The pokégirl had covered her body in fluids as if they were makeup. Her appearance delightfully distracted the men long enough for her to slice right through them. Their pokégirls tended to panic and scatter when that happened. How silly that they base their forces around such weak units. The pokégirl laughed at her private little joke as she continued breaking down barricades and tossing her little pets over into the humans’ formations. Her pets may not have been too bright, but they certainly were single minded in their task!
A Dark Bomb flew past her and impacted the concrete behind her. She merely teleported away and looked at the pokégirl that had attacked her. Tall and angry, her would-be opponent looked far too serious for such a delightful occasion. The invading menace eyed the pokégirl pursuing her. She was fast! However, the menace could merely teleport away when the dark-type got too close. A black boil on the side of the invader’s face burst and released its fumes into the air as she thought.
Yvette had difficulty holding the reigns of her temper at this time. It was always like this at night for her. At night, she felt the righteous anger in defense of her Charles, the man who she had known all her life and had taken care of her as she once had he. She had an opportunity to repay all the affection that she knew most domestic pokégirl like herself had never gotten back on Appalachia. Summoning a blade of her element like she had learned from one of the other dark-types that could do it naturally, she pursued the invading pokégirl with all the might and swiftness at her disposal.
The night was here, and it fueled her. She could slowly feel it flooding her; it’s sensation caused her eyes to dilate from the stimulus. She avoided the stumbling, sickly pokégirls that were beginning to flood the streets. They were just an obstacle best ignored. Engaging them directly could get her hit with those damn fumes which seemed to transmit whatever disease they were infected with, so getting up close and personal with one and cutting them open would just get her a face-full of the stuff and she’d be off stumbling with the mindless horde.
Elsewhere, Liz coordinated with Yvette to track the enemy pokégirl. She tracked the invader’s signature and helped Charles by acting as a go between him and Yvette. The other pokégirl seemed to be a psychic type as well but not much of a telepath or telekinetic, something that seemed strange to Liz. Most of the psychics heckled those who had no talent for either to no end unless they had some other element to counterbalance their obvious deficiency. What did this pokégirl have? She was obviously dangerous and very unstable… That couldn’t be all she had going for her, was it?
Liz realized that she was accidentally incorporating Charles’s thoughts into her own. It was a small mistake she made occasionally since she first became a psychic. It was easy to rely on his interesting thought patterns as a source of stimulus; her lack of speech tended to make it a little too easy to habitually listen in on people’s thoughts as her means of communication. She shared with Charles her thoughts on the enemy’s seeming lack of telepathy or telekinetic ability.
Charles transmitted that it was possible that she was just not using her abilities.
Liz couldn’t feel any such ability coming from scanning the enemy psychic.
Odd, Charles thought, but he reminded Liz that that didn’t make the enemy any less dangerous.
Fire types flooded the streets with flame. The infected pokégirls didn’t seem to halt because of it. It was as if even their survival instincts had been eroded away by their disease. This made things easier and more difficult at the same time. While it certainly made it easier to purge them, their unusual relentlessness and tenacity even in the face of certain demise made it so that the defending pokégirls were thrown off their game just enough for a few of the infected to get through the red line.
A faceless Growlie had tears in her eyes. She had panicked and killed one of the infected pokégirls right in front of her rather than retreating to a safe distance. The fumes and gore from the corpse got all over her including on her face. Her owner and her sisters were casting nervous glances at her. She… she knew that she was finished in the end. No one had really said how long it took to become like those mindless shells scrambling after them, but she knew it was far from a pleasant process. She did not look forward to the pain, and she knew that when she did turn, she’d be a threat to her master and sisters.
She gave her master a sad smile and, without a word, leapt over the barricade that had been hastily erected and tore into the horde. Blood flew every which way and the miasma leaking from the infected filled the air and her nostrils. Being out amongst them enabled her to use her flames more liberally as well as employ her area-effect techniques. She Ignited and bowled through the enemy without hesitation and without end. She wouldn’t let a slow death be the end of her or her adopted family.
The battle waxed and waned as it raged throughout the streets of Terminus. Finally hope came as the insane invader was unable to escape as Yvette pursued here. A Kaftara teleported over to Yvette and aided her in pursuit of the enemy. Fortunately, the enemy pokégirl’s body began to give as her knee bent at an angle that suggested her joint had disappeared. The infection seemed to be taking its toll on her finally. She made one last teleportation to the middle of a horde of infected. The Kaftara was one step ahead of her with use of her foresight and managed to lob a Dark Bomb at her anticipated position. The void in space managed surged to the pokégirl’s foreseen position. The enemy didn’t even get a chance to register it. As the blast impacted her, her body deflated and spouted fumes every-which-way.
