Hearts and Minds (1 of 2)

“Walking with a friend in the dark is better then walking alone in the light.” - Hellen Keller.

“Attention, Attention.  The convoy bound for Corozal district, Belize, will be leaving in ten minutes.  All personnel appointed to the convoy should make their way to the airpad now.”

That was the announcement Molly had been waiting to hear all day.  She had been sitting alone in the cafeteria, nursing a mug of Chesto Tea for the past hour alone with her thoughts, wondering what the trip would be like.  As part of the team selected for the expedition to some tiny country in Central America she had never heard of before, she would be leaving the Neo Preita base for quite some time: many weeks perhaps, even months.  Hopefully months.  She was looking forward to a long time away from this place.

Not that she didn't like the place itself, mind.  While the increasingly loud clamour of industrial machinery was unpleasant, she had food, water, and entertainment enough for her needs.  She wasn't kept bored either – her skill at telepathic manipulation of objects and the endless assortment of tasks the base needed doing on a regular basis ensured she we kept occupied.  There was even plenty of educational material around, if a question or topic popped up that she wanted to look further into.

“Hey there faggot.”

It was the people here that made the experience intolerable.

Molly immediately recognized this voice – none other then Mackenzie, one of the captains of the base's dodgeball teams.  She turned her gaze up towards her assailant – ignoring him would only make him angrier.  The Typhlosion was standing across the table from her, tan chest held out proudly and flames burning from his back.  Flanking him was a smug-looking Crocanow, his massive jaw shuddering in simple amusement at the rather one-dimensional insult.  On the other side was the common yellow, black, and blue bipedal canid form of a Lucario; she seemed unimpressed by the display but chose to keep her opinions about it to herself.

“I've heard that you used to be a girl.  Is that true?”  The Lucario asked, her tone that blend of arrogance, curiosity, and superiority that infuriated Molly to no end.  There was no escape from this question; she knew that whatever she offered as an answer would only be met with more insults towards her gender status.  The Lucario stranger's statement was indeed true, mind: back when the base was under Pokextinction control, some scientist with nothing better to do with his time had the idea to see if Molly's gender could be swapped without causing too much harm to her.  Through some means totally foreign to her, it had happened successfully, with only a moderate amount of mental trauma as a side effect.  She hadn't had a will of her own at the time, a fact which she was somewhat grateful for.

Hurriedly thinking of any excuse to leave the situation, Molly recalled that the intercom had just summoned her to the airpad.  Quietly cursing her vulnerability to such mental provocation, she quickly got up to leave.

“The intercom just summoned me, I need to-”

The Typhlosion swiftly reached over with his fore-claws and forcefully shoved her back down into her seat.  “Now where are you going in such a hurry?”  He teased, a distinct tone of cruelty evident in his voice.

Other people sitting in the cafeteria had taken notice – the shove had not been quiet.  A motley collection of various Pokemon species, as well as some humans, set aside whatever they were doing to pay attention to this.  Molly quickly scanned the area to see if anybody would be coming to her aid.  No such luck – everybody was content to watch, at least for now.  She'd be on her own if this escalated any further.

She very much hoped it wouldn't go much further then this, though in the back of her mind she was fairly certain it was a vain hope.  She could – and certainly would – defend herself if she needed to, but that would just bring injuries to the famous dodgeball captain, which would cause even more people here to hate her.  There were very few people in the base who would stick up for her, and though she was very grateful for the aid they did offer, at times it felt like she was completely on her own.

“Now, here's what's gonna happen, you little BITCH!”  Mackenzie snarled, sticking his unnervingly girthy muzzle right in her face.  She could feel the heat coming off of him, and the flames on his back were reaching several feet into the air.  “You think just because you're David's little pet that you can just sit here, and do whatev-”

Molly lost her nerve.  Her mind instinctively reached out for her weapons – a set of half a dozen circular saws stored in satchels under her skirt.  She didn't even think to wind them up – she simple grabbed them with her Telekenesis attack and threw them all at once towards Mackenzie.

In her haste she failed to register that the table she was sitting at was between her blades and her target, and the metal discs embedded themselves in the underside of the table, launching it flat into her attacker's chest.  Caught completely by surprise, the piece of cafeteria furniture hit the Typlosion squarely in the chest, sending both him and table back several feet, taking several empty chairs with them.  A second later, Mackenzie, the table, and five chairs were broken in a heap on the floor.

The Crocanow had been standing just out of range of this fiasco, and was first to respond.  “Why yeh little-”  He started on, electing to leave his sentence unfinished and close in for some sort of biting attack.

