Ask to Join The Virus

[Awesomecake13]

Here's a Link to the sign-ups and discussions page for this RP:
https://pokecharms.com/threads/the-virus-roleplay-signup-and-discussion.15578/#post-396459

The World remains on high alert the epidemic continues to spread for it's second month in a row. Remember to get your pokemon checked if any signs of odd behavior appear, and stay in town. Scientists are hard at work trying to cure the disease,and we don't want any more infected people. If you find an infected, please inform the nearest hunter or guard as soon as possible. This is Robert Jenkins, signing off.

The News program ended, reminding everyone of the current potential apocalypse.

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

Evon heard the news report from the publicly-displayed TV. He didn't really care at the moment. Being a gym leader of a distant region as-of-yet untouched by the virus, he had been called upon to become a hunter and help manage this crisis that had appeared from practically nowhere. All of the Gym Leaders had. He had worried about leaving his region, but the professor had reassured him that Topaz and the others would protect the region. They damn well better have. Evon dashed down the abandoned streets of Saffron City. Once the epidemic had started here, Sabrina had gotten most of the unaffected to a distant town. Evon didn't know all the details. But he didn't care. The screen on his Pokeviz lit up, a green spinning circle appearing. It identified the details of the Infected, and confirmed it was Evon's target.
Subject: Human Male
Infection: Muk
Infection level: 9
Evon smiled. Finally. I've been tracking this bastard across the damn city for half an hour now. The trainer gripped a Pokeball and opened it. Out came Espeon, one of Evon's trusty teammates. Psychic beats Poison, so Espeon's the best one to have out right now. Plus, she has good range. The trainer dashed around the side of a building, spotting the gloopy mess of a human. Infection level 6 or higher meant there was an extremely high chance the subject was insane. Evon could see that was true. "Espeon, Psychic!" Evon shouted, his Pokemon using the attack.
(I assume this is where we roll the dice.)

 

[Awesomecake13]

The pile of sludge, that could hardly be described as human anymore, screamed in pain as it took the blast head on. Still standing, it inched towards his attacker. Another psychic from the Espeon was able to take the infected out, but his scream was enough to draw the attention of some of the other nearby pokemon.

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

"Espeon, use Psychic again to finish him off." Evon said. "Anything we can do to save this poor soul." Realizing that the scream probably drew others closer, he decided to scan the area with the Pokeviz to determine how many Infected were nearby, and how infected they were.

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante scoffed and flipped the TV off at the set. Hunters and guards... he'd never had to spare them a passing thought before. Worse, seeing them out in public had made him feel safe. Now, he just had to avoid eye contact and hope they couldn't sense him, somehow.

He had no idea what to do. Since becoming infected, his life was just a question of when he would finally kick it. He couldn't imagine having long; if the virus didn'the kill him, he was sure some bounty hunter or rabid Pokémon would. He'd been fairly lucky so far, but he couldn't help reading the writing on the wall. His black tail swished anxiously behind him, nearly knocking over a glass on the nearby table, and he shot it an accusing glare. He'd only been infected for a little over a week, but it felt like months, mostly spent locked inside his tiny studio apartment, where even something like hot water was becoming rarer, not that he'd been particularly fond of water recently.

He knew it was stupid, but Dante was feeling incredibly restless. He just itched to get out of the tiny place and at least attempt to get some fresh air. Working on autopilot, he threw on a pair of jeans without any holes in the back, tucking the tail in so that it wrapped around his right leg as tightly as possible. He grabbed his jacket from the back of the sofa and checked himself over twice, making sure that he looked relatively normal. He fished a ring of keys and a pair of gloves out of the pockets of the jacket, eyes travelling to his hand, where the nails had grown to an alarming length and the keratin had become thick and dark. He'd tried to cut and file them days ago, but the tough material simply grew back quickly. He shook his head and covered the mutations with the gloves. The young man locked the door behind himself and barely made it out of the complex before he heard a heart-chilling scream. His feet took him down the street before he could even register the sound, taking him to the mouth of an alley where a lone man was standing over... something. Dante guessed it was the source of the scream, but it didn't look like anything he had ever seen before. His silver eyes widened in horror. "What..." He murmured quietly.

