AtlasSniperman

It was like any other house, from the polished hardwood floors to the tiled kitchen. The wallpaper was cracked and torn away, playing host to a carpet of ropes. Each hanging from a hand width to forearm length from its surface haphazardly. They frayed randomly, though each ended with a fist sized knot, many flecked with blood and skin. Not that you could see the damage in the darkness, a dark cast by curtains hammered closed; massive sheets depicting hearts and flowers and backed with rubber to block all light. And it might work, were they not each ripped randomly. The holes cut as small as a fingertip or as wide as two hands. These tears were the only source of light that flickered throughout the small homes few rooms. The largest room, what in many homes would be the lounge, bore only a single mattress hammered to the floor. Massive leather straps crossed the mattress and were hammered tight to the floor around it. Several of the straps bore hooks, dull but still metal and small

The train ground to a stop in the dark tunnel, only the interior and the few benches outside lit by weak and dying lights. Ninety-Three year old Stephen was the only one to board. Weakly stepping over the threshold to settle himself in the seat closest the door. There was a familiar, almost painful mood to the carriage around him. The few people sat in silence, rocking in time to the sway of the train. He could imagine the fatigues and helmets of long ago, the looks on tired faces unwilling or unable to reach out. Stops came and passed. A few people entered, a few left. The hollow music at each station echoing to him as if the cheers of a crowd that no longer knew the people they welcomed home. The third stop came, and Stephen pulled himself up. Gripping the doorway as he stepped out, only to miss the platform. The old man’s foot slipped between subway and station, and he fell. Stumbling forward, the concrete rushing to meet him, as a hand grabbed his shoulder. Sure the man was

Olivia’s mouth finally cracked into a smile as Kaili called Tiny back into its pokeball. She nodded several times before finally speaking. “Diamonds only sparkle after coal is pushed to its absolute limit. You took what I threw at you without breaking a sweat.” Her hips continued to sway almost tortuously as she approached. “I am slightly worried that you would have been willing to let your pokemon go to far at the end there. Had I not recalled Lycanroc, you may have done something we’d both regret.” Her tone wasn’t angry, instead a well practised rebuking that he’d heard before. People who could get to this tone, seemed to believe they were the only ones to ever pull it off. The young man suspected it worked better on those who hadn’t heard it a dozen times already. “Here” the native woman held out her hand, a brown crystal, the same shape and size as his other ‘Z Crystals’ jutting out from between her pointer and middle fingers, her thumb to its side. Kaili gently took the gemstone

The tall man looked down at Kaili once the youth’s footsteps had disappeared into the creaking of the hedge maze. “Indeed. You are a trial-goer, aren’t you?” The man’s eyes swept across him, as if searching him for something. “Must say I’m surprised you didn’t simply fight them with your pokemon. Not much of a Trainer are you? Alas, I said I’d reward you. Tomorrow, when you have finished your grand trial, come to Hano Grand Resort and I will take you to see a wondrous place.” Kaili fought the instinct, the desire, the need to tell the guy he wasn’t going to check out his basement or go anywhere with him. But he could simply not go to the resort. The man would have no reason to actively look for him. So the young man just nodded, not making eye contact with the creep. With an unsettling smile, the tall man pulled packaged gloves from his pocket. Removing the plastic, he gently worked them onto his hands before stashing the plastic in his pocket and turning to the slowpoke. “Come

The four stood there silently for a good few seconds before a question finally occurred to the eldest of the group. Kaili turned to Hau. “What are you even doing here? I thought you’d have done your Grand Trial already.” The two Skull youths looked to Hau at this question before backing away very quietly. The native teen blinked a couple times, apparently processing the change in tone of the situation for a second before grinning. He didn’t back any further away from Kaili, instead making eye contact as he answered. “Oh! Grandpa holds trials regularly because apparently it doesn’t usually take long to do the Verdant Cavern Trial. But there’s so much to do on Akala that Ms. Olivia can’t do that. We have to find her and organise when we wanna do the grand trial!” “Good to know, doesn’t really ans-” “So I’m trying to find her!” “Ah” Kaili looked around, the tail of the trench coat sweeping the rocky ground about his feet as he did. “I don’t think she’s here.” He smirked, Hau

