro had the most experience in the fossil hunting. When Team Mewtwo was mentioned in a warning, Khelfin spoke up.

"Well, I met with some of those Mewtwo Corpers and to be honest, they didn't seem all bad to me. I know Ms Amy puts them up as the villain but I think I know why. Rumor has it that she and Cooper, the leader of Mewtwo Corp, used to be lovers before the Apocalyps. If this is true, she has a personal grudge more than they are actually hostile."

The second he finished his sentence, he realized he revealed quite a lot about his own sympathies and tried to give it a twist.

"Then again, if Cooper holds the same grudge against Amy, their staff will give us a hard time so we better watch out."

While they were walking, Porygon subtely drew Khelfin's attention, trying to do this without the others noticing. Khelfin knew what it meant. He looked at Aro and Maya and noticed they were talking. Khelfin quickly nodded to Porygon and it rushed over to something in the distance and brought it to Khelfin, seemingly without being seen. An electric memory, this will be perfect for Silvally Khelfin thought to himself and quickly put it away.

They both adjusted their walking speed so they caught up with the others. "So Maya, is Zombie your first pokemon ever or do you have experience as a trainer? I used to have more partners than just Porygon but now its my only one left."

GOLDENROD RADIO BROADCAST

"To whoever out there that is still alive and listening, this is Meredith Cloud directly from Goldenrod. While the two main corporations of scientists are trying to repopulate this world with Pokémon by either resurrecting fossils or creating artifical Pokémon, an anonymous source just reported sightings of more wild Pokémon still alive. As you heard on our previous broadcast, there had been sightings of a select group of wild Pokémon. But... according to our source there have also been spotted more species earlier today: a Dragonite, a Tyranitar, a Rhyperion, an Aggron and at least two Snorlax! We can only assume that these Pokémon survived because of their immense power. This news gives up hope that there are still more species around. And you know what, if those two Snorlax are opposite genders, we could attempt to let them breed! That will be all for today-...#/%¥₩ wait!../#& oh my... Word just got in that several ghost types have been spotted! That is amazing! Our world recently got a lot darker but I must tell you guys, this gives me hope again. Meredith Cloud, Goldenrod News."

Maya adjusted her hair absentmindedly. “Well, Ms. Amy’s love life doesn’t matter to me unless she somehow drags us into it.” She paused. “Then again, this could have something to do with it.”

She called for Zombie to walk along with the rest of their party, relieved that he was listening to her for once. It was probably out a fear of getting left behind, but hey, she wasn’t complaining.

“Zombie? Nah, I had a herdier before him. She was a nightmare to handle, but my uncle always told me that starting off like that would toughen me up for any pokemon I´d want in the future.” A small laugh escaped from her lips. “I always thought he just wanted someone to dump her on, but what do you now, he was right."

A growl of static interrupted her thoughts. She must have forgotten to turn her radio off. The news was probably urgent if it reached them all the way in the wild.

She scoffed at the report. "Ghost types, as if that was good news." It might have been for the scientists cooped up in their laboratories, but for anyone familiar with the paranormal and their curses, hauntings and possessions was no doubt as disappointed as Maya to hear they were back. "I guess it makes sense, with the world being as dead as it´s ever been."

Aro carried on scanning the area with his device eventually managing to find the fossil shortly after hearing the goldenrod news broadcast.

“It should be around here” he called out to the others.

He looked back down at gravel like dirt and started to dig with his hands, after a while pulling out on odd shaped rock.

“This is the fossil, looks like a helix to me.” He said putting into a special case which he then put into his backpack.

Before leaving Aro checked the ground again to make sure he hadn’t left anything, only to see a sword like blade lying on the floor next to him. Aro was certain it wasn’t there when he was digging despite it being two yards away. Confused, he took the sword and put it into his bag. Maybe petros could scan it and find out what it was used for.

He walked over to the others
“Guys, extraction has been successful let’s get back to the lab before we hit any of the wild Pokémon that have been spotted.” He said signalling the way forward.

