Zombie jinked around the battlefield like a clunky machine, continually avoiding streams of gas or sludge by only a hair´s width. The look of hyperactive terror plastered on his face and Maya´s cursing revealed that this wasn´t born out of skill, however.

"Zombie, six o' clock!" she shouted, sprinting. Teaching your pokemon to face certain directions was a basic part of being a good trainer. Unfortunately for Maya, she had only taught Zombie a couple. His head swerved to look behind him as per her instructions, quickly enough to notice the wad of contamination arcing towards him and drop to the ground with a hard thud to dodge it. Maya pumped her fist in celebration and threw several rocks at the grimer to help him out.

Just as she had begun to think that the battle was turning in their favor, she heard the pained gasps of one of her teammates within the turmoil. It was Aro, swarmed by grimer.

Maya cursed loudly. "Rock throw!" she barked. If there was a silver lining to this, it was that grimer huddled together made for easy pickings. Zombie attacked repeatedly, far less focused on having the perfect shot now that it wasn't necessary. The sight of a large sword threw a wrench in her plans, though.

"What the hell?" she shouted. Maya and her pokemon kept their distance from it despite its closeness to Aro. There was no telling what that could be. She faced them both tensely, unsure of what either had planned.

The next few moments were a disaster. Khelfin revealed himself to be in leagues with a rival company, and both Ms. Amy and Cooper crashed down to join the battle. Zombie hobbled over to Maya at her command, even more bewildered than she was.

"Can´t really say I trust this is antidote right now, no offense," said Maya. She walked over to Aro and administered it, only just now realizing he had left a message in the dirt. "It beats doing nothing though... petros?"

She cocked her eyebrow at Cooper. She didn´t know who this man was, but his insistence on leaving her to die sure was an introduction. "Y'know, I was kind of hoping Ms. Amy's personal life wasn't gonna get in the way of making some money." Maya wasn't in the mood to respect her either, as her aerodactyl had come close to incinerating Zombie.

Confused and gasping for air, Aro’s eyes opened slowly, above him he saw Maya and... the sword?!.... Floating?? Aro shook his head in disbelief, almost hoping it was a horrible trip from the Grimer acid. The blade now started getting closer to Aro in an almost sheepish manner.

“What.. are you?” Aro whispered intriguingly.

“It’s a Pokemon, a Honedge to be exact.” A familiar voice retorted.

Aro day up to reveal Miss Amy... and Cooper! Aro’s face changed and his posture turned more defensive. What the hell was happening?! Disgruntled, Aro scrambled for Reds ball to return his fallen friend. Something was going on and he didn’t like what he had woken up to.

“...it makes sense for this species to have survived the harsh conditions, and from the way it fought the Grimer I’d say it wanted to defend you...” Miss Amy continued, not deterred by Aro’s current state.

“What are you doing here?” Aro said confrontationally “You said this was a simple mission, I though it was strange you had me take people but first the Grimer now this? Why are you here with him?” His focus shifted from Miss Amy to Cooper.

Aro couldn’t stand Cooper, he’d only ever seen him from a far a few times in recon missions. His whole person screamed sleazy from his hair, to his suit and shoes that he never seen to take off. As he turned he finally saw Khelfin, not by Miss Amy’s side but by Cooper’s.

“Your one of them?... I knew there was something off about this from the start.” Aro managed to get to his feet, albeit slowly. “Now you all have some explaining to do....”

Once the situation with the Grimer had settled, there was this awkward atmosphere. Both Amy and Cooper stared at each other, not really explaining anything. Khelfin sighed. "Why don't you two give it a rest already? Look, I'm not getting involved in whatever is going on romanticly but I do know you are two of the greatest minds that survived the Apocalyps. Wouldn't it be more rational if you worked together instead of competing?"

Meanwhile one of the Grimer, it had Alolan colors, made its way up to Khelfin. It didnt seem hostile at all, compared to the others. Amy inspected it and shared her conclusions. "I think this Alolan Grimer wants to hang out with you, Fossil Hu- Ehm, Khelfin."

Khelfin lowered himself to its level to look it in the eyes. "Is that true?" The Alolan Grimer nodded.

So the grimer weren't entirely loony after all. Maya felt a pang of envy, but then again, Khelfin wasn't the one throwing rocks at them. She looked at the few grimer that had stayed, unimpressed. They were of course gravely injured, or at least as gravely injured as a puddle of filth could appear to be, and none of them looked like tempting party members. Zombie was already a handful, so her disappointment was short lived.

