The ALPH Team

Ruins of Alph|Midday

Reaching the clearing, Max trotted over to the small creek that ran through the center of the clearing. The Espeon sighed contently as the cool water washed the blood from his paws and mouth. His thirst now quenched, Max placed the berries in a small pile for when Lia got back from wherever she'd buzzed off to. Dropping into a more relaxed position, the Sun Pokemon watched as Lalita pranced out of the tree's with meat in her mouth and a dopey grin on her face. "This one has potential." He silently mused. "It's a shame she didn't grow up in the wild."


As the Ninetales drew closer, Max sent out a quiet mental probe, keeping it subtle so she wouldn't notice. Delving into her mind, the Espeon explored the memories contained within, being careful not to look at anything to private.
She was a hybrid, having a Houndoom for a sire, this explained her hesitation during the battle earlier.She was lucky to have been born so beautiful, as hyrbid occasionally had random physical traits from each of there parents. A sudden mental image of Lalita with a Houndoom's horns caused Max to chuckle aloud."Let me see, what else.."Thought Max as he probed deeper. "Knows Return....never taught to fight...born in Goldenrod, hmm she's going home,... stolen by Bad Men as a pup...attacked and escaped."He pondered these things as he retreated from her mind. Lalita may have been raised as a pet, but she had savage instincts passed on through her sire's Dark-type status. Whether she realized this or not was unclear. Max gave a mental shrug. Subconsciously or not, the fox had some deadly potential. All she needed was someone to teach her. Someone born in the wild. Someone with experience in having to kill to survive. "Someone who needs to stop monologuing to himself."

The female bug was lost. Lia had no idea where her companions might be, and she was scared. Who knows what infected Pokemon might be in the forest?

A flash of orange caught her attention, and she gasped. Some of the trees were on fire. She saw a Pokemon in the middle of it, feasting on a Ferret. She flew as fast as her hurt wing would let her, and finally saw the clearing. Lia flew in and fell to the ground hard.

Her companions were there, and she looked up to see a pile of berries. Lia smiled slightly. Y-You guys are so nice... She slowly glided over to the pile of berries, and ate a berry. The taste of food was quite refreshing. She looked up at her friends. I-I saw a part of the forest on fire! A-And there was a fire-type eating a P-Pokemon! What do we do?! She panicked.

Lalita followed Max until he stopped, wondering why there weren't heading straight back to the clearing where Lia was last seen. She shrugged, figuring he knew better than she did, and took the opportunity to quickly scarf the rest of her meal. The fresh meat felt heavy as it settled in her stomach, since she hadn't eaten in so long, and she wondered if she might be sick. Padding over to the creek near Max, she took a drink, the cool water settling her stomach. She turned to the Espeon and noticed him giving her a strange look, almost staring. She shrugged it off and decided to dip in the creek a little.

The dirt and dust from the Ruins and from running fell from her fur as she let the water wash over her, and brought her coat back to a lustrous lavender. Her silver shimmer caught the afternoon sun as she shook dry. Lalita was fortunate to have such a well groomed coat, as most any grime would roll right off of her with just a little water. A little lick here and there and her coat was right back in perfect condition. She paused when she noticed a strange smell in the air, a smell she knew but was still a ways off so she couldn't really define it. When Lia came crashing through the trees into their small patch she squeaked and fell back into the water with a splash. So much for her fur being in place.

She climbed back out with a sigh and began grooming her fur back down while Lia fed. But wasn't prepared for Lia to suddenly burst into a panic when she was done. "I-I saw a part of the forest on fire! A-And there was a fire-type eating a P-Pokemon! What do we do?!"

"So that was the smell! Smoke!" Lalita cried, more to herself than anything. She knew what to do in case of a fire, she and Little Miss were drilled in emergency situations in case the Master and Mrs weren't around. But there was a problem. It would have to be the fire, or the infected Lia saw. She hurried quickly to her friends wanting to be sure they could hear her. "We seem to have two choices then," she began. "We can either go upwind, and avoid a possible wildfire spreading, but risk our scent traveling down to the Monster. Or, we can go downwind, risk the smoke and fire, and be less likely to be eaten. My vote is for the fire. The forest isn't very dry so it will take the taller trees time to burn and I would rather risk smoke inhalation than another Monster." She only hoped that they would agree.