Molly was now in full panic mode, her mind still holding firmly onto her blades.  With a strong mental tug, she wrenched the blades free from the table and towards the most prominent feature of this new threat: the Crocanow's jaw.  Her blades heeded the call of her mind, zipping towards and right through their mark, severing it completely.  The jaw fell to the ground with a sickening splattering sound.

It took a moment for the Crocanow to register exactly what happened, and his first response was to reach for his now mutilated mouth and attempt to scream.  However, only a high-pitched gurgling sound came out.  Panicked, he stepped backwards and tripped against another table, falling to the floor with a loud crash.

The female Lucario stared at Molly, her eyes wide in fright and her own jaw hanging down.  Noticing the bloody severed mess on the floor, she elected to turn around and leave the premises as fast as her two legs would carry her, leaving her comrades to whatever fate awaited them.

The danger passed for now, the rational part of Molly's mind resumed control of her actions, and she took a moment to evaluate her situation.  Her six blades that had been given to her as a weapon were spattered with blood and lying in something vaguely resembling a pile on the floor to her side; there was a severed Crocanow jaw not too far away; and the Typhlosion and Crocanow-sans-jaw were in a pile with several overturned and broken tables and chairs.  Other cafeteria patrons were staring at her with varying degrees of sock and amazement on their faces.  A few of the humans were using their radios to contact... somebody.

And Molly still had places to go and things to do.

“I need to go... I've got to catch that airbus.”  She said quietly to nobody specific.  Reaching out with her mind again, she picked up her blades, wiped them clean with some napkins taken from an undamaged table, and returned them to her satchels.  Not wanting to stay here any longer, she quickly left towards the airpad entrance and exit, the agonized moans of the Crocanow the only audible protest.

--

Fortunately for Molly, she was able to make the rest of the trip without having to get into any further conflicts.  It did however, make her run late, and the others who would be taking part in this excursion were already outside waiting for her.  She quietly considered herself fortunate she was part of a base in a wildlife sanctuary – it meant she and others could occasionally go outside and see the actual sun, instead of being forced to settle for fluorescent lighting and the relatively new amber glow that permeated the more recently developed areas.  She'd be able to admire the daylight some other time, though – she could see all but one of the airbuses closed up and ready to go.  Waiting at the bottom of the open airbus were two figures – one a white-furred, black-skinned quadrupedal animal figure she knew very well, the other a smaller, black and white entity hovering in the air.  She hurried towards the two as fast as her toothpick-sized Gardevoir legs would manage, and the pair noticed her right away.

“Oh good, Molly, you made it.”  The white-furred quadruped spoke, relief evident in his voice.  “I was about to send Ralph here in to look for you, thought you missed all of the several calls to leave.”

“Sorry David.” Molly replied.  “Some jerks delayed me in the cafeteria.”

“Board first, talk later;” The white quadruped known as David interrupted, turning away and heading up the ramp. “we're already running late, and our window's closing.  We've got an opportunity to dodge the air traffic around Mexico if we leave now, and if we get spotted bad things are gonna happen.”

Molly nodded, and followed David up the ramp, the hovering figure right behind him.  The airbus door didn't even wait for them to get to their seats before the door started to close.  Hurrying to her seat – a rather mundane cushion and backrest suitable for a biped – she sat down and fastened her shoulder and waistbelts.  David meanwhile lied down in a rather complicated cradle-type arrangement, with cushions flanking either side of him and an awkward brace for his rear.  He reached for one of the belts which went over the top and would secure him to this 'seat', however he lacked the range of motion to reach it.  Ralph was about to hover over and help, when Molly reached out for the belts with her mind, and fastened them up nice and tight.

“Oh hey, thanks.”  David said appreciatively.  “God knows that'd be a pain in the ass to do myself, and the airbus crews wouldn't let me wear my mechanical limb set while flying.  For some reason.”

The smaller hovering creature found itself a seat similar to Molly's own, but smaller, and strapped itself in.  Free to look closer at it, she saw that it was an Emolga, probably male, except all four of its limbs had been replaced with mechanical versions.  His metal legs were noticeably longer then what would normally be seen on an Emolga, and the membranous flap of skin that was normally found between the hands and legs was gone.  Instead there was some sort of machine embedded in his back.  Now Molly had wished she had paid more attention; this was such a curious person along with her...