"So... Khelfin..." said Maya, awkwardly, "You gonna explain why you decided to be a double agent and work for the guy that was fine with getting me and Aro killed?" She asked the question with the casual tone of someone talking about the weather, but there was a hidden edge to it. Knowing that people like Cooper were stronger than her instilled a sense of helplessness within her, an urge to grow even stronger. She'd have to grit her teeth until the day she'd be able to take someone like him on in battle.

She wasn't mad at Khelfin. This world was now survival of the fittest, and he, like her, was trying to get by. That didn't mean she didn't distrust him, though.

After Khelfin's judgment, Cooper looked at Amy and remembered how much they used to care for each other. "Well, we áre the brightest minds still alive. I suppose the more rational action here would be to work together instead of against each other."

Amy knew he was right but it was hard to admitt it out loud. "I suppose." she mumbled. "But could Mewtwo Corp and Genesect Corp merge into one company? And who would lead it?" she asked.

"I would, obviously." Cooper replied, creating a harsh look on Amy's face.

Meanwhile Khelfin had put his new Alolan Grimer in a pokeball and stared at Maya and Aro after his exposure. "You call it double agent, I like to see it as multifunctional employee. But considering those two brainiacs seem to be setting their differences aside, does it still matter?"

It took Aro a while to properly take in everything that was happening, however as he began to understand what was going on a bit more he just had more questions about the situation. He looked up to see the sword again hovering by him. He wasn’t hallucinating that part.

“A Honedge?... So your a Pokemon...?” He whispered as the sword seemed to acknowledge Aro’s statement.

“Your welcome to come with me and Red if you want?” Aro said with a smile before Honedge started to spin around out of happiness.

Aro smirked as his new partner danced around him before realising that there was a much bigger elephant in the room. He listened as the others talked about the situation. When Cooper finally suggested they work together, Aro jumped to his feet with a disgruntled look on his face. Just as he went to speak Khelfin tried to explain himself, asking how it mattered now the two corporations were working together. Aro’s blood started to boil.

“It matters to me Khelfin, I don’t take kindly to liars.... and you two? Are you fucking serious? I’m suppose to believe that after all these years at war that’s its normal for you two to make a team all of a sudden?” Aro was shouting at this point.

“There’s something going on here and I know there is. Now you two tell me what it is or I become your worst nightmare and I will stop at nothing to find out and stop it whatever is. So which one is it?” He trailed off

“Aro, lets not be hasty now, let’s not forget who found you and made you who you are now....” Miss Amy said calmly.

“...you found me and made me into what you wanted me to be. This wasn’t me before. I was.... I was something before and I’ll find out what that is if it kills me. I’m sick of this sinister shit and considering I’m not hearing any explanation, i guess it’s time for you to find your new best fossil hunter.” Aro was red in the face with anger.

“I hope you two know what you’ve got yourself into.” He said directing at Miss Amy and Cooper.

They chuckled slightly before Aro started walking off into the wasteland, with Honedge trailing by his side.

Maya clicked her tongue in annoyance. She didn't like the idea of having to put some trust into any of these people if they were this caught up in their personal schemes, but she knew moping around and complaining any further would be useless. "Guess not," she told Khelfin, looking at Amy and Cooper. Sensing that the atmosphere had calmed down, Zombie emerged from between her calves and began to inspect the honedge with caution.

"I wonder if you could use that thing as an actual weapon," she remarked, chuckling. Although she didn't know that much about the more exotic types of pokemon, she figured it'd be okay with it. One of the few things she had remembered from her studies was that object-based pokemon tended to find comfort in assuming the roles of what they represented.

Aro was having none of it, and scolded both Amy and Cooper for their immaturity. Maya smiled at first, but it vanished once she realized he was being dead serious. As he began walking away, she shouted. "Where are you going?!" Didn't he want to at least get his cut of the profits first?

Khelfin tried to think fast. A part of him wanted to let Aro take off but a part of him wanted him to stick around. He rolled his eyes and asked Maya: "Shall we go after him?"

Before Maya could answer, Amy nodded and said "Good idea, let's."

Khelfin stretched out his arm and stopped her. "Not you. Horrible idea. You go work things out with Cooper. Maya and I got this."

His opinion got supported by Cooper, who then took Amy out of there.