Red remained close to Aros heel at all times occasionally chasing the odd tumbleweed blowing across the wasteland.

"Cool." Khelfin said calmly about the helix fossil, while in reality he wasnt that impressed. He had something more valuable now with the findings of a memory disc. He had already texted Cooper about it but for now he would have to head back to Amy and stick to the plan.

"I cant seem to figure out why it took the three of us to dig up that fossil."

The second he said this, a whole gang of Grimer and Alolan Grimer circled around them. They seemed cornered.

As they made they’re way back through the wastelands Aro’s mind kept replaying the moment he picked up the sword, on initial contact with the handle he felt like he saw the outline of his handprint glow, but he put it down to his own delusion. Being alone all this time had done him no favours. It wasn’t long before Aro’s thoughts were interrupted by Khelfin moaning about how easy the mission was.

“Look man, your both rookies, today was just about me showing you the ropes. You think Miss Amy would send you two out on high classification missions when you probably haven’t even seen a fossil till now? Besides it’s not like I chose to bring you.” Aro explained.

Although Aro was enjoying the company of other humans his own age, there was something about the way Khelfin spoke that rubbed him up the wrong way, He accepted that people were broken inside, how could they not be, most were taken away from loved ones and watched others die, but there was a point where Aro knew that negativity only bred bad things.

All of a sudden Red let out a small roar, to which Aro was alerted to a flock of wild Grimer. Aro’s stance changed and immediately stood in front of the group.

“This isn’t good guys, we’re gonna have to battle our way through this, it’s time for you both to show me what you got!” Aro commanded.
“Khelfin, now it’s tome to put your money where your mouth is...” He said to Khelfin in a banterful way.
“Red, use Head Smash, start knocking the grimer away...” he paused and glanced at the other Pokemon, “... Khelfin, Maya you both have aerial advantage so try provide some cover for red by distracting the grimer....”

Maya raised an eyebrow at the lack of care Aro displayed in handling the fossils. She knew they were more experienced than her at this though, so she kept her trap shut.

"I can´t seem to figure out why it took the three of us to dig up that fossil."

She smirked at Khelfin´s words and opened her mouth to speak. An odd noise stopped that from happening.

It was a family of grimer that had begun to encircle them. She hadn´t counted on their shapeless bodies making no noise across the landscape, but the sound of a loosened rock hitting the ground had fortunately gotten her attention.

"Well, I guess this is what they must´ve meant by toughening up my pokemon." She took mental note of the sheer amount of them and continued. "Zombie, scary face!"

In an instant the once twitching pokemon puffed out its chest and delivered a striking glare to a pair of nearby grimer. An eerie glow circling his eyes had stopped them dead in their tracks.

Maya squinted. Were they afraid, or were they just momentarily confused? One of the grimer wobbled in place, but the other seemed to have answered her question as it shook itself off and lunged for Zombie.

"Rock throw!" She shouted.

Zombie materialized a large stone and sent it hurtling towards the blob. If there was anything he could do right, it was this. She had spent ages training his accuracy with tin cans outside the lab, so aiming for a fat ball of filth was the least of her worries. A confident smile spread across her face as it let out a wail of pain from the impact. Her happiness was short-lived however, and she´d have to do more than just that if she wanted to get out of here in one piece.

"About that..." she muttered to Aro. "Zombie has wings, but he hasn´t gotten the hang of flying with them yet. The best I can get out of him is a hop and a glide, enough for a wing attack." Almost as if he understood her, Zombie did this exact maneuver to awkwardly dodge a stream of poison gas.

She dug her boot deeper into the ground. "Good job Zombie, now use scary face again!"

The archen fidgeted with the satisfaction of having been praised and once more cast a striking gaze on the grimer, this time aiming for the ones near Red.

Khelfin noticed how Maya had smirked about his comment and it made him smile. But when Aro reminded Khelfin and Maya that they were rookies, Khelfin frowned his forhead. He didn't like how it made him feel, as he had always been used to being experienced in the things he did. That Apocalyps sure had been life-changing.