((OoC: There's not really anything to add. Meltdown's just standing around sniffing where Lia was. He's not following yet.))

Max's focus returned to his surroundings as Lia fluttered quickly over to him and Lalita, smelling faintly of smoke.I-I saw a part of the forest on fire! A-And there was a fire-type eating a P-Pokemon! What do we do?! The thought of another powerful infected seemed to send the bug to the edge of hysteria. As Max pondered what to do, he heard Lalita chime in with a sudden burst of rationality.
"We seem to have two choices then," she declared. "We can either go upwind, and avoid a possible wildfire spreading, but risk our scent traveling down to the Monster. Or, we can go downwind, risk the smoke and fire, and be less likely to be eaten. My vote is for the fire. The forest isn't very dry so it will take the taller trees time to burn and I would rather risk smoke inhalation than another Monster."
"Lots of potential" thought Max with an almost imperceptible smile. Rising to his feet, the espeon, cast out his minds eye which was met by a large patch of dead energy, whatever it was, it was big, infected and hungry.

"OK." Said Max, with a small nod towards Lalita. "Your plan seems less likely to kill us, so that's what we'll do." After one more quick glance, the Sun Pokemon took off at a quick trot downwind, his highly sensitive fur bristling from the climate shift brought on by the fire. "Good thing I already hunted" He thought as he moved. "Because the fire is probably going to char-grill all the decent prey in five kilometer radius"

Max ran off, and Lia ate one last berry and then followed. She flew as fast as her wing would let her, the pain starting to increase. She fell to the ground, but then instantly got back up. Lia had much to fear, if the infected fire-type Pokemon saw the group, she would most likely be the one who would be attacked first.

She hated type advantages.

The beautiful forest on fire...fire brought back terrible memories. That Typhlosion who took the life of her family, it using Flamethrower, came back to her mind. Lia's eyes became tearful, but she didn't let the tears fall. She needed to be strong.

She continue to follow Max.

"OK. Your plan seems less likely to kill us, so that's what we'll do." Lalita grinned. She had helped! Maybe she wasn't so useless after all! She jumped in anticipation and took off after Max when he headed downwind. Lalita followed closely behind Lia, worried when her friend fell. But, the insect got right back up and started to follow their leader again. To Lalita, Lia seemed sad all of a sudden. 'Something must be bothering her...' she thought to herself.

"Hey Lia?" she called softly as they ran, coming up beside the larger pokemon. "Is something the matter? Is it the Monster?"

Lalita was worried too about that thing finding them. She wasn't prepared to fight for real, despite her slight boost in confidence recently. If anything actually came down on them she was sure that she would be a quick target, just like back at the Ruins when everything was trying to kill her. She smiled softly at Lia, trying to be reassuring, even if she wasn't feeling so sure herself.

'At least Max and Lia can fight...' she mused silently.

Where did that little bug go? Meltdown was certain he had seen one. He lumbered along, following the path that bug had taken. It wouldn't be much, but fuel was fuel. Now that the trees were burning, all of the fuel would be scattered about, running into him unwittingly.
Meltdown continued walking, stopping occasionally to feast on some unconscious Pokemon, made into easy captures thanks to the smoke. None of them gave him that kick, however. He needed bigger fuel, hotter fuel.

When Meltdown arrived at a clearing, he stopped. He sniffed about, smelling the scent of fuel. It hadn't left here too long ago, there were still spots of warmth remaining. One spot in paticular. It was quite warm, as if the fuel had only left a few moments ago. This was it. This was the fuel he was looking for.

Burning trees flew by as Max raced through the flaming forest, his companions only a few steps behind. If they kept this up they'd escape the forest with no trouble at all.
"Hey Lia?" he heard Lalita call softly as they ran. "Is something the matter? Is it the Monster?" Glancing back over his shoulder, they bug-type did seem troubled.
"hmmm...let me see." Thought the Sun pokemon as he slid into her mind. "She was smaller, she was in a forest with other ledians, she was happy.... her house was burning, pain enveloped her wing, her parents were dead, burnt alive, a giant thing that was dead but not dead was roaring, flames erupting from it's back and mouth, it turned to look a her...."