“Hey, you like what you see?”  The Emolga asked, a certain smug cockiness evident underneath the noticeable mechanical ting in his voice.  “See these things?  Mechanical limbs, courtesy of David.  Well, David and most of the medical staff.  And the guys at the workshop...”

“It was a team effort.”  David interrupted.

Molly wasn't sure what to say.  She had known that some people had ended up worse then most in the attack, or doing work in the field.  Heck, not half an hour ago she had severed the jaw of a rather unfortunate Crocanow.  Mechanical limbs would be a welcome relief to many who both lost limbs in battle and transformed into a form with no limbs to speak of.

Now she recognized this person.  This was Ralph, another person vandalized by Pokextinction.  She knew little about him, nor had she spent much time with the Emolga.  Though from what she did know, Ralph was supposed to be rather subdued...

“Yeah, yeah, but that's not the best bit!”  Ralph continued.  “See this thing on my back?  It lets my fly!  Not just glide anymore – legit fly!  You have no idea how awesome that is!”

On the other hand, Molly wasn't quite looking forward to a world in which people could fly up to her with mechanical body parts and harass her anytime they wanted.  She had enough trouble dealing with others as it was – oftentimes it was only reflex, a drive to survive, and a nearby heavy object that had kept her neck on her shoulders.  If her bullies ever got more dangerous, she would be in serious trouble.

The trip went on, Ralph continuing to gush over how awesome his life was, while David seemed reluctant to say much of anything.  Molly had no idea how long they'd be flying for, but being alone for extended periods with nothing to do was nothing new for her.  She was content to just tune out the noise and be alone with her own thoughts for the ride.  She wasn't even sure why she was here in the first place.

“Molly, how are those blades working out for you?”

But of course, somebody would want to talk to her.  At least David was a reasonable person.  He had even made the blades she kept on her at all times, ostensibly to help her fight better.  If only he knew...

Then again, David always found out what secrets people were hiding.  It wasn't just a talent of his – Molly knew all too well what David could do.  How his thoughts permeated the minds of everybody around him... and how he knew even the deepest secrets people held secure in their hearts.  Hiding the truth would accomplish nothing.

“I got into a fight with some Pokeumans earlier today.”  Molly confessed.  “I... I used the blades.”

David looked at her for several seconds, then calmly asked “Did you win?”

This came as a complete surprise to Molly... shouldn't he already know?  “Yes.  A Typlosion, Crocanow, and Lucario harassed me in the cafeteria.  I was afraid they'd hurt me, so I used my blades... I... I cut off the Crocanow's jaw.”

This immediately provoked a cringe from both David and Ralph, who looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Molly.  “Eesh... I guess you did win, if you're in one piece and they're not.”  David replied.

An awkward silence filled the airbus, broken only by the ever-present drone of its engines.  A few moments later, David shook his head head and let out a sigh.

It was this moment that Molly noticed something unusual about David's head.  There, embedded just underneath his conical single horn, was some sort of machine that looked like it was made out of similar materials to Ralph's mechanical limbs.  Molly hadn't seen anything even remotely like that before.

“David...” she started  “...What's that on your head... there, under your horn.”

“You're the fifth person to ask me that today.”  David replied in a tone that sounded somewhat relieved.  “It's what I should have come with in the first place – an off switch for my whole mind thing.”

Molly knew very well what the 'mind thing' was.  David had been genetically engineered to influence and manipulate the minds of those around him, even without his conscious doing.  Supposedly with the goal of being a new, more portable method of brainwashing Pokeumans; when David ended up with a free will of his own, he ended up being the most dangerous person in the base.  More then once, a private thought of his had entered Molly's mind, and she had to admit – at times, she appreciated the company.  The understanding.  The feeling of knowing that somebody knows you so deeply.  She couldn't explain these feelings, but they were there nonetheless.

But every experience Molly had had with Pokeumans left her convinced that each of them only thought of themselves.  Shutting off one's power without a very good reason, especially power as strong as what David had – that was unheard of.  “An off switch?  But why?”  Was all she could manage for a response.

“Because I'm sick and tired of every goddamn thought people have getting in my head!”  David replied in a tone that was just shy of shouting.  “If it's not who somebody wants to bang, it's what video game is better then the others, or who has the sexiest whatever, or something equally stupid!  Take it from a man whose fathered three children – teenagers are terrible, terrible people who only exist to make your life miserable!”

Molly had to agree.

“What's worse,” David continued, now sounding quite irritated “is that it's two-way.  Everything I think gets into peoples heads.  Not only do I not get any private thoughts, people just start never disagreeing with me after a while.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a useful peer review like that?  I could tell everyone in the engineering department that the earth was a trapezoid and they'd all believe me!  What good is that?  I swear, whenever I find the person who crispered me I'm going to tear his throat out!”