The fumes were a different color from the normal gas released from the infected. As it seeped towards the infected around the defeated enemy. All of the infected began laughing and cackling hysterically. They still stumbled on almost lifelessly, but the sight of cackling corpses stumbling about chilled the Kaftara to the bone.
After the Jokette was eliminated cleanup began. Evacuations went more smoothly and [The Center] began corralling and eliminating the infected pokégirls. Unfortunately, one of the buildings caught fire in this process. Terminus was ablaze and the infected were running about at the same time. The blaze was soon out of control. Priorities shifted from the infected to recovering as many people and important items. By this point, the numbers of the infected had thinned enough that they could be held at bay while the evacuation process was initiated.
Water-types attempted to put out the blaze, but it had spread too far. The surviving civilians of the city were few, but a couple thousand had been salvaged. [The Center] realized once everyone was out of the city just how widespread this pandemic was. Ferals were crawling out from beneath every rock baring the signs of the infection. They were for the most part driven away.
As Terminus razed itself to the ground, Charles contemplated the future of [The Center]. They needed to contact the various branches and the farmers like Mikhail. Who knows what had happened in the time since the disaster had started? They needed to recoup. They needed to quell this problem before it swallowed them all.
But first…
It did not take that much effort really. Teleporting Susana to the flimsy ‘iron curtain’ that the Confederacy lamely attempted to bisect Basshead with was very straight forward. Blowing the wall to hell was a hyperbeam away. Granted, it took a couple hyperbeams spaced out to allow Susana to rest to properly demonstrate that the wall needed to stay gaping open. It did not take long for the infected ferals to mosey through to the other side. Holing them up here was not something that [The Center] would just sit back and take.
Charles was nervous he had sent out men to check on the farms. His friend was possibly in danger, and he had no idea what had happened to him. Moments later, a solemn looking Mikhail and his harem- including an irate Elf Queen- appeared. Not too much later, many Elves and other pokégirls came baring much cargo. Ponytaurs had wooden carts attached to them filled with supplies.
“What happened?” Charles asked Mikhail.
At first, his friend was silent, staring off into the distance. “You tell me,” he responded tonelessly.
Charles sighed. “As far as we know, the Confederacy released an unknown contagion as well as aggressive non-feral pokégirls into our territory to cause havoc.” Charles’s mouth tightened. “It seems like that’s what they were building their wall for. The contagion makes the infected hyper- aggressive and it causes myonecrosis along with that.”
“Ah.” Otherwise remained silent.
“What happened?” Charles asked again, his tone now suddenly becoming more authoritative.
Mikhail looked up to Charles. “Alicia… my Umbrea, she’s gone.”
Charles’s eyes softened. He knew Mikhail’s pain well and put his hand on his younger friend’s shoulder comfortingly. Mikhail was the kind of person who tended to truly drown themselves in their work, much like Charles himself. So, he knew exactly how to help Mikhail burry this away. “What did you manage to recover?” Charles’s voice was once again commanding.
Mikhail waved one of his assistants over who tonelessly listed off the logistics of everything that had been recovered from the farm. Other farmers, including the two that owned the other two Elf Queens, also gave their accounts of things, and soon Charles had a rough idea of their supplies. It wasn’t pretty, but it was better than his pessimistic approximation had been.
Other survivors were salvaged from red zones by [The Center]’s personnel. As they rescued more and more people, Charles’s dread grew. How was he supposed to feed all these people? Soon, orders were whispered down the chain of command to stop the search for survivors. There just weren’t enough supplies, and a difficult choice had to be made. [The Center], Charles’s extended family, took priority.
Charles caught sight of Mikhail’s Elf Queen. He had no idea what had her so upset. Liz followed close behind him and served to summon his other pokégirls to his presence. They all converged on the agitated Elf Queen. “Why aren’t you with Mikhail and the others?” Charles asked seriously. There would be no slacking and no excuses. They all needed to survive, and she wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize that.
She merely sent him a glare and turned to leave. Daniele was in front of her in a second, blocking her path. The Elf Queen stopped and slowly turned to face Charles again. “What do you want?” she asked impetuously.
Charles’s eyebrows went up before coming right back down and settling in a scowl. He hadn’t been talked to like that in many years. “Watch yourself,” Charles growled out, “If you’re going to be stupid, you’ll endanger us all, and I. Can’t. Have. That.”
The Elf Queen seemed to be too used to being the queen bee while she and Mikhail were out on their own. Charles dearly hoped Mikhail didn’t let her talk to him like this. He had always been firm with his pokégirls even if he was soft on that Ice Maiden of his.
“Do you have any idea how much was lost today?” she asked him venomously.
“Of course, there’s quite the view to see once you pull your head out of your ass.”