Max tore himself out the Ledians memories with great effort.
"You are Max, an espeon." he silently reminded himself. "Those things happened to Lia, not you." He shouldn't have gone so deep, it was intrusive and rude as well as dangerous. By experiencing Lia's identity he had risked losing his own. At least it explained the insect's problem, a fire-type, "Typhlosion", had killed her family and damaged her wing and now they were being chased by another infected fire-type.
It was all so similar to his own averion to infected flareons. Max felt a surge of empathy for the bug.

Up ahead, Max saw the forest get thicker, darker, the leaves of the trees hung heavy with water. "Ilex Forest." Walking over to a small lake for a drink, Max suddenly stopped. The water and surrounding soil were dark with old blood, the tree's surrounding the pond were littered with scars and broken limbs, the air was thick with the smell of death. Casting his mind into the water, the Espeon searched for the source of the destruction. The lake was alot deeper then it looked, easily several hundred feet, however despite it's depth no water pokemon swam it's waters. Searching deeper, he found it. At the very bottom of the lake, where sunlight struggled to reach, something ancient and evil slumbered, coiled atop a vast hoard of bones. Careful not to wake the great serpent, The Sun pokemon, gentle probed at it's consiousness. It was infected, that much was obvious, however this creature has been old long before the epidemic. The infection had taken a sleeping, primeval, monster and given it the means and desire to hunt once again. It slept now, but Max had no doubt that if he or anything else touched that lake, it would immediately awaken to feed.
Franitcally pulling away from the ancient's mind, the emerald cat leapt back from the edge of the lake, beyond the direct reach of the creature.

Reaching for his companions minds, the shiny sent a quick warning. "Do not go near that lake, for any reason." It said "If the thing in that water wakes up we're all dead."

Hey Lia? Is something the matter? Is it the Monster? Lalita asked Lia. ...I-I'm ok. She smiled a fake smile at the fox. She had blocked her memories out of her mind, and now she was scared. Who knows how close that fire-type infected is? So, how many fire type infected has she seen in her life? One, the Typhlosion, two, the Flareon, three, the Houndoom, and now this odd Pokemon.

Lia felt unlucky.

The forest got darker and thicker, and there was water. Lia didn't reconize this place. She fell to the ground once again, weak. Max spoke in her mind. Do not go near that lake, for any reason. If the thing in that water wakes up we're all dead. She nodded. Inside the water was some kind of serpent, she didn't reconize the Pokemon.

She waited for Lalita.

Lalita returned Lia's smile with a small one of her own. She could tell something was really bothering the sweet insect, but if she didn't want to share then she didn't want to be rude. Though they had passed the burning trees of the forest, she could still smell the smoke on her fur and it was making her nose burn.

Soon their little group passed through the dense forest to a lake sitting in the middle of a clearing. Lalita came up beside Lia, who she was quickly taking a liking to, and took in her surroundings. The water seemed to be really dark, even for the night, and she didn't like the smell of it. It reeked of old blood and death, combined with the smell of smoke still wreaking havoc on her nose, it was no wonder when Lalita gave out a little squeak of a sneeze. Blushing slightly, she glanced at her two companions and gave a sheepish smile. "Pardon..."

"Do not go near that lake, for any reason. If the thing in that water wakes up we're all dead." Lalita's ears perked up. Something was in the water? If it was dangerous it could be one of those monsters, but if the monsters were in the water...."I have a question," she wondered out loud. "If the Monsters can be in the water too, then won't the water cause us to become sick?" She shuddered. If it were true, then they probably got lucky with the creek from before. She realized she would have to be a lot more careful from now on.

Meldown continued to lumber along, slowly yet steadily. His mind was stuck on that fuel. That hot, sun-like fuel. Whatever Pokemon it was, it was hot. It would send Meltdown into overdrive! Just thinking about it made him spurt more flames, smoke, and ash. Where had it gone? It's trail was easy to follow, but it went far, off into the distant, wet Ilex Forest. Its' wetness was no deterrent, however. The infected Heatmor would just have to refuel frequently. The smoke he emitted constantly would help; it would drive fuel out into the open.