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

Evon saw the scanner light up, scanning the area within a 100 feet radius. The scanner had yet to be perfected, so it couldn't track long-distance targets. As his Espeon finished off the Infected, he saw nine targets coming in his direction. All of them had an infection level of seven or higher. He decided not to risk it by going after an encounter. He might be able to take them down if he could access a PC and bring out his full team, but he didn't want to chance one of them getting infected. If he came back to take them down, the HAU (Hunter's Associations United) would need to send some backup with him. He turned around... and saw another Infected. Checking the scanner, Evon looked at the information it was giving him.
Subject: Human Male
Infection: Houndoom
Infection level: 1
Evon smiled at the low readings. Level one was enough to have a physical effect, but there was little risk of insanity. Some level one Infected were even hunters. Seeing the man, he noticed his shock. Espeon readied herself to fight. but Evon raised a hand. Stop. The hunter walked towards the Infected, seeing his confusion. "From the fact that you're not trying to kill me right now or spouting gibberish, I'm going to assume you're sane. You come from that apartment up there? I'm saying yes, since you came from there. Mind coming with me?"

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante raised his gaze to the Hunter in front of him, tilting his head in confusion. At least, he figured the man was a Hunter, based on the weird machine. He wondered if the thing could sense people like him, and how it worked.

Did he... ask me to come with him? Did he really ask? The irony almost made him want to smile. Almost. He took a cautious step back instead. The Hunters he'd heard of seemed cruel and in the job for the money, so this encounter was quite surreal. "Uh," he said intelligently, trying to decide which question to ask first. "Why...? Who are you?"

 

[Le Marsouin]

Ashley was sitting on her bed, as her eyes widened after she heard some commotion that went on outside of her apartment. She quickly closed her window and turned off the radio after hearing the earlier news. She quickly changed into her regular clothes after she placed two and two together. Anxiety started to fill her body, as she thought to herself, "Oh no... I gotta run... they're on high alert here. Man, I should have stayed at that other area; there was like no one else there at all." She looked over at the doll that lied on her bed, as she swiftly grabbed her bag that lied next to her broken desk.

She quickly picked up the Pokémon-like doll and placed it in her bag, as she thought to herself after, "Wait a minute... that thing... he looks like that one big creature that scratched me so hard; except that this one is yellow instead of green." She zipped up her bag and placed it around her shoulders, as she lied near the bed in a posture that would conceal her position from the possible peeping eyes on the window.

She grabbed her diary that rested near her, as she also grasped the thick pen that was also nearby. She quietly clicked the pen, and wrote in her diary: "Dear Diary, Today has been a rather quiet day. The radio was so shy to play music, and the entire town is going crazy now! There's some people talking outside and I got a bad feeling that they might probably bust in here or something... At least I've learned that I can jump out of the window and fly out of there like a bird. I wonder if these wings are like a gift from God or something; let's just hope that there's no catch to this. At least I have my little buddy here in my bag to keep me company. I think that I'll probably move out soon since I placed some food and water into my bag already earlier. Hopefully, I can find my own salvation one day. Let's just keep our guard up and pray that they won't come breaching in like in that one movie I saw..."

 

[Justalonelyaxew]

Blum turned off the television, disappointed. "They may be trying, but they have no idea what they are even doing!!" He said to the TV. He looked to his Pokemons: Porygon-Z, Axew, Salazzle, Furfrou and Decidueye. He was quite worried about the Decidueye. He seemed... Distant to him. Obviously, he was distant. He was not his owner. Blum got it from a trade... No... It was more like a gift. Blum's friend got infected and they left the city, not before freeing all his Pokemon, but Decidueye, his first Pokemon... He preferred to leave it to Blum, almost like a gift for his gone. The Decidueye may be distant because he didn't trust Blum.