Such rage was something Molly understood very well.  It was a rage against a target well out of reach though, and getting worked up over it too much would do no good.  She decided to drop the subject.

The rest of the flight was uneventful, and soon enough Molly being forced into her seat as her ride decelerated.  The moment the airbus came to a complete stop, Ralph threw off his restraints and made for the exit ramp, while David made for one of the storage compartments.  For her own part, Molly unbuckled herself and went over to assist David, not sure of what she was here to do aside from assist him.

David managed the storage compartment without much trouble, and dragged out this complicated-looking piece of machinery.  It had a quartet of three-digit hands connected to a box-shaped part about a foot long and half as wide and tall.  There were also several straps on the box part which looked about right to fit snugly around David's middle, and there was also this bizarre piece with blue glowing bits.  David fit that part on his head like a helmet, then balanced the box part on his back with the straps dangling on either side.  He sat down to reach for one of the straps, and the box par slid off his back and hit the floor with a clang.

“Dammit!”  David cursed.  “I hate taking this off!  Mainly because it's such a pain to put it back on again!”

David then started struggling with getting the straps secured around his torso.  So this was the reason he needed Molly around.  And perhaps part of the reason why he was so adamant about 'liberating people through technology.'  Or something, Molly only had conjecture to go on here.

The hum of the exit ramp hydraulics resonating in Molly's ears, she raised one of her arms at David's contraption.   Molly found it easier to properly manipulate objects with Telekinesis if she was physically reaching for said object with a limb, and this would require a fine touch.  She mentally took hold of the box and the straps, manoeuvred the box to the top of David's back, then wrapped the straps around his stomach, fastening them together loosely enough that he could adjust them to his liking.

David immediately realized what had happened, and turned to Molly with a look of gratitude on his face.  “Ah, thanks a million Molly.  Still can't believe I'm stuck with this piece of trash.  What good are arms if I have to put them away all the time?  I'll be getting me a set of limbs implanted like Ralph as soon as I can.”

Molly wasn't sure what David was going on about.  Apparently there was a rather long waiting list for mechanical limbs like what David was equipped with, from what rumours she picked up from one of her acquaintances who sadly was no longer among the living.  Which was what happened to most of her acquaintances.

David, now geared up and ready to go, led Molly down the now-lowered exit ramp, and outside into a world of lush vegetation.  There was greenery in all directions, she saw a few tropical birds in the trees, and the sounds of many small buzzing things assailed her ears.  At least she figured they were tropical – the hot, humid air seemed to lean towards that assumption.  She had never been in a forest before, not to her recollection.

Then again, her memory of everything before Pokextinction was pretty much null and void, thanks to what they had done.  There were bits and pieces, but she had no idea what was a real memory and what had been corrupted or installed.  It further compounded her alienation from others, sometimes she'd even...

Not wanting to dwell on that point any further, she banished the thoughts from her mind and shifted her attention back to her surroundings.  Wandering around for a bit, she discovered that the airbus she had flown in on was one of many – some were unloading personnel, while others disgorged a wide variety of vehicles.  She saw bulldozers, drills, and many more she didn't recognize.

“Molly, Molly, there you are!”  She heard David call behind her.  She wasn't aware how far she had gone.  “Mind yourself out here.  This is a wildlife sanctuary, so we don't need to worry about people, but mind the insects.  I have no clue if Pokemon can get malaria, but I don't want to see anybody here becoming a test case.”

Molly had no idea what malaria was or what it looked like, but she nodded her head in understanding anyway.  Insects weren't exactly her favourite thing, anyway.  “Sorry David.”  She quickly replied.

“Right, well, just... don't get separated, and kill any mosquito you see.  Or hear.  You'll probably hear them first.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Molly noticed one of the human workers rapidly closing the distance between himself and the two of them.  Her gaze shifted to focus on this newcomer, and David picked up on it immediately.

“David sir!”  The human worker, adorned in a gunmetal grey suit called, his breath short.  “We were checking out all the equipment we brought, make sure it made the trip safe ya know, and our Pokemon scanner picked up a whole bunch of contacts about five miles from here!”

Molly noticed David's puzzled reaction.  “There... should be nothing here for a hundred miles.  Are they all clustered in one area, or spread out?”

“Clustered!”  The man replied.  “Pretty much all on top of each other.”