When the Grimer prepared for battle and Aro told Khelfin to put his money where his mouth is, Khelfin grinned. He would prove that he was worth a whole lot more than it seemed.

"Alright Porygon, first we make sure to have our defenses up. Use conversion to change your type to poison so Grimer cannot harm you as much."

Zombie and Red seemed to start out with impressive moves as well.

Meanwhile Aro asked Maya and Khel to distract the Grimer. Khelfin widened his eyes and glared. "Porygon isn't the sidekick type, he is more of the main event. Porygon use Psybeam."

The psybeam didn't do as much damage as expected. Khelfin slapped himself on the forhead. "Ofcourse, how stupid of me. While Grimer is weak to psychic attacks, I had forgotten we changed to the poison type now."

Aro was truly impressed by both Maya and Khelfins start, both using Scary face and Conversion were genius moves for different reasons. It woke Aro up to the fact that although they were both new, both Maya and Khelfin new a thing or two. However although they’re effective start the Grimer carried on relentlessly, eventually starting to overpower Red. It wasn’t the sort of time to realise that what he had initially thought were advantages were gone.

Aro desperately tried to think of a plan as the Grimer started to outnumber the group. The Grimer has got wiser and split up between the three Pokemon. Red who was fighting valiantly was slowly being engulfed in a mixture of purple and black sludge as the Grimer slowly surrounded him. Aro had to do something, he ran at the Grimer and leaped in grabbing hold of Red. As he wrestled he felt the sludge start to cover his legs slowly working it’s way up.

In a last ditch effort Aro had only objective; to get Red safe. He managed to wiggle enough room for Red to squeeze from the Mass and although free, he fell to the ground exhausted from the pain. Aros eyes were locked to Red painstakingly as the Grimers poisonous touch flowed onto his skin.

*SHLINKKKKK*

Suddenly a metallic sound echoed through the area. Aro could barely feel anything at this point but he could tell that the Grimer had started to let go of his almost lifeless body. Gasping for air and confused he crawled towards Red and curled around him, protecting him. As Aro started to fade out of consciousness he looked up to see what seemed be the sword - from the previous dig site - levitating above them.

It looks like... is that an eye?! What the...?

The poison had definitely sunk in at this point, Aros face started to go pale and his limbs were almost flaccid. He slowly lost consciousness as he gasped for air. In an attempt to save himself he used his finger to write one word in the dirt, before passing out from the pain.

PETROS

While the battle intensified, a guy riding a Type:Null approached them. "Cooper?" Khelfin gasped in surprise.

"Khelfin, our cover has been blown. Amy knows you are working for me and she is on her way here."

As soon as Cooper had said that, Khelfin looked at Aro and Maya for their judgment on this revelation. However, Aro seemed to have passed out right after writing something in the dirt, so he hadn't heard any of it. Khelfin gave Maya an apogoletic look and rushed over to Aro to see if he was okay, only to be stopped by the Grimer. There was also a strange sword that started to move. Was that a Honedge?

Cooper yelled at Khelfin. "Leave the fossil hunters behind, we have to go. Throw me the memory disc."

Khelfin looked conflicted on how to act next. "Leave them? But the Grimer will overpower them.."

Khelfin threw the memory disc he had found earlier towards Cooper. "Take it if you want but I'm not leaving these people behind to die. Haven't enough lives been taken?"

Cooper caught the memory disc that was thrown to him and considered leaving, but changed his mind in the last second. "Damn you boy for kicking me a conscience. Okay, let's fight together. Here, catch this antidiote for the other guy."

While Khelfin attempted to get closer to Aro to apply the antidote, a hyperbeam came from the sky and hit most of the Grimer. It also knocked back Khelfin by accident and he wasn't able to reach Aro with the antidote. Khelfin noticed how Maya had a clear path to Aro now and threw the antidote to her. "Quick, use this on him!"

An Aerodactyl seemed to be the source of the hyperbeam and landed on the ground. On its back was Ms Amy, looking furious. Despite the mutual frustration between Amy and Cooper, they both seemed to be willing to assist the group on battling the Grimer.