Khelfin withdrew Porygon to its pokeball to rest and got ready to follow Aro if Maya was up for it.

GOLDENROD RADIO BROADCAST

"This is Meredith Cloud directly from Goldenrod. More species have been discovered alive. The following kinds have been confirmed: Cleffa, Staryu, Lunatone, Solrock, Elgyem, Minior and Unknown. Most of those have data saying they come from space or another dimension so we can assume they were not around when the Apocalypse happened. In other news, there are some rumors that a few volunteers are working on creating the first post-apocalyptic Pokémon gyms and league. With more species alive than we originally thought, this may be just what we need to pick our lives up again. We can't confirm this rumor just yet but you will definitely hear it from us first when it's certain. Meredith Cloud, Goldenrod News."

Aro carried on slowly stomping through the wasteland, his previous encounter replaying in his head. It just seemed to solidify every reservation he had about either corporation. Even we was working with Genesect Corp he could tell that there was something sinister going on and although he hadn’t figured out what it was yet, he knew that he had to stop them.

After a few miles Aro stumbled across what looked like an abandoned campsite, probably used by bandits at some point. A tarp like cloth was pulled over a structure of rocks to create a make shift shelter. Outside was a burnt out fire pit, it still had a few bits of wood that were useable close by. Although a basic camp Aro decided that it was probably the best place to stop before the night set in.

He dumped his bag next to a nearby rock and sat down on top of it. Honedge had started investigating the camp in almost a vigilant way, meanwhile Aro had a more urgent matter to attend to. He grabbed a revive mixture from his bag and then grabbed Red’s ball, bringing him out into Aro’s arms. Aro gently rubbed in the mixture onto red who slowly started to come to.

“Hey buddy, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t of sent you in there like that” Aro whispered to Red.

Red nuzzled his jaw into Aro to comfort him. However Honedge had also realised Reds presence and had floated over to say hello.

“This is Honedge, he’s our new buddy, he helped us out back there against the Grimer!” Aro explained.
“Thanks again buddy. I think you need a new name, how about.... Apollo?” Aro questioned.

The Honedge danced around in agreement until it was disrupted by the Radio once again blaring its news report. Aro seemed mostly disinterested with what the Radio had to say but his attention was drawn back when the Radio started to mention a new gym and league structure.

Something seemed to brew within Aro every time he tried to think about what Pokémon Gyms were like before the apocalypse. It was like he had some deep connection with that side of his past life but he couldn’t ever produce a single word or picture in his brain to prove it. Maybe if he set this as his new goal, it might bring something back... anything at all.

With the night starting to close in, Aro decided it was time to try and start up a fire, using Red to pick up a rock and Apollo to strike it with his steel body, they managed to kindle together a small fire.

“Good job boys... see we will be fine on our own...” Aro said in a way that was almost reassuring himself more than his partners.

Maya walked after Aro along with Khelfin, irritated at how volatile everyone around her seemed. She was all too aware of being quite the stubborn hothead when she wanted to, but being around people like Ms. Amy had resulted in a newfound appreciation for herself.

"I guess we don't have any other choice than to go after the guy. Plus, rounding out my team seems like the best thing to do right now. Training a pokemon without socializing it is, as my uncle would say, really stupid."

The landscape around them was devoid of life, save for brief streaks of hardy flora that could withstand the danger of the new world. The occasional set of ruins could be seen in the distance, though it could have just as easily been a home for someone. People weren't picky here.

"Huh?" she said. Another radio transmission. The more... cryptic species of pokemon had been sighted. She wasn't surprised by most of the names that were mentioned, as they had been rumored to have been ready to deal with such a scenario. Plenty of conspiracy theorists liked to prattle on about how it was possible these pokemon had actually originated from other doomed worlds. It was a morbid thought.

She looked around their surroundings, spotting what appeared to be an abandoned campsite far into the distance. She stopped in her tracks to think. "He's not an idiot, so I don't think he'd pass up the chance to rest in a place like that." Her hand wandered over to a pair of minimized pokeballs clasped to her belt. "And if he did go farther ahead, then we should stop anyways. Any pokemon worth catching's probably hiding around in there. Those mysterious types aren't the kind to walk around in broad daylight, after all."

Khelfin knew Maya was right about resting for a bit. It was a different world now, they couldn't afford to let their guard down. He smirked at her comment about wild pokemon.

