She retreated her Dhelmise to the Dive Ball, right next to the empty Heavy Ball and empty Net Ball and then stared at the strangers, who appeared to be friendly. Being suspecious was not in her nature and she let her guard down. "My name is Sabrina and well, you already met Dhelmise."

Her eyes looked tired, like she was in a constant state of confusion, similar to people who had taken calming pills. "I am not really sure why I came all this way. I couldn't stay where I was after Miss Amy was murdered." She said it like it was nothing out of the ordinary, apart from the worried expression on her face. The Apocalyps had not been kind on her empathy skills, giving her some sort of creepy little girl aura.

Khelfin analysed the girl and noticed how she seemed broken justnas much by the Apocalyps as they all did, but in a different way. Then again, she was a stranger, for all he knew she had always been strange. "Well, Sabrina, my name is Khelfin. I have a Porygon and an Alolan Grimer with me."

When she mentioned the murder of Amy, Khelfin widened his eyes. "She was what?!" The fact that the girl stayed so calm about it gave him goosebumps. Khelfin immediatly wondered what could have happened. Would Cooper...? Not even he would go that far, would he? With caution, Khelfin tried to get more information. "Are you 100% sure? What happened?"

Every now and then he looked at Aro and Maya, as if mentally communicating with them. He didn't know any of them for long, but those two had a few hours head start compared to the new girl.

After handing their guest some food, Aro realised that he too was very hungry, as Khelfin and Maya probably would be too. He started pulling out what food he had, passing some to Khelfin and Maya also.

He sat down on a nearby rock and started to listen to Khelfin and the new girl who had introduced herself as Sabrina. He thought about how her Dhelmise was a unique Pokemon to have, he hadn’t seen any before, but then again he had never seen a Honedge until Apollo came along.

He noticed that Sabrina had two more Pokeballs on her waist belt. Did Sabrina have two more Pokemon with her? If she did, she would be more prepared than the other three. Just as Aro went to ask about the other pokeballs he overheard Sabrina and Khelfin.

He nearly choked on his food with the revelation.

“Ms Amy is dead?!” His face went blank for a second and then to one of pure rage.

“Of course it was Cooper, who else could it be! I told you he’s up to something and I promised I’d stop him” Aro said with passion in his voice

Aro turned to Khelfin for a second.

“Khelfin, what did Cooper ask you to do today? What did he want? It might give me some idea of what he’s up to?” Aro said

Khelfin watched Aro going into a fiery rage. He remembered when he himself used to be so full of emotion and it made him realize how cold he had actually gotten. In fact, the news of the murder did not even devestate him. Tho he did feel some sort of sadness.

When asked about Cooper's intentions, Khelfin felt like he could wage in on the matter.

"My mission was to find upgrade items for his artificial pokemon and boycot the fossil hunters while I was at it so they could not grow more powerful faster than he did. If you ask me, he is after power and control. His intentions were pure at first, he wants to rebuild our world. However, the power he tasted seems to be leaving him in a spot where he keeps wanting more and more. Im not sure if he is capable of murder but he is extremely motivated to lead this new world. I think he is also recruiting others to form sort of gyms. Bottom line is that he will control everyone if he gets his way."

Maya's food-filled mouth opened for a fraction of a second as the thought of Zombie now being officially hers formed in her mind. She clamped her mouth shut in disgust at herself for having considered saying such a thing and continued to eat in silence. The way things were now, it was impossible not to feel affected. Maya found it hard to care for others and had devoted her emotions exclusively towards herself and pokemon, and by looking at Sabrina's facial expressions she could tell she was struggling just as much as the rest of them to get by. Still, she'd have to make an effort to have some common sense when speaking out loud. Things were getting serious.

"Boycott the fossil hunters?" she asked. "So in other words, we could go to them for help. Doubt they'll trust us so easily though." If they were powerful and growing then Maya would have to prove herself to them, and that meant she'd absolutely have to stay in a team. Together the four of them could stand a greater chance of growing stronger. As she thought this, she listlessly threw bits of rations for Zombie to snack on, sneaking a glance at their newest member when she could.

"Dhelmise, was it? How do you end up with a pokemon like that?"