Ilex Forest|Night

Max looked around curiously, this forest was much different from the one he'd grown up in. Where that been filled with dry, brown pine needles, here had wide flat leaves that constantly dripped water from the canopy high above. Although this place was new to him, something about the dense rainforest called to him. The lush foilage was just the right mottled green to allow him to use his fur to blend in perfectly. Amongst the undergrowth a huge ekans slid smoothly through the leaves in search of it's next meal. High in the branches, Chatot squawked and sang loudly as they flew about. Nearby he thought he saw a Kecleon blending to a tree trunk. This place was almost beautiful, it must have been breath-taking before the epidemic.

The Espeon turned as he heard Lalita pad quickly and quietly into the clearing behind him. "She's getting good at that." He thought with an almost invisible smile.
"I have a question," She said. "If the Monsters can be in the water too, then won't the water cause us to become sick?"
The Sun pokemon glanced once again at the ominously still lake and back to the ninetails.
"Only if there's blood in the water" He replied. "But we should still be cautious"

(Ooc: As a leapord, Max feels strangly at home in the rainforest)

((OOC:Skip me, I just don't know what to put...sorry!;A;))

"Only if there's blood in the water. But we should still be cautious" Lalita nodded. She didn't want to take the risk on any other bodies of water they might encounter on the way so she told herself to be sure to check each and every one of them before taking a drink. She didn't want to end up like one of those things. Looking around, she decided to circle around the perimeter of the clearing. The only clear path, other than the one they had come from, seem to lead into a maze of trees. That didn't sound like fun. She didn't remember any forest on her way out of Goldenrod to get to the ruins, so it seems as though they would have to take the long way to get back.

Lalita shivered, not liking the way the damp air was sticking to her coat. Her fur felt heavy and her tails drooped onto the soggy grass. She didn't like it here. It was hot, sticky, and wet. Nothing about it made her happy, and the thickness of the air made it hard for her to breath. "Can we leave this place? Please?" she pleaded, coughing slightly. "The air here...it's too thick."

"Can we leave this place? Please?" pleaded Lalita, coughing quietly. "The air here...it's too thick."
Studying the Ninetails more closely, Max saw the drooping expression on her face, the water that dripped heavily from her fur as the intense humidity took it's toll on the fire pokemon.
"Must be the moisture in the air," He thought.

"We have to stay ahead of that infected anyway" He said with a longing look towards the towering canopy. "But this forest is pretty big, it'll take us a while to get through it."

The Espeon padded deeper into the forest, giving the lake a wide birth as felt the beast within stir in it's sleep. Eyes glowing in the deep shadows of the trees, Max inhaled the scents of the forest, detected all the creatures that had passed this spot. Ignoring the ever-present stench of the infected that hung like fog in the air, he detected several living scents. Excited by the possibility of more uninfected, he traced the path of the individual scents as one separated from another two. In the pair of scents,Max smelled the familiar aroma of an eevelution paired with the strange completely scentless spots that marked the path of a ghost-type, both of which were headed south. The remaining scent was large, bitter and reptilian. It headed straight towards the lake and ended in the darkest patch of blood in the water.
"One met it's demise then," thought the Sun pokemon, sadly. "What a shame."
Turning his attention back to the other scents, the cat noticed that a fresh odour of infected traced the path of the eevelution and the ghost-type. Something hunted them and judging by the lack of crushed flora, it'd hadn't been the serpent.
"Not going that way then."

Turning back to his companions, Max kept his face stony to prevent showing how much leaving an eevelution to possible death pained him.
"We should head north," he stated. "Less infected that way and we'll get out of the forest and to goldenrod much faster as well. "
Realizing that it ran dangerously close to an order he quickly threw in; "If that's alright with you", with an awkward smile.

Can we leave this place? Please?The air here...it's too thick. Lia wanted to leave too. The fire type infected Pokemon would catch up to them if they stayed in one place for too long. And...the air was thick. Lia looked into the water once more. Suddenly, the serpent burst out of the water.

Lia let out a swift, trying to attack it. She tried to make a run for it, but the Gyarados let out a Hyper Beam, damaging the Ledian badly. The infected dragon Pokemon came in closer and closer with its big mouth open.

This was the end.

Lia was going to see the creator, Arceus. She accepted her death.

The Gyarados took a bite of the Ledian's stomach, and Lia's little heart stopped beating.

((OOC: She's dead now. It was nice roleplaying with you guys. I might make another character for this team, I'm not sure. I wanted to make Lia's death unexspected so... C: now I'm off to Latios. Buh bye.))