"So, are you jealous that both Aro and I have a second pokemon now? Is that why you want to catch one?" Khelfin was clearly just teasing.

"I can't say I am particularry interested in finding any, I already got my Porygon and now that odd-colored Grimer. If anything, I'd rather have us find Aro before he gets himself killed."

Khelfin wasn't sure why he cared to begin with. Ever since the Apocalyps took everyone he loved, he vowed to himself to live an individualistic life. The Porygon was perfect for that, it generally didn't show emotions. If anything would ever happen to it, the blow would not be as hard. Khelfin hoped that his new Grimer would have a similar distant personality.

"Aro?" he called out. With a soft voice he quickly apologized: "Sorry, I should know better than drawing attention to ourselves. Let's be more sutbtle from now on."

As the darkness of the night started to creep into the sky, Aro started to think about how he was going to defend himself and his partners during the night. It was well documented that most of the Pokemon population had become nocturnal after the apocalypse and the last thing Aro wanted was to have another incident like before.

He sighed as he started to realise how unprepared for his solo adventure he was. Maybe he had been a bit too hot headed with Maya and Khelfin, at the end of the day regardless of wether he trusted them he knew that as a trio they had more chance of survival.

Aro’s attention shifted back to Apollo and Red who both seemed engrossed in getting to know each other, inspecting each other’s physical appearance. Red seemed at ease around Apollo which was strange, Aro had problems getting Red to be calm around anyone other Aro. Normally Red would be defensive of Aro regardless of who or what it was. Red clearly could sense that Apollo was not a threat to Aro.

“You guys are funny...” he chuckled

All of a sudden Aro heard what sounded like his name being called out in the distance. He couldn’t make out whose voice it was. Red and Apollo had both sensed the noise too, looking out in the direction the sound came from.

“Whose there?” Aro said rather loudly

He then signalled for Apollo to come to him, which he did.

“Apollo I want you to go check that noise out, and report back to me. It’s too dark to see from here but don’t engage them though! We don’t want bandits ruining our night. Me and Red have got our eyes on you just in case buddy ok?...” He whispered, to which Apollo spun around in agreement, heading out a bit to find the source of the noise.

A shadow was closing in on them and Khelfin was pretty sure he recognized the Honedge from earlier. "He, little guy.. or little girl.. or little genderless something.. I dont even know, actually."

Realizing he had made the situation awkward, he took a deep breath and tried again. "You are Aro's Honedge, right? Could you tell him we are here?"

"Huh?" The comment caught her off guard. Realizing it was a joke and not a serious dig at her, she relaxed. "Nah, if I'm gonna be stuck with Zombie, then I'm gonna need a second pokemon. They can socialize and train against one another." Of course, it'd be possible to do all that in a party, but there was no guarantee whether any of the three would keep their little alliance formed. Keeping your distance with the rest of the world was the unspoken topic that was on everyone's mind.

And as for Zombie, she hadn't planned on keeping him for long. Ms. Amy didn't seem like the type who'd go after her for prolonging his stay, but knowing that she was technically still doing business with her filled her with unease. "Maybe I could even find a third one if I play my cards right..." she mumbled, mostly to herself. If she had a third pokemon, then Zombie wouldn't be necessary anymore.

Her hopes had been answered when something approached them. An odd looking pokemon, the kind that didn't look quite from this wrecked world and could thrive in it with minimal effort. She glared at it before realizing it had been Aro's honedge. What other explanation was there for it appearing before them so calmly?

"Is that thing trained to lead us to him? Interesting." She'd have to take note of this later in her training journal.

Apollo observed the two figures as they approached. Even though he hadn’t been with Aro for more than a day, he clearly remembered Khelfin and Maya as he swooped round them a few times. He then started to make his way back towards Aro turning every now and again to make sure the others were following.

“Apollo, your back” Aro said as he saw his new companion.

He saw that following Apollo was Khelfin and Maya. They had come to find him? Why? For now Aro was wary of his hot headed behaviour from earlier and avoided any confrontation for now. At the end of the day not even Cooper and Ms Amy would have sent them out to find him in the wasteland at night, it was a death wish.

“He-Hey guys” Aro said trying to smile “I apologise for how I was earlier, but you didn’t need to come find me...” his voice trailed off realising it was probably a blessing in disguise.

Khelfin tried to keep a cool head about all this and didn't judge Aro's behavior from earlier. "What else were we gonna do? Stick around Cooper? He would probably take Porygon back and to be honest, I want to keep it around a bit longer. It learned to make electric sparks and we don't have many generators around."