Sabrina watched them speak out about suspecting Cooper and frowned. "If you are right and it really was Cooper who did this, no one back there has a clue. It looks as if he is just as shocked and saddened about her death as everyone else is, but now that you mention it, something did feel off to me. I couldn't quite put my finger to it."

In between words, she crunched on the food Aro had given her. "This is really good by the way, thank you. You have a much friendlier aura than that mr Cooper." While she said that, she eyed all three of them. They were very different in a way. One of the boys even seemed quite cold and calculated, but even if he seemed nice deep down inside.

As Maya asked about Dhelmise, Sabrina let it out of its pokeball. "Dhelmise might not be a common spawn but the minute we saw each other we just knew there was a connection. I used my Dive Ball to catch it after an exiting battle."

As her eyes glided towards her Heavy Ball and her Nest Ball, her facial expression turned sad. "Dhelmise is the only one who survived the Apocalyps. No matter how strong Steelix and Golispod were, they didn't make it."

Aro listened to Khelfin as he explained what his undercover mission was about. A lot of what he said was lost on Aro at the moment. Memory drives and Artifical Pokemon wasn’t a real reason to kill Ms Amy, he had been creating artificial Pokemon for years. After a few minutes of listening to the others take on what happened Aro had come up with a plan. However his train of thought was disrupted by Sabrina’s story of her lost Pokemon.

“I’m sorry to hear that Sabrina.” Aro said sympathetically “I’m sure they’re proud of you for carrying on”

Aro waited a few minutes before explaining his plan as to not come across as unsympathetic towards Sabrina. Once they fell on an awkward silence Aro got up and got ready to explain.

“Ok hear me out guys, Cooper is clearly our first and only suspect at the moment. As far as he is aware we ran into the wastelands with no hope of survival so I’m presuming he is counting us out of this new world of his. Now if what the Radio said is true and he is making a new gym challenge then there is only one person he would trust to be Champion.... Cooper himself. So I say we take the gym challenge and fight our way through to him. As a group we should pose enough of a threat that it scares him but we also have enough for him not to be able single one of us out.” Aro explained

“Obviously I want this to be group decision so let me know how you feel about it, but if we do decide to do this then I suggest we head off at first light in the morning and start training”

Khelfin frowned at Aro's idea. He sighed deeply and chose his words carefully. "Actually... why should we stop him? I mean, I understand he might be dangerous but what I mean is... and I know at least two of you will judge me for asking this.. but what is in it for us?"

He looked straight at Aro before continueing. "Why should we risk our lives? To be the heroes of the day in a world that isn't even a world anymore?"

There used to be a time when Khelfin would have suggested the exact same thing that Aro did now. But everything was different now. Hé was different now.

Aro looked over to Khelfin who sighed before answering him. Although Aro was disappointed by Khelfin’s reply, he could hardly blame anyone for having a negative outlook in today’s harsh climate.

“Look Khelfin, I get it. We’ve lost everything we knew, the world is severely fucked and almost everyone who has seemed to survive is corrupt. Sometimes it seems like there’s no point in caring because no one cared enough to try save our world the first time, but say that Cooper is planning something... Something big, and it destroys the world even more than it is now. Anyone that survives will think one thing... Why did no-one stop him? We can be the change we want, we can be the people who did care enough to end the cycle of evil”

Aro looked around to see he was met with eyes that questioned his positivity in the matter. He sighed and sat down again.

“I haven’t always thought like this... it’s just....” He closed his eyes and sighed again “...I don’t remember a world before the apocalypse. I know I was part of it but the first memory I have is of Petros and Miss Amy finding me all those years ago. I guess I could of lived with it, learnt to grow with acceptance but there was something in the way Miss Amy looked at me, treated me, that just screamed that she knew who I used to be. That’s why I carried on being a fossil hunter, because I knew she could tell me who I really am and one day I’d find out. And now she’s dead....”

Aro paused for a moment

“...it’s not even that I miss her because although I’m grateful for her finding me, I always knew she was hiding my real identity but now I have no way of finding out.”

“Which is why I’ve realised, if I can’t remember what I did in my past life, I best make this one as good as possible just in case. I realise the odds are against me and I’m not asking anyone to lay their life’s on the line for me, you could all go your own way in the morning and there would be no hard feelings on my end. But if any of you feel the same as I do then I’d be glad to have any of you along for the ride.”