Blum came back to the reality after remembering old times ith his friend. He got fired some weeks before the epidemic started. Now he was living in an old laboratory that was abandoned. He had some machinery and scientific material. Since the very first moment his friend left, he decided to find a cure. He was proud of his intelligence, but he was not a strong trainer, so he needed help. He was afraid of going out of his laboratory, so he tried to use a small and old radio equipment to make him be noticed. "Hello?! Somebody there?!"

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

"I'm Evon, former Gym Leader and hunter called upon by the HAU." Evon said, putting up the Pokeviz. "I came here to help defeat the high-level Infected. There may be others, but if there are I haven't been informed. I've also been ordered by my personal boss to try to help any low-level Infected back to base. Mind coming with me? I'd like to take you back to the Raft." While waiting for the Infected to respond, Evon turned on his communicator. "This is GL-8G to the Raft. I've found a low-level Infected and are attempting to retrieve for Project Beast. Does anyone copy?"

 

[DragonFlye]

Project Beast? Raft? HAU? These terms were unfamiliar to Dante. He tiled his head and stared at the machine that the man was using to establish contact. The guy seemed okay, especially compared to the greedy bounty hunters he occasionally saw hanging around the city, who didn't even have a machine like Evon's. Besides, even if the man were trying to lock him up and leave him to rot, how was that worse than what he was already doing to himself? The only difference was a cage versus a leaky apartment that he could hardly pay for anymore.

"Alright, I'll bite," he said when Evon finished relaying the message, extending a gloved hand. "Er, not literally. I'm Dante."

 

[Le Marsouin]

Ashley's attention was now more focused on the voices she heard from outside, as she slowly peeked towards the window. She saw someone that appeared to be part of what she now knew as a hunter; she also noticed someone else that the hunter conversed with. After she heard what the hunter said, she thought to herself, "Oh boy... he's probably gonna get sentenced to capital punishment or something even worse than that. I'd better run away from this town now and go back to that abandoned place where I stayed at earlier."

She quietly grasped her bag and fastened it around her right shoulder, as she continued to watch the two outside still discoursing about. She quietly said to herself, "Okay, I'm gonna be fine... I just gotta pray and keep my hopes up. I'll have to most likely wait for these people to move somewhere else before I can sneak out of here."

 

[SAChewed]

Maxine had been wandering about outside trying to jolt some memories of where her parents could be by meandering around the so-called shopping district of Saffron City. To be honest, it was more like a long street with stores on the street level and apartments above said stores. Not that it really matter whether or not they were stores or apartments, everything was equally abandoned anyway. Everything was so quiet and dull since the people left. There was no real reason to be here, nor did Maxine feel like doing so if she were honest to herself, but keeping her own spirit up was important and searching around distracted her from the burning pain in her throat.

Strolling past the window of an electronics store she couldn’t help being drawn to the TV’s that seemed to broadcast a message about the current situation. Pressing her hands and nose against the cold glass she made an attempt at making out what was being displayed on the screen. No such luck, it was all a blurry, red mess. Like everything she had been seeing lately. Strange.
At least she could still hear what was going on. Second month? Confusion arose on her face for a second before she turned her gaze to her hands still pressed against the window. Holding her hands in front of her she looked at her fingers with a frown on her face. How many days was that again? How many days did a month have? Like thirty or thirty-one right? So, which month was it then?

She pouted, pushing her lower lip forward in annoyance. The person displayed on the TV was no help at all. Turning her back to the TV she looked down the empty, lifeless street. What store would have one of those calendar thingies? Walking along the streets she was determined to find out what month it was. Not really all that important information, but it was her distraction for the day.

Maxine was just about to cross the street, after looking both ways like mom had taught her, when she heard screaming from down the street. It could be a monster of course, but what if it was someone who was in trouble? She had to know if there were still people around here. Wandering towards the sound she eventually came close enough to make out the alleyway with her less-than-ideal eyesight and peek around the corner to see what was causing the commotion. There were people there! Blurry, red people, but people nonetheless! She quickly pulled herself back behind the corner of the building, hoping she hadn’t been spotted. What was she going to do now? She wasn’t fast enough to outrun them, but what if they weren’t friendly.