While he sat down for a minute, he kept talking to Aro and Maya without looking at them directly. "I think no ones knows what to do anymore. Everthing we knew is gone and eventho they want to rebuild it, I can't help but feel we are all just unclear on what we want to happen."

Khelfin pulled out his phone, which was quite damaged but still functional, and read a message out loud. "According to Goldenrod News, some Pokémon are changing type due to the big changes. It says right here that Snorlax are now partly rock type due to the wasteland environment. If more Pokémon have similar changes, that erases the entire battle strategy we all know."

Still staring in the distance, Khelfin wondered if he needed to catch one of the heavyweight Pokémon that naturally survived the Apocalyps, like a Dragonite or a Tyranitar. Then again, reviving fossils or creating artificial Pokémon proved effective. Or maybe he should go for a ghost type like Aro did. Perhaps the options weren't as limited as he believed them to be.

A young girl with a confused look on her face stumbled her way through the rough environment. She hadn't been the same since the Apocalyps and she felt so out of touch with reality. She looked pale, like she hadn't eaten in a while. When she came to a little settlement, she sat down between the rocks and stared at her belongings. She had been carrying three kinds of pokeballs. The first was a Heavy Ball, which was one empty, indicating that whatever pokemon had been inside, was no longer with her. The second was a Net Ball, also empty. The third, however, was an active Dive Ball. She pressed it to summon the only Pokémon she had left. "Oh, Dhelmise.", she told the anchor-looking creature with tears in her eyes, "I have no idea where we are even going." All of a sudden she heard voices not far from their location. "People? Maybe they have something to eat!" she said hopefully, not knowing wether the voices came from friendly survivors or hostile bandits. Dhelmise, wanting to protect its beloved trainer, went up ahead to find out the source of the voices.

Aro listened as Khelfin explained their situation. Aro knew he was right, no one knew what to do in this god forksaken world, hating on him because he was used by Cooper wasn’t exactly fair on Khelfin. People were doing what they needed to survive nowerdays. He could at least take comfort that there was a good side to him that came to find him in the first place.

The conversation then turned to the new goldenrod news bulletins. Pokemon changing types due to environment? There was only one example of this before the apocalypse, according to a book he read. Pokemon we’re evolving and not in the way trainers normally would think.

“Yeah our problem is trying to get as far away from here to find them, their won’t be very many of these Pokemon out in this harsh of a wasteland.....” Aro’s voice trailed off.

From the dark perimeter of camp, Aro spotted what looked like a huge pirate ship wheel getting closer. Was the poison having an after effect?

“What’s...that...?” Aro questioned as the figure came fully into camp.

A few seconds later a new figure appeared, this time a young girl. She was exceptionally pale and looked weak on her feet. She had clearly been struggling to survive out here. Aro rushes over and helped her sit down. He then went to his bag and pulled out a package, which he opened to contain his food rations. He grabbed some and passed it to the girl before sitting back down.

“Are you okay? You look a bit worse for wear.” Aro said “Don’t worry we’re not bandits or anything.”

“I’m Aro, what’s your name?” He questioned

"Greaaat, even more difficulty," muttered Maya. If pokemon had different typings, then her life just got a whole lot harder. A part of her was dying to see the scientific data being collected over that, but she wasn't holding her breath over it being published any time soon. Ah, to be some underling slaving away for a laboratory once more. At least fate had paired her up with an archen that could fight well enough for the both of them.

She moved closer to Aro and continued to scan their surroundings with a pair of deceptively uninterested eyes. A part of her held on to the hope that something she could catch would surface, as the environment seemed perfect for it. At last, a flash of movement caught her eye and her hand rested on a spare pokeball. If the radio transmissions carried any truth to them, then this was finally her shot at expanding her party. The sight of the pokemon made her freeze, however.

"Another artificial looking pokemon," she stated.

It made sense something whose body composition wasn't flesh would have an easier time surviving as she had already discussed. The way it floated towards them reminded Maya of Aro's pokemon, and a sigh of disappointment escaped her lips as she knew it had to be belonging to someone. Sure enough, its owner could be seen in the distance, a pale girl who had probably seen better days. Maya figured it'd be easier for the trainer to explain herself instead of jumping to conclusions. The last thing she wanted was another surprise conflict way above her skill level.