Aro smiled as he finished talking, it felt good to share about his struggle for the first time. Red, who previous to this conversation had been munching down any food he could get a hold of, had now jumped up next to Aro on the rock in support, as did Honedge on the other side. Aro laughed slightly as he looked around for answers from the others.

Sabrina felt a bit better now she had eaten. She was glad that Maya had taken an interest in Dhelmise. While Aro started to explain his plan to stop Cooper, Khelfin expressed his doubts about the plan. The more emotional Aro got, the more Sabrina felt bad for him. Unlike earlier in the conversation, Sabrina now had high empathy. Perhaps she could only have such high empathy when she isn't starving.

"I will help you Aro." she said, almost as if she saw it as a playful quest. A bit odd considering the tension and post-apocalyptic world. She then looked with big eyes at Maya and Khelfin. "Will you help too? Pleassssse?" Her tone of voice revealed that she was a lot younger that she appeared to be before. Well, she was quite tall for her age after all, so it was easy to mistake her for an older girl.

Khelfin had to admitt to himself that Aro's speech did not leave him untouched. In a way, he could really understand what he was saying and it were the first deep emotions he felt after losing everyone he loved. When Sabrina jumped right in to Aro's plan with an innocent enthousiasm after only just meeting him, Khelfin realized these people where the closest thing to friends now.

"Fine, I will join your stupid crusade. Without me, you'd get eaten by a Tyranitar anyway."

Maya's eyebrows widened at the mention of a deceased steelix. So even the pokemon not composed of flesh had a hard time surviving. She felt pressured to say something sympathetic towards Sabrina, but luckily Aro beat her to the punch. She'd just end up blurting out something weird.

"I'm fine with the idea, but we're gonna get his attention by playing right into his plan. It'll be pretty risky if it ends up being too much to handle."

She took a good look at all the pokemon present. It was a diverse range of types with a nice and even split of abilities between them. "I still think we should get in touch with some fossil hunters in case we need backup or something."

Maya listened wordlessly as Aro explained his motivations towards attempting to stop Cooper. She didn't agree with his passion one hundred percent, but she'd be lying if she said she couldn't see where he was coming from. She had a deep interest in pokemon and the jaw-dropping feats they were capable of, and the idea of a world where their way of life was presumably rendered extinct filled her with a deep sadness she didn't have the words to describe.

"I don't think a single one of us could make it out here on our own with the way things have been lately."

Aro nodded once he heard everyone’s feedback and although it was accepted by the group, Aro could tell that they still had their reservations. He couldn’t blame them, they hadn’t even known him for 24 hours yet.

“Thanks guys, I appreciate the support.” He said

“But Maya has a point, we won’t survive out here alone, I mean we’re going to need to have each other’s backs if the four of us are going survive as a group. So along with training we should also think about a strong long term plan to ensure our survival, maybe try and find somewhere to set up camp that’s not in the middle of the wasteland.”

“The other thing that Maya mentioned was any help we can find. At this point any more allies we can find will be crucial lifelines. I can sneak back into Genesect Corp HQ and try and bring back any help I can find as well as any info I can find on what we’re dealing with”

He stopped and looked at Red and Apollo. As great as they were, he was still a long way from being able to fight off any trouble he encountered on his own. He sighed.

“I’m gonna need some help though, maybe if I take Maya as she used to work there too?”

He looked over to her.

“That’s if you want to come?” He asked. He understood that what he was asking wasn’t easy. Going back into that building so soon was almost a suicide mission.

“Outside of that I’m out of ideas, unless you guys have another plan?” He sat down next to his Pokemon and tried to catch some of the warmth from the fire

When Maya suggested finding the fossil hunters, Khelfin frowned.

"I bet every single one of them went undercover when Miss Amy got murdered. They are no fools, their first priority is vanishing from the radar."

Next up, Aro suggested that he and Maya would investigate at the old Genesect HQ.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. A dangerous one but it could actually work."

Khelfin looked over to Sabrina, seemed to hesitate for a split second but then nodded as he made up his mind.

"Creepy Sabriny and myself will go to Goldenrod city. If we can get the media on our side, we can find us some allies. When both of our missions are done, we should meet up at the old dojo of Saffron City in Kanto. It's the easiest to reach from both our locations and has a high chance of being a Cooper-free area. The train will probably not be functional, but we'll walk."