"We should head north, less infected that way and we'll get out of the forest and to Goldenrod much faster as well. If that's alright with you" Lalita smiled and nodded at Max's suggestion. "Of course we ca--"

Lalita screamed as the great blue beast tore out of the water. It reared back its great head and a bright light formed in its mouth, aimed right at Lia. Lalita tried to get to her friend, but it was too late and the beam shot past her and right into the poor insect's body. Lalita tried a Flamethrower, but it just sizzled on the great beast scales. It went for Lia with its great mouth open and she was still, frozen in terror as her friend was taken by the creature. Crunching noises pervaded the air as it fed, and Lalita ran back to Max crying.

"Lia..." she murmured. There was nothing she could do to help against a creature that size, much less since it was a water type and had the advantage. "I'm sorry..." she whispered before nudging Max with her head. "We need to go before it sees us..."

((OOC: I'll miss Lia, she was so nice to Lalita. T_T ))

Lalita smiled and nodded at Max's suggestion. "Of course we ca--" She but herself of mid sentence with a scream as the ancient serpent burst through the surface of the water with a earth-shaking roar. Max saw Gyarados rear it's rotting head, energy forming in it's mouth. "Hyper Beam" He whispered in horror as the monster turned to aim directly at Lia. Lalita leapt forward in a futile attempt to get to the insect, but she was to late. The beam shot straight past and impacted with the poor ledian with concussive force, knocking her to the ground. Max watched as the ninetails released a flamethrower at the serpent, but it only sizzled away. Sickening crunches sounded in the clearing as the infected bit into the corpse of his friend.
"Lia..." murmured Lalita with tears streaming down her face. "I'm sorry..." Before nudging Max with her head. "We need to go before it sees us..."
So they crept away as the great blue monstrosity dragged the lifeless body of poor little Lia back down into the depths of it's domain. The espeon ran as if in a trance, Lia was dead and it was his fault. He'd felt it stirring, he'd known that it might wake but he didn't even think to warn them and now his friend was dead because of his own carelessness. He was supposed to be a leader, he was supposed to keep them safe and he'd let them down, just like with his brothers, just like with his sister. Max glanced beside him at Lalita, tails dragging along the ground, tears still streaming down her face. He would protect her, she was his responsibility now, she may not be his kind but she was part of his pack now.

Taking in his surroundings, Max realized they had been running for several hours and were only a few miles from the edge of the forest. Now he was paying attention the espeon realized something else. They were surrounded. On every tree, in every bush was a bug-type. Dozens of them, all first stage evolutions and all infected. Peering around, the psychic's mind quickly located and identified each type. Spinaraks, Catapies, Yanmas, Wurmples and more lined the surrounding woods. Turning around he saw something that made him freeze, A Ledian. It wasn't Lia, but this sick perversion of life looked so much like her, he just snapped.

With an almighty roar, Max released a tremendous Psychic in all directions, his Twisted Spoon pulsed within him fueling his power. Every bug that was touched by that wave of pure energy died. The smaller ones or the ones that were to close simply burst outward in tiny explosions of blood, the insects further way weren't so lucky. They writhed and spasmed as their organs ruptured, blood poured from their mouths, and eyes until their brains finally burst, killing the infection that kept them alive. When the surging energy finally subsided, the only things living were Lalita, himself...and the ledian that still thrashed and screamed on the ground nearby. Striding over to the creature, Max stared down at it with naked hatred. These things had ruined his life, killed his friend and turned his kind caring brothers into mindless monsters. Extending his claws, the enraged cat brought his paw down on the infected head, crushing it completely.
"For Lia." He whispered before trudging back to Lalita who was looking at him with horror. With every infected within a mile radius either dead or fleeing, the adrenaline pumping through Max's veins suddenly stopped and the shiny slid into unconsciousness.

(Ooc: Psychotic snap anyone?)

They ran, and kept running, until Lalita's legs burned and the tears on her face dried into salty tracks that stung her eyes. But still she ran. She followed Max until the tress thinned out and she could just make out the edge of the forest, but then he stopped. She kept close to him, not wanting to be separated from the only living friend she had left. He was looking around with a dark expression on his face and, just as she was about to ask him what was wrong, he let massive roar and let loose a powerful energy that had her down on the ground cringing.

