Team Rowanberry M5, p1

”Hey… wake up! Please be okay! Wake up!”

Chloe woke up to the pleading sounds that echoed around her. At first, she couldn’t tell who was saying them. It was so cold… her body was aching all over. Slowly Chloe got up from the ground and managed to look up to her left. The nice Kirlia who had been helping her the minute before was lying on the ground. The Kirlia’s teammate, a Sneasel, was sitting by his side her face full of worry. Chloe limped closer to them. Had the Kirlia gotten hurt because he had helped her?

To both Chloe’s and the Sneasel’s relief, the Kirlia started to twitch. His eyes opened slowly. “What… what happened?” Now that they didn’t have to worry about him, the question struck both Chloe and the Sneasel. What had happened? Slowly they all turned their heads to the direction where the attack had come from.

Chloe stared at the sight that revealed before them, unbelieving.

They were staring at the ruins of Tao village. And in the center of it all, there was the ice dragon whose birthday they had just been celebrating.

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Myra opened her eyes. She had tiny rocks and dust all over her wool, but luckily none of the giant rocks had hit her.

“Are you okay?” asked the Absol next to her.

“Yeah, I think so…” she replied, trying to stand up.

The other Pokemon from the café had gathered near them. They were still keeping a small distance to the pile of rocks and dust, as if the rest of the roof would collapse on them. Now that Myra thought of it, that seemed pretty possible too.

“Oh no, the café is ruined!” exclaimed the bartender. “Luckily no one got hurt, but… Oh, I have to wonder what’s happening on the surface.”

With a sudden realization, Myra sprung to her feet. “Oh yeah, Chloe was out there! She didn’t get buried with the rocks, did she?”

“I’m pretty sure they managed to get away from the blast just in time”, the Absol reassured her.

The Café employers were going around the rubble, checking the damage. “The loose earth is frozen solid”, observed the Shuckle. “It’s as hard as rock now, so it’ll be difficult to dig through. Does anyone here happen to know the move Dig?” All the Pokemon in the café were looking at each other, but everyone were just shaking their heads. The Shuckle looked a bit disappointed. “Oh… In that case, it would probably be the best to wait for others to come to rescue us.”

“But Chloe is out there!” Myra exclaimed. “There’s gotta be something terrible happening up there. I can’t just sit here while I know she’ll be risking her life at the same time!”

The Pansage from the café also joined the conversation. “I know how you must feel, but it’s too dangerous to try anything rash! Trying to blast our way through can only make things worse.”

Myra sighed. It would just feel so cowardly to take it easy down here. But there seemed to be nothing she could do…

The Absol from earlier walked next to Myra. “I agree with you. I sense something really terrible from up there… And my partners are up there too.” Surprisingly quickly, he turned his serious expression into a playful smile. “So what do you say? How about we try to find some way out of here?”

His cheerfulness caught on to Myra and turned into a mutual determination. “Yeah!” Myra grinned.

The Absol grinned back at her. “My name’s Solace, by the way. Nice to meet you!”

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Previous: [link]
App: [link]

Cameos:
The Night Baskers [link]
Team Perfectly Legal [link] (I didn't add this at first because I wanted to see if anyone noticed the Magikarp in the fountain xD)


Yup, the rest of the mission is going to be like this. I can't say this is colored as well as I'd like to, but the watercolors help a lot in creating the mood, at least. The snow is done with acryllic paint, because I sure as heck aren't going to draw all that snow with pencils!

The writing feels like a pain, and it probably doesn't sound very good in a lot of parts, but... I hope the story should be easy to understand from the pictures alone. This page is more like a title page, but I promise there'll be a lot more happening on the next part!

I'm also so badly behind my schedule that I've pretty much given up on making it to the deadline. I should still get everything out within a week, hopefully!