Before they all started their quests, Khelfin adressed Aro and Maya once more.

"Oh and mates. Plant a bomb at those HQ while you are there anyway."

His laugh could mean that he was joking but he might just as well be serious about it, given the circumstances.

Sabrina wasn't sure why Khelfin refered to her as 'creepy sabriny' but she decided not to read too much in to it for now. The fact that he wanted her to join him to Goldenrod got her exited. This whole Apocalyps had been horrible so far but perhaps they coild turn things around and who knows even have a little adventure along the way.

Apparently they would meet up in Saffron once both teams were done with their mission. "Ooh Saffron. A Sabrina lives there too. Or well... used to... I dont know if she is still... nevermind." Sabrina hushed herself and got quiet. It occured to her that so many lives were lost.

Overhearing Khelfin mentioning a bomb, Sabrina got some goosebumps. And he was the one calling her creepy? Again, she held her doubts to herself. "I am ready. Let's go. Be careful everyone."

The quest in Goldenrod had not been as easy as Khelfin expected. There had been obstacles and he had lost Sabrina along the way, leaving him to be all alone for now (if you dont count his pokemon). Khelfin had made his way to the Goldenrod radio tower but found it abandoned. Searching his phone for any update, he could not get any wifi reception. Ever since the world nearly ended, it was quite rare to find a reception at all.

Khelfin wasn't sure what to do next. Aro and Maya were busy doing their parts of the mission, Sabrina was who-knows-where and Meredith had clearly left the radio tower. His best bet was to go to the meeting point, the old dojo at Saffron.

As expected, the magnet train was not operational at all. While he walked over the rails, he came across several wild pokemon and several hostile surviving humans. Porygon and Grimer fought hard and could definitely use some recover time. By the time Khelfin arrived at Saffron, he had battled and caught a Duskull, adding a third pokemon on his team.

Even though he was just stating the facts, Khelfin annoyed Maya. Coming into contact with those fossil hunters would be no easy feat. That didn't mean she was going to give up on her idea so fast, though.

"If they're all in hiding, then the best way to get their attention is to either track 'em down." Her eyebrows tightened. "Or... the opposite of that. Get strong and crazy enough that they come to us." She chuckled dryly, aware of how ridiculous the idea sounded. "One day."

She wanted to protest against Aro's idea, but if what was missing from hers was power, then charging into a building most likely full of people who were going to square off with you was definitely their best option for growing stronger. It sounded reckless, but with how inconsistent sentient life was in the wilderness it'd be better than just camping out and hoping something weak showed up.

"Bombing the place would ruin all the research, not happening," she said. Khelfin was joking, but something about his tone rubbed her the wrong way.



With Sabrina and Khelfin gone, Maya was now just with Aro. Despite her being the independent sort of trainer, it left her with a sense of dread. If those wild pokemon from before were going to be commonplace, then adapting to working with others was going to be a necessity.

She turned to him. "So, are you a plan type of guy or do we just storm the place?"

GOLDENROD RADIO BROADCAST

"Dear listeners, we apologize for the lack of broadcasts lately. We had a huge scoop and apparantly they tried to silence us by force. Because of this, we had to flee our station at Goldenrod and go into hiding at a location we can not share. More on the scoop later, we need to confirm our sources first. In the meanwhile, we can tell you that more pokemon have changed their typings. As you heard from us earlier, Snorlax are now the rock type. However, we have data on other pokemon too. Relicanth has been analyzed as the water-psychic type, Staryu is registered as water-fairy type and several pokemon that used to be ghost-grass are now ghost-poison: Phantump, Dhelmise and Decidueye. But that is not all. The laboratory at Genesect Corp HQ, known for their fossil hunters and the succesful ressurecting fossil pokemon, have also spotted changes in pokemon types for two of their species: Kabuto has been changed to the steel type and Lileep has been changed to rock-poison. This surely spices things up in an already chaotic world. Stay tuned to find out more on our big scoop soon!Meredith Cloud, Goldenrod News, currently not broadcasting from Goldenrod."

Just before they left for their mission, Khelfin made a dark joke about bombing the Genesect HQ, he sighed as Maya shouted something to them as they walked off.

“Maya don’t worry, we’re not going to the bomb the HQ.” He reassured her.