Dozens of little insect Pokemon fell from the trees, their rotting stench and decayed appearance giving away their true identity. They had been surrounded by infected, and once again Max had saved her. She stood cautiously, watching the Espeon as he walked over to a near twin to Lia. She looked on in fear as he crushed the insects skull, feeling fresh tears making their way down her cheeks as she whimpered. She felt like she was watching her friend die all over again. "For Lia," he murmured before turning back to her, and she watched as his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell to the ground.

Lalita rushed over to Max, hovering over his unconscious form to check if he was okay. He seemed uninjured, but no matter how much she nudged him he wouldn't wake. 'He must have exhausted himself...' she mused silently. She looked around for something to lift him onto. With them being roughly the same size there was no way she could carry him. Luckily for her there was a large branch that had been knocked loose from his Psychic blast and she dragged it over, pulling him on top of it. Using the branch she dragged him carefully to the edge of the forest where, just over the hill, she could see the crumbling remains of her beloved city, Goldenrod.

"I'm home..." she whispered, a depressive tone sinking into her normally light voice. She started dragging Max to a sheltered rock formation near the route into the city, one that she and Little Miss had played in a few times when she and the other children played a strange 'hiding' game. She sniffed around a bit, and used a Flamethrower inside to make sure that there was nothing hiding in the small opening. Using the last of her strength she pulled Max inside and fell down next to him, just as exhausted. Here she could keep watch over him until he awoke, hopefully before anything found them. But, even if something did, she wasn't going to loose another one of her friends without a fight. Not again.

In his dream Max wondered through a strange land. A land of dead, twisted trees and blackened earth. Looking head, he noticed he was on a long winding path that extended from horizon to horizon. The path behind him was lined with shadowy figures, looking closer he recognized the face of Lia who looked gaunt and weary along with the swarm of insects he had obliterated. Further along the path, the Espeon saw the trio of Bidoof's he had hunted for Lalita and himself, further still he saw the infected Flareon he had killed shortly after evolving. All were wrapped in shadows, dark tentacles of it clung to them, holding them in place. Strangely, none of the insects or the Flareon bore their previous signs of infection. No rot, no open wounds, hell he had ripped that fox clean in half. Focusing his will, Max readied a Psychic to free them from their shadowy bindings.
"You can't help them."
The emerald cat nearly cried out as a translucent figure appeared beside him, causing him loose his focus. Turning to the figure, Max noticed it was some kind of eevelution, but every time he looked directly at it it seemed to blur.
"What's wrong with them?" He asked, looking back at Lia's sorrowful face.
"They are not at peace," the figure replied in a strangely familiar voice. "They are stuck between your world and that of the dead, held against their will."

"Who holds them here?!" demanded the shiny. "Who would do such a terrible thing?!"

"I do, but before you question and accuse me, look ahead."
Confusion curling in his mind, Max turned to look down the other side of the path. He saw Lalita, shining with some inner light smiled at him from her place on the path. Further along he saw his brothers held to the ground by the claw of a great black bird, who laughed maniacally as they thrashed and clawed in an attempt to free themselves. Running ahead, the sun pokemon was met my a trio of flamethrowers from his brothers blocking his path.
"Not us little brother," they said with bared fangs. "Help her"
Following their gaze, Max saw his sister, blazing with light but surrounded in shadows that tried to engulf her. Time after time she tried to escape, but every time she found her bath blocked.

"She needs you Max," Whispered his companion. "And the only thing stopping you is me."

"Who are you!" Demanded Max with fangs bared and just like that the blurriness surrounding his companion dissipated. Horror painted his features as he stared at the grinning figure of.....himself..

(Ooc: see if you can figure out all the metaphors there)

Lalita was curled beside Max in the small hiding place she had taken them to. As he slept she could feel Max twitching in his sleep, something seemed to be bothering him. She placed a couple of her tails on his back to try and comfort him but made sure to keep both of her eyes on the opening. Nothing was going to sneak up on them if she could help it. In the couple of hours since she had dragged them here she had already had to burn two infected Spinarak and a Rattata to death that tried to get in. She felt awful, having never had to take a life before, but she had to protect Max.