The irate pokégirl ignored his comment. “The crops are all gone. I’ve already spoken to the other farmers and elves. We don’t have anything to support ourselves with.”
“The ground was contaminated; we have no idea what could have happened.”
“We’re leaving everything!”
“We have to, or we. Will. All. Die.”
“Do you have any idea what’s at stake?!” the obstinate ‘girl shrieked.
That struck Charles in a bad way. His jaw clenched tightly that one of the hinges in his skull popped painfully when he opened his mouth to speak. “I have no need to justify myself to the likes of you. Terminus is gone and our outposts have fallen. The remainder of [The Center] and what we could salvage of our people are here, and we will proceed in such a fashion as to ensure our survival. If you have a problem with that, we can take you back to your little farm, and you can fertilize the soil.” Charles would speak to Mikhail about his Elf Queen’s behavior. He wasn’t sure as to what the cause was, but no matter the source, he would not jeopardize everything.
Soon, the precogs that Charles had assembled before were in front of him again in an area away from the prying eyes of the civilians that had been rescued. Charles had a glowering demeanor as he opened the floor; the stress of everything was getting to him. “If there is anything any of you can tell me, now’s the time to say it,” he growled out, “There’s no time for hypotheticals.”
Immediately, one of the Kaftaras piped up: “We need to retreat into the woods.”
“And why do we need to do that?” Charles asked seriously.
The precognitive pokégirl’s ears went back. “It’s difficult to say. The further away an event is, the harder it is to get any details. All I can say is that bad things will happen if we don’t move there.”
Charles looked at her but managed to keep from saying something he was likely to regret. He didn’t like not knowing, especially under these circumstances, so he was reluctant to take that advice to heart.
Apparently, his expression said it all, and the Kaftara hissed at him in anger: “I was right last time, wasn’t I?! If you had been where you should have been-“
Charles merely leaned down and looked at her dead in the eye. His imposing size and his expression did most of the intimidating for him despite the fact that the pokégirl in front o him could probably rend him limb from limb with relative ease. His confidence stemmed from the fact that he knew that Liz was keeping tabs on the situation. The Kaftara looked away abashed. That kind of outburst was not befitting of a pokégirl loyal to [The Center], and it reflected on her poorly. In addition, this was their leader, her master’s master so to speak. She didn’t want to get herself in hot water by getting on this particular man’s bad side.
“You make a valid point.” Charles didn’t stand back up or avert his gaze. The Kaftara looked back up at him nervously. “Is there anything else you can say?” he asked.
The Kaftara frowned her hyenaedic features contorting with the expression. “I… can only infer what I think I’m anticipating,” she said slowly, “but I think it’s a hurricane of some sort.”
Charles’s eyes widened and he stood back up straight. “A hurricane?”
“I think so… something of the sort, but it seems like its connected to these events somehow.”
“What does that mean?”
“Dunno,” the Kaftara shrugged. She looked to the other Kaftara. “What do you think?” she asked.
The other pokégirl looked about nervously. “I’m not sure… but a storm of some sort sounds right. A very violent storm.
Charles sighed. As bizarre as it seemed, he would be a fool for ignoring the abilities of pokégirl. Moving into the woods would reduce maneuverability drastically… They’d need to clear space and make a camp. This would be a behemoth task, moving so many people and feeding them during this crisis. Had he time, sure he could do it. He had done it a thousand times before when he was cultivating [The Center]. However, with these creatures running around and ferals undoubtedly lurking in the woods waiting to infect them… Was this really a good idea?
Having a map brought out put things into perspective. The Kaftara seemed to have a sense of how deeply they needed to move into the woods. When Charles saw this, his eyes bulged comically. That point was well beyond the line that the League had cordoned off decades ago. Charles had never led his men in there because it was a complete unknown. No one had been inside for decades, and the ferals that managed to find their way out of there were always a walking disaster and had been trouble for Terminus and later [The Center] over the years.
All kinds of wild theories about the place had sprung up over the years. All of a sudden, everything started growing. Back in the founding of the Confederacy, some interesting fruit baring plants had been found before the area became too overgrown for safe exploration by the inept tamer forces of the League. Charles felt a great trepidation at going in.
What if the infection followed them?
There was only one thing that could be done, something that Charles knew how to do very well at this point. They would establish a base, and they would build fortifications. Trees would be felled, and with the help of the Elves they would have a means of sustaining themselves. They couldn’t stay out here in the open; the farms had already been attacked, and who knows what would happen if you farmed soil that had shit from infected corpses soaked into it.
They were out in the open here and they didn’t have any material to build shelter with. Game would be rare. The forest would have resources of some kind, even if they needed to dip in to their meager reserves until they could find it. It was another day where they had to do or die.