The sound of breaking branches and crushed bushes retreated into the depths of the darkness. The blade pokemon, Kladenets, returned to its master, wrapping its silken banner around his arm as he gripped its hilt. Mallow skipped eagerly toward him. For the briefest instant, the young man thought himself on some long gone battlefield, being charged by an armoured warrior. But he fought the desire to raise the blade toward her. “Well done! That was one of the fastest fights I’ve ever seen with Totem Lurantis! You’re really-” Mallow was bouncing as she trotted, far more excitable than when he’d arrived at her campsite. The tall, tanned man grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back suddenly and almost off her feet just before Kaili started shouting. It was almost as if the man thought she was about to be attacked. “Congrats” Kaili mocked back at her. “Only three deaths, but at least you got the speed-run record.” There was more venom in his tone than he intended. He could feel his fingers

Mallow stared almost directly into Kaili’s eyes across the campfire, her eyebrows slightly furrowed. “This trial requires you collect things around the forest. It’s a lot easier in the day when you can see better.” She leaned back, there was a look in her eyes, almost a shadow passing across her as she spoke. The young man had opened his mouth to answer but she simply shook her head. The woman pushed herself to standing with a sigh. “I’ll come get you when it’s ready. A kid ‘Hau’ came by earlier which means your the last trial for this wave.” With a small roll of her eyes, she rifled through her tent and retrieved a small torch. ‘Accidentally’ shining it in his eyes as she turned it on, Mallow headed through the curtain of vines into the darkness. Leaving Kaili alone by the campfire. He looked down just in time to see Blep, the quilava, sniffing awfully close to the cooked meat. Picking the pokemon up by just under its front legs, Kaili pulled the fire mon back to sitting in his

Alone on the seaside street, Kaili forced himself to pull it together. He had things to do, a whole island challenge to get back to. He wasn’t going to let himself be distracted, he had to get moving. Passing the pokemon centre, he neared the end of the road at a T junction. To the left was a grassy path framed by trees, leading back toward the water and fire trials. The path to the right crossed a bridge to an enormous estate. A lush hedge wrapped around an expansive courtyard, with a staircase emerging down to a small dock. Though the huge place wasn’t lit, the young man simply assumed it wasn’t his next trial. When he’d first arrived on Akala island, he’d met the Kahuna; Olivia. She didn’t seem the sort for a place like that. Not that it mattered, she’d introduced him to a lass named ‘Mallow’, one of the Trial captains. She had to be next by definition. A part of him suspected he might find her in the estate. He could feel himself turning, starting to head right and across the

The clanging of metal on metal and the scraping of nails through bitumen rung clearly through the dark street; lit by streetlamps and the lights of the pokemon centre and a strange building nearby. Kaili slipped off the back of the powerful steel bird pokemon, pulling the sheet around him to hide the scales. He didn’t have a chance to thank ‘Deathmachine’ before the bird had launched away and back into the night, leaving the young man alone on the Heahea city pier. A part of him wanted to lower the sheet, the cool sea breeze rushing eagerly across him. But he knew if he relaxed even a little, the scales would be visible to anyone passing by. Hunching forward in Mohn’s sheet, to keep his bag from lifting it too much, the young man marched along the quiet road in the dark of night. The first building with lights sported a sign in elegant letters above it’s widest window. Though the text was near impossible to read as the nearest source of light spilled out of the store within.

The young man awoke upon a hard wooden floor. Several old, dry, palm fronds were laid across his ‘bare’ chest. He couldn’t feel the dead plants scratching against his scales, but nonetheless felt them upon him and the rickety wooden planks beneath him. Kaili opened his eyes, staring up at a set of waterlogged wooden beams crossing over his head. Further above was a thick cone canopy woven from the same kind of fronds laid across him. Lifting his left hand to rub his eyes, a sudden pain shot through his wrist and fingers. New scales had formed on the underside of his wrist. As the youth flinched, movement from beside his waist caught his attention. A small blue triangular head lifted off the floor. The creamy underside of its snout only just discernible in the moonlit shadow of the tiny shack. The small creature didn’t lift itself completely, instead opting to army-crawl across the floor toward his face, it’s little tongue poking out the front of its mouth as it closed in on