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

"Great." Evon said, shaking the hand of the Infected. As he did, he saw a green circle reappear on the Pokeviz from the corner of his eye. Putting down the headset, he picked up two more signals. "Hold up. We've got two Infected nearby. One's up in that building over there, and the other's... right around that corner." Evon dashed around the side, skidding to a halt. He saw the person there. "Hold up!" Evon said, speaking. The Pokeviz lit up, giving some data.
Subject: Human Female
Infection: Exploud
Infection level: 2
"Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you." Evon said, relaxed by the readings of the scanner. "I just want to talk."

Back with the first Infected, Espeon looked at him and leaped up onto one of the building walls. It used telepathy to make words using the dust in the street. Let's meet the other Infected.

 

[SAChewed]

Maxine hadn’t expected the sudden appearance of this stranger, nor did she knew his intentions. All she knew was that he had startled her by suddenly racing around the corner trying to get to her. Had she been spotted somehow? How else could he have seen her? Looking up at the man with her two big red eyes as she listened to what he had to say about his sudden interest in her.
He just wanted to talk? That wasn’t a good idea, but at least he didn’t want to hurt her. As the stranger seemed genuinely uninterested in hurting her she calm down ever so slightly and shook her head at the man in front of her in an attempt to explain her situation. She couldn’t talk, it would attract everyone within the area for sure. If there even were more people in the area anyway, but Maxine couldn’t take that risk.

She stared at the man for two reasons. The first being in an attempt to make out some of the blurry facial features and the second hoping he wouldn’t take her refusal to answer as an insult or anything. It was such an annoyance to not be able to speak up in situations like these. All she could do was wait and see what the man made of her vague gesture.

 

[Justalonelyaxew]

Blum stayed tuned to the radio, expecting some response, but... Nothing. No answer. Was he so alone? He looked again to his Pokemon, then he turned the radio off again. He didn't want to do it, but he had to. All of his Pokemon, with the exception of Salazzle, came back to their Pokeballs. He needed to make sure that his Decidueye was not infected. At least the rest of them were acting normal but knowing that Decidueye was traded by an infected trainer... It didn't sound good for Blum. He should have done this before, but he was sure that he was not infected. But these last days, he was more isolated from the rest.

"Well... Salazzle... I completely trust on your potential. Don't disappoint me now!" Blum said as he pointed the exit of the laboratory, expecting that the Pokemon would go out first, just to make sure that no other Pokemon or infected was there. The path was clear... "Thanks, Salazzle... Now let's find a Pokemon Center or... Some place where Decidueye can be checked". And so, they started to walk around the city, always trying to be as sneaky as possible.

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante was a little startled at the attempt to communicate and blinked up at the Espeon curiously. "...you got it," he said finally. "I'll take the front door, though. You wanna take the window?"

He rounded the corner of the building and hopped up some stairs, taking note of doors thrown open haphazardly and belongings left by their panicked owners in the apartments as he walked down the hall. "Hello?" He called, peering around corners before he turned them. Evon and his Espeon hadn't mentioned how Infected this person would be, so he figured it best to exercise caution. "I don't wanna hurt you." He came upon one door that was shut tight, and if he strained his ears, he could just barely hear a quiet shuffling and the creaking of floorboards.

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

"From the fact that you're infected by an Exploud, I'm assuming it had some effect on your vocal chords." Evon said to the Infected girl in front of him. "Alright, I'll do the talking, then. I'm Evon, a former gym leader and hunter. I've been sent to retrieve any low-level Infected for Project Beast." Not the whole truth, but not a lie either. Evon thought. "Seeing as you're sane enough to listen to me, I think you're willing to come with me. Mind coming along? We need your help... and we can help you in return."