The morning sun started to come up over the horizon, she could see the bright ball of light peeking out over the trees and lighting the path. Most of the infected scurried back to their dark hiding places in the forest and surrounding trees. She breathed a soft sigh of relief and stole a glance at the Espeon at her side. He looked like he was starting to recover from whatever nightmare had been plaguing him so hopefully he would awaken soon. Subconsciously she began humming a song she had learned long ago from Little Miss, a song that she used to think was just a pretty tune, but now echoed the sorrow in her heart. Turning her eyes back to the entrance she waited, hoping the daylight would make it easier on their journey back into her personal hell.

((OOC: If anyone has seen Disney's Anastasia Lalita is humming 'Once Upon A December'. It really fits her personality))

The sun began to rise as the axe jaw pokemon began to move. His tail swayed back and forth, knocking down a tree in its wake. His eyes glowed with the lust for blood, the very lust that kept him moving. He was but an empty shell with nothing but the urge to destroy, and consume.
He stood, his foot claws digging into the ground, the remains of his previous meal scattered about, no longer recognizable. His gaping jaws still dripping with its blood. He needed more, he wanted more, and there was nothing that was going to stop him from gaining it.

He raised his head to the sky, sniffing for any possible sent of the living. He growled when he got nothing but the smell of dewdrops, and not the smell of fresh blood.
Geo was hungry, he was always hungry, and the only thing that could satisfy him was that of fresh worm blood that could only be gained through living pokemon.

He started to move, starting his hunt once again. He realised a blood-curdling roar as he began his hunt for the living, nothing could run from him, nothing was safe while he was around.

Nothing could hide…

Shook from his dreams by a colossal roar, Max quickly took in his surroundings. He was in some kind of rock formation with Lalita curled around him. Sunlight poured in through the entrance to pool on the ground half a foot from were they lay. Rising to his feet with a groan, the big cat padded over to the glistening light, almost purring as it's warmth enveloped him.
"The Sun Pokemon indeed"

Remembering what woke him, the newly revitalized shiny cast his mind out in search of the source of the earth-shaking roar. It was HUGE, easily as big as the serpent, if not as long. Some kind of Unovan dragon, the giant was surrounded in an aura of death. Never had Max felt such raw ferocity in an infected. Usually all they had was hunger. But this behemoth let off waves of pure hatred with each movement of it's immense, rotting body. Delicately probing it's consciousness to avoid detection, Max got glimpses of a heavily armored body adorned with dagger-like claws, glowing eyes and massive, razor-sharp tusks.
"Oh we are in so much trouble," he murmured aloud, before sending a sunlight-fueled Heal Pulse towards the prone ninetails.
"Come on Lalita," He said, nudging her gently. "We need to place ourselves elsewhere."

Extending and retracting his claw nervously, Max sent his mind out again, this time to get his bearings.
"We're right on the edge of the bloody city!" He realized with a jolt as felt the collective minds of scores of pokemon within the city, infected and uninfected alike. Somewhere in those sprawling buildings his sister was waiting for him.

Lalita shivered as she heard a massive roar echo from the surrounding forest. It was so loud, even Max snapped awake. She watched him step outside and take in the morning sun, he seemed so at ease in its bright light that she gave a small chuckle. She felt the rippling sensation of his Heal Pulse once again and she was grateful for it. It had taken a lot of her energy to drag him all the way out here, and then having to guard their little hideaway while he rested. "Come on Lalita, we need to place ourselves elsewhere." She nodded.

Gracefully she padded outside the small rock formation and arched her back, stretching. Reveling in the warmth the morning sun brought she dipped down low to stretch her shoulders and rose with a delicate shake to rid her fur of the dust from the road. As though caught by some moment, she paused, looked off to the horizon, and gave a soft, thoughtful smile. The morning sun seemed to radiate off of her shining coat, making her glow an almost brilliant silver. She stepped in front of Max and turned to face him.

"I know this city like the back of my paw," she said softly, a small trace of sadness in her voice. "You'll have no better guide than me. The place you want to go is the Goldenrod Tunnel, with only two entrances on opposite sides of the city. It will be very dangerous, the chances alone of us even making it there are slim to none. And once we are underground, there will be no place to hide. It will be fight or die. Are you sure you still want to do this?" She gave him a sad smile as she waited. She already knew what he was most likely going to say, but she still wanted to give him the option. Once they went into the city, there was no turning back. They would have to push on through the other side.