Message #611

[Author Roy]

Shindig City Ruins - Sewers; Monday January 21st, 7:22 P.M.

Project Roy trailed behind the short, green haired girl through the poorly lit, foul smelling waters, carrying the still unconscious Xero over his left shoulder and holding the flashlight in his right hand. He looked down at the girl with a frown as they kept walking.

"So..." He started. She didn't say anything, and he continued. "So, uh..." Not being very socially inclined, it was particularly hard for Project to come up with something to say to the girl. "Hmm..." He shook his head. 'At least I'm trying...' He growled and then looked up at her. "Look, what are we doing? Where are we going? Why am I following you? Who are you?" He suddenly demanded.

The girl turned to look at him with a solemn look.

"I'm... a friend. You wanted to find your own friends, though, right?" She said. "Once we find them down here, I can take you to a safe place. There's a boat with other humans leaving the island."

Project blinked as he processed what she'd said until he finally came up on the last part.

"Other humans?" He asked, looking at her. The girl looked surprised for a moment, and blushed, then looked away.

"Well yes, like us, of course, other humans like us, we wouldn't want any of those, er..." She looked over at him, and for a second, he could swear her eyes seemed to glow blue. "...Pokebeasts," She said with a nod before turning and walking again. Roy followed after her again with a sigh. Pokebeasts were what the world had decided to call them when they'd first appeared. Those powerful crimes against nature that had come from space, and their masters... the Pokemen...

Pokemen...

And then project remembered the first night of this nightmare. He had SEEN one of the pokemen himself, and seeing it in action, quickly escaped. Seeing the girl before him now...

'She's one of them!' He immediately stopped walking and haphazardly dropped Xero to the ground where he landed facedown in the sewerfilth, and grabbed the Chainsaw Machine Gun on his back and aimed it at her. She quickly turned around to see why he'd dropped Xero and saw the barrel of a rather dangerous gun between her eyes. She looked up to see Project glaring at her with more than a bit of fear in her eyes.

"W-w-w-"

"You're one of them. This is a trap, isn't it?" He demanded. "You didn't kill me, and didn't let the others kill me, because you have some sort of special use for me, right?"

"N-no! I, I, I just want to help! Please believe me!" The girl said, her eyes tearing up. She closed her eyes and her body started to shake, and Project blinked several times, slowly realizing that he'd really blundered.

"Oh... er... oh man." He let his gun down and looked around. "Um... look, I'm sorry. It's just, well, I uh..." The girl opened her eyes, and noticed the gun was gone. "Look, I'm really, really sorry. That was horrible of me, and..."

"I, it's okay," The girl said, lowering her head. "I... I understand. My people... they've done horrible things to you and yours."

He blinked as he looked up at her.

"I just... I can't stop them by myself, but I wanted to do what I could to defy them..."

It was then that they noticed a coughing, spurting sound on the ground below them, and they looked down at Xero, who was violently gagging in the muck.

"Oh shit! Fuck!" Project quickly reached down and grabbed Xero, pulling him up from the water. "Hey! Are you okay?"