Espeon leaped up to the window, as per their ally's advice. The Espeon had a Pokeball hovering with her, which she used to release Vaporeon. Espeon gave instructions to the Water-type, who nodded. Vaporeon turned into a puddle of water, moving through the window. He unlocked it from the other side. Espeon floated the two down to the ground, where they scanned the room for the Infected. They faintly heard their ally's voice from outside.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Ashley listened in onto the noises that went on in the building she was in, as she quietly unfolded her shirt down to the point where her wings could now move. She felt the floor wobbling before her; the poor infrastructure of the flooring creaked about in extreme weakness. She quickly thought to herself, "Oh no! The place might fall to pieces! I gotta get out of here now! There's a window... maybe I can use a move to crack that thing!"

She took in a loud, deep breath, as she fired out a blue beam of draconic energy at the window! A loud, shattering sound could be heard from her room, as shards of glass scattered about from the force! She quickly flapped her wings, as she went out of the window in a huge haste! She held her shoulder bag with a tight grip, as she panted; trying to fly out as far as she could from the building before her location was compromised.

 

[SAChewed]

Maxine moved her hand to her neck when the man mentioned her infection. He was spot on despite not knowing her at all. What was happening? He couldn’t know, but somehow he did? She used her fingers to gently touch her neck. It hurt. That wasn’t anything new, not at all. It always hurt, but it felt particularly fired up right now. Like some sharp object was jabbing at her throat. Could this man really make the pain go away?

Her eyes widened in a response to his request. Come along with him, but she lived here. What if her parents were looking for her and she just left? They would never find her. How could she explain that to him though? She looked at her hands for a moment before her face lit up and she started to move her hand as if she were writing something. That would work right? Her handwriting wasn’t quite on a ‘mature’ level yet, but it would be better than only being able to answer with nodding.

After she was done with her hand movements she looked up at the man with a hopeful smile on her face. He had to understand, right? After all, he was smart. He sure looked smart at the very least. All she needed was something to write with and she could voice herself without causing problems.

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

Evon looked at the movements, using the Pokeviz to outline the movements.
I live here with my parents
"Wait, what?!" Evon said, shocked. "You're living here in Saffron City? But it was mostly abandoned a while back when the infection started. I'm surprised. Are they also infected? And... what's wrong with your neck? Well, I get your concern. You don't want them worrying about you, right?" Evon then realized why she made those motions. He took out a notebook with a pen. "Here. Use this. It'll make it easier to communicate."

Espeon and Vaporeon heard the creaky floorboards, sneaking close to their source. When the window shattered, they both went on high alert. Dashing to the window, they watched the Infected fly out. Espeon saw a door leading to the hallway and tore it down with Psychic, allowing their ally in. Espeon was hoping he could help.

 

[SAChewed]

She handed him the notebook back when she was done with writing down her answer in a crude, childish handwriting. Just what you’d expect from a kid her age. A lot of spelling errors and scribbled out words being replaced three times over before settling on the last attempt. Despite it being a bit messy it was far from being unreadable. When fully deciphered it looked like something along the lines of:

It’s my home. I live with mom and dad, but I am lost. Cannot find them anywhere and don’t know the way home. The people left so I cannot ask anyone where to go. Can you help?

Maxine was hopeful now that she was able to ‘voice’ her problem. Well, one of her problems. Being asked so many questions was confusing to the girl and she chose to answer one she knew the answer to. What she was doing here.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Ashley knew that most of the others still inside the building would be on high alert, as she quickly flied above the building; hoping that she would lose track of any potential pursuers. She kept a sharp eye around her surroundings, as she was ready to let off a hypersonic wave of energy at the next pursuer that dared to chase her down. She looked down at the abandoned streets of the city, as she took in a deep breath to prepare herself for her next move.

She smiled down at the building where the alerted Pokémon were in, as she knew that breaking the window was merely a diversion that would cause great confusion among the others. She glanced over at the distant town and the forest that bordered near the other town, as she thought to herself, "Hmm, maybe I can go over there to that forest here. I can probably head back to the desert a little later once I get some stuff first."

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante covered his face to protect it from the debris shaken loose by the door, and rushed inside to meet the Espeon and, apparently, a Vaporeon. "Was that you guys breaking the window?" He asked worriedly, but saw the Vaporeon looking out of the window.