She then asked if Aro had a plan, which to be fair he did. He had thought about it all night and had come up with a way to try and get in undetected.

“Well I’ve got one plan, and if it all goes ok we should be as undetected as we can be. First off we need to get to Genesect HQ during the evening, this way the fossil hunters that have stayed will be gone and only researchers will be there. I know a shortcut that will take us to the exact room we need to get to, if we can get any information about what’s going I know where we will find it.” He knew he had made it sound easier than it was but he had to keep positive about his plan, after all if anything went wrong he’d only blame himself.

Aro and Maya made their way towards their former workplace through the wasteland, occasionally battling their way through the odd bandit. After a while they had reached the outskirts of the HQ it was almost sundown and so he sat down to wait for them to see the fossil hunters leave for their accommodation. He looked over to his mission partner. Maya always looked both confident and stern, her selective dialogue backed it up. He was glad in a way, harsh truth was what he needed in this environment.

“Do you see that waste chute, over by the window? It carries any unwanted rock to the waste disposal level. Once the fossil hunters are gone we can use that to get down to the lower level. From there we can get to Lab-02 undetected.” He explained to maya his train of thought so she was on the same wave length.

After a fair while the sun started to set and they watched as the fossil hunters finally left the HQ, a few minutes later Aro nodded to Maya and ran for the waste chute which he then slid down. THUD! He landed awkwardly on the conveyer belt below but still managed to get himself off quickly. He waited for Maya before pointing to a service ladder in the corner of the room. He lead the way to the ladder and made his way up.

As they got to top of the ladder it revealed that they were indeed not far from Lab-02, he checked the walkways before signalling for Maya to climb up and the both of them hurried towards the lab.

They had successfully done it, they were in the base. The lab they were in seemed empty of any people but was full of excess machines and computers.

“If we can find anything it will be in here so let’s start looking” he said to Maya before he started to hack his way into the computer system, something he had done many times before

After a few minutes a voice was heard behind him.

“A...Aro?” Muttered a familiar voice “They said you were dead”

He turned to see the exact person he had come to see in the first place

“That’s just them wishful thinking” Aro replied as he turned and then smiled “Petros...”

The pair shook hands with massive grins on their faces.

“Maya this is Petros, he’s been the only one I can trust since I can remember” he said introducing his old friend with his newly acquainted friend.

“Petros we need to know what’s going on, what happened to Miss Amy? What is cooper up to?” Aro pleaded.

Petros sat down and sighed.

“Ok Aro, I’ll tell you what I know, but then you need to leave and not come back here, it’s too dangerous for you here now” he sighed again as he began to explain

The old dojo in Saffron seemed just as abandoned as the rest of the planet. Khelfin had hoped to see at least a lonely Hitmonlee or something but it was extremely quiet. Day turned into evening and it started to worry him that no oneh had come. No Sabrina, no Aro, no Maya, no Meredith.

With some gathered resources he made himself a campfire as the nightfall was rather chilly. To escape the silence, he let out his pokemon so they got to know each othet a bit better.

"Porygon, Grimer, why don't you two give Duskull a warm welcome."

Khelfin realized the irony in his words. None of them could be described as warm.

The three pokemon did play around with each other a bit but that was mostly out of curiosity. When Duskull was chasing Grimer in a game of tag, Khelfin called for Porygon. Porygon curiously floated towards his trainer, while the others continued their game.

"There is something I was meaning to talk about with you."

Khelfin showed a box-shaped object to Porygon.

"I have been carrying around this up-grade item. If applied to your systems, you will evolve. For a long time I thought I was only going to borrow you from Cooper so I wasn't considering an evolution, but I feel like keeping you and that changes everything. Unless.. you prefer to return to Cooper?"

Porygon buzzed and it was unclear what he thought about this. It sure was hard to read a Porygon.

"I will let you make the decision. If you want to stay with me, please connect with this up-grade. If you wish to return to Cooper, you can leave whenever you want."

Porygon buzzed again and looked a tad confused. It started to circle around itself, seemingly conflicted about something, and started to float away from Khelfin. Khelfin bit his teeth in disappointment as he figured Porygon was returning to Cooper. However, he was proven wrong as Porygon quickly turned around and charged into the up-grade, evolving himself into Porygon2.