Glass crunched under his boots as he joined the finned Pokémon in the window frame and looked up, just barely catching a glimpse of movement before it disappeared over the building. He cursed lowly before looking at the two Pokémon. "We might still be able to catch them if this building has roof access. What do you think?"

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

Espeon nodded, breaking the roof above them. The debris floated, forming a staircase. The Psychic-type did this for the next few floors as well, making a staircase of rubble to the roof. As to not break the Pokemon's concentration, Vaporeon carried Espeon up the stairs.

"I might be able to." Evon said, opening the Map function on his Pokeviz. "Do you remember what street your house is on?"

 

[DragonFlye]

"I'd say that counts as 'roof access,'" Dante chuckled as he followed the pair up the precarious makeshift staircase. He squinted his eyes against the light of the outside as Espeon broke through the upper floors.

He'd noticed over the past few hours or so, there was a burning feeling building up in his chest, forming a knot there. It wasn't unbearable, but it wasn't altogether pleasant, either. He clutched the front of his shirt and gritted his teeth, but otherwise ignored it and kept climbing. When they reached the roof, Dante looked around the barren space for any sign of life. Several lifeless air vents and other normal structures were laid out across the surface. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

 

[Le Marsouin]

Ashley saw a man that was now on the roof after she glanced down at the building, as she flapped her wings in a continous motion in response to the man's question. A low, singing sound could be heard from the rhythmic flapping, as she was silent when it came to verbal communication. She glanced at the man; noticing that he was the only one on the roof right now. She thought to herself while circling the roof overhead, "Well... I suppose that he doesn't look too threatening here; though I have a feeling that those others might be still chasing me. Ahh, it's not like they can even get me, I'm all the way up here flying and I can just simply emit a high noise at them here."

 

[Awesomecake13]

A crackling noise came from Evon's communicator, followed by a voice: "GL-8G, are you there? we recieved your message several minutes ago but we were unable to get back through to you. Are there any Magnemites or other Electric types that could be interfering with the sig-" They got cut off with nothing remaining but fuzz. The sound of clanking metal could be heard coming from the nearby alleyways, and seemed to be getting closer. A man that appeared to be bald, with Magnemites for shoulders and a shiny silver skin color hobbled out of the alleyway looking downward. The Pokeviz gave Evon the following message:
Subject: Human male
Infection: Magnezone
Infection level: unknown
WARNING HIGH LEVELS OF HOSTILITY DETECTED

The man began to look up, revealing one large, red eye in the center of his face, with his mouth placed oddly below it. He shouted one thing as lightning flashed behind him: "GET OUT."

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

"CRAP!" Evon shouted, grabbing the girl's hand and running. He opened the Pokedex function on the Pokeviz, scrolling to Magnezone. He selected weaknesses.
Ground, Fighting, Fire
"Fire. Okay. Good." After rounding a corner, he opened a Pokeball. Flareon emerged, ready to fight. Evon waved him down. "Let's hold up. See what he does next." The hunter turned to the girl. "Alright. We're in trouble. Stay calm. I'll keep you safe. We need help..." Evon searched the area, looking for a safe place where he could hide his new friend. He knew that he would need the help of at least his ally, if he couldn't contact home base.

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante's ears perked up at the humming noise coming from nearby. He craned his neck to look up and saw a figure circling overhead. With wings, to his surprise. "Hey!" He called, waving. "I promise not to hurt you." He actually wasn't exactly sure what his plan of action was, here. He'd followed Evon's Pokémon here, but that's where his plan ended. He figured he would just wing it. Briefly, he wondered if the other man was having as much trouble as he was.

He hoped the Infected was sane, at least, since he had no Pokémon of his own anymore and he couldn't control his... condition very well. Speaking of, he took his gloves off and, after a few moments of hesitation, turned and used his "claws" to create a small tear in the upper seam of his jeans, just enough to fit his pointed tail through. It swished back and forth, cramped from being coiled in such a small space, and Dante placed his uncovered hands to the side in a show of peace. "See?" He called, "I'm like you."

 

[Justalonelyaxew]

The streets were mostly silent, with the exception of some noises, maybe produced by Pokemon, maybe by infected people. Blum and his Salazzle decided to walk through the main streets: they were an easy target there, but they also have chances to hide in some buildings or going away out of combat. Blum didn't want his Pokemon to be infected too. They advanced through the streets very slowly, and as sneaky as possible.

"Where was that Pokemon Centre?" Whispered to his Salazzle. What are you doing? Before the infection, she was never out of her Pokeball... It was too dangerous. Of course, she doesn't know! Thought to himself. "Ne...Nevermind. You are doing a good job anyways... I wish I had something to give you s a reward..." Salazzle just looked at Blum, in a very disappointing way. Suddenly, he could see two human figures standing in the distance, what it looked like a trainer and a little girl. He could do nothing except distrusting at first, but both seems to be quite normal. Blum decided to approach, slowly when a lightning fell very close to them. Blum looked at Salazzle. Her face showed determination.

Blum and his Pokemon approached quickly to the trainer and the little girl. "There is no time for introductions, but I see that our help may be quite useful now". Said, pointing to the Salazzle, that looked ready to fight.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Ashley looked over at the man that called and waved at him, as she gazed over at the peaceful expressions he made towards her. She nodded at the man, while she heard a screaming voice that came from below in the alley! Her wings emitted a slower, singing sound towards the man; the sound was intended to signify the concord she had towards him. She was too timid to reply towards the man, as she continued to use her body language to convey her messages towards him. She continued to circle around the building, as she kept a vigilant eye out for any other potential hunters in the area.

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante was confused at the girl's unwillingness to speak, but the sound she emitted was pleasant, at least. He took it as a good and peaceful sign, but before he could dwell on it, he heard a shout from below. His head snapped in that direction, and with a growing sense of dread, he realized that the sound was coming from the direction that Evon had gone. He looked back up at the flying Infected, the burning feeling in his chest exacerbated by his stress and conflict. She didn't seem to be in trouble yet, but he was worried that she'd fly away as soon as he turned his back.

He made a decision. "I have to go check on someone," he said to this new person. "You can come, if you like. There might be trouble, though." He remembered that he still had two of Evon's Pokémon, and hoped that the Hunter had kept more for protection. "Let's get to your trainer!" He said to the two, already moving for the rickety stairs.

 

[Mechanist Gamma]

Vaporeon ran in front of Dante, stopping him. Espeon used her powers to gather all of the pieces of the makeshift stairs and used them to create one singular platform. Espeon lifted everyone (in the group of three, Ashley doesn't count) onto the platform and began to make it float towards where Evon was last seen.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Ashley looked over at the Espeon and the others that were on the improvised platform, as she saw her floating the platform towards Evon's last known location. She looked over at the man that was with the Pokémon on the platform, as she immediately moved towards him. She circled around the platform, as she looked over at the man; as if she wanted to say something else towards him. She couldn't muster up the courage to speak to him, as she flapped her wings in a modest rhythm. She knew that there was still a chance that the hunter was nearby, as she kept a sharp eye at everyone on the platform.

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante yelped slightly at the sensation of floating, dropping to his knees to feel more secure as they were lifted into the air. "Oh, yeah. Good idea," he said a little shakily, and began to scratch behind the Espeon's ear. After a moment, he paused. He wasn't sure how exactly Psychic abilities worked, but he didn't want to break her concentration and send them plummeting to the earth below, so he scratched under Vaporeon's chin, instead. He missed this feeling, of just being able to pet a Pokémon, and he especially missed feeling Maia's rough skin underneath his fingers.

He was startled from his thoughts as he saw the other Infected flying around them and he grinned. "Hey there," he called. All of a sudden, however, he saw a flash of light in one of the dim alleyways nearby, bright enough to attract attention. "What is that?" He wondered out loud. To their 'pilot,' he said, "We should check that out."