David brought his left paw and one of his left mechanical hands to his chin, rubbing it in thought.  “Well there's no base in this dinky country, I checked.  Either it's a village or we stumbled onto a secret base somewhere.  Whatever it is, we better find out what our new neighbours are up to.  Thanks for the heads up, I'll send somebody to check it out.  You're dismissed.”

“Thank you sir!”  The soldier barked, making a fist and tapping his chest twice before presumably returning to whatever he was previously doing.

“One of these days I'll have to enforce a way to salute people.”  David muttered under his breath in irritation, before turning back to face Molly.  “Anyway, we can't leave something like that alone.  Molly, I'd like you and Ralph to go check it out.  If they're bad guys or they give you trouble, take them out.  If they're reasonable though, tell them we're from Arizona, and we're here to set up a secondary base for mining raw materials.  This place's mineral patches are too small to interest major mining companies, but it's good enough for us.  Make a note of whatever they say or do in response, and let them know that I'm happy to negotiate with them for whatever.  Got that?”

“I understand.”  Molly replied firmly.  She had no idea how she was supposed to negotiate with whoever these people were – perhaps she was just supposed to learn a bit about them and lead them to David?  That made sense, she could do that.

“Ralph should be near that Airbus over there, with the drones.”  Molly hadn't noticed the Emolga leave, but that wasn't much of a surprise to her anymore these days.  Always darting around every which way... apparently Ralph had always been that way, until that fateful day when he had been taken prisoner rescuing that Drillbur.  Details about that day were sparse, and if Molly were to be honest, none of her business.  But she couldn't help shake the feeling that Ralph was going to be a very important person in her future.  It was a Gardevoir thing...  A feeling that couldn't be explained or rationalized, but it was there nonetheless.  She'd have to prepare for that day, somehow...

Ralph was indeed over in the general direction David had indicated, in rapt discussion with some Swampert about some topic.  “Ralph, David wants the two of us to check out on a Pokemon signal we picked up-”

“-Five miles West-South-West of here.”  Ralph finished.  “Great, been itching to try out this new thing...”

Ralph held out his right arm not exactly at Molly, but close enough to her.  The metallic limb seemed perfectly normal, as far as prosthetic limbs made by Pokemon went.  She wasn't sure what she should be expecting.

“Come on... I got this stupid think working earlier today...”  Ralph complained.  He twisted his arm around a few times, as if that would make something in particular happen.  He shook his limb forcefully, and let out a grunt in frustration.

Apparently this triggered something; for the individual pieces of Ralph's arm separated and unfurled, revealing a two-pronged device with yellow glowing bits lining the inside portion of the sporks.  This device then moved up slightly on Ralph's now-unfolded mechanical arm, in all respects looking like some sort of weapon.

“Ha, got it!”  He cheered in triumph.  “See this?  This is a railgun!  A really small one, but it's a railgun built into my arm!  I can finally use a gun now!”

Molly was surprised to hear this.  What had been stopping Ralph from-

“No more being weighed down too much to glide or being off-balance!  Now I'm the one with the gun!”

So that had been the reason.  Molly didn't even have a rough idea what exactly Ralph had been going on about, but if it made the Emolga happy, she wouldn't complain.  Between this 'railgun' and her own blades Molly felt confident enough that the two of them could manage this unknown contact.

“Anyway, I've got a short-range scanner right here,” Ralph stated, tossing a small hexagonal device to Molly.  She caught it and looked at it – she had seen these many times before.  Devices that reacted when there was a Pokemon nearby: as it drew closer, the lights on the device would change from green to amber to red.  A handy tool for finding hidden Pokemon of all descriptions, certainly.  She pushed down on one of the buttons, and the device obediently lit up in brilliant red in response to the holder and nearby Pokemon.  She pressed a second button – this one to re calibrate the device, and the red light turned off, leaving only the solitary blue light next to the power button on to indicate the device was active.  Now the device would light up when and only when a new Pokemon got within its detection radius.

Content with her current equipment and partner, Molly was ready to get this task over with.  “We should leave soon.”  She suggested.  

“Yep!  Keep up with me if you can!”  Ralph bragged in response.  He leaned forward, until his back was parallel to the ground, before dashing off in the vague vicinity of the signal's source.  Now somewhat less confident, she grabbed hold of a pair of blades with her mind and pulled them out of her pouches, laying them flat on the ground.  She stepped onto the discs, using them as platforms, before picking them up off the ground with her Telekinesis and darting off in the direction Ralph flew.  Most Gardevoirs were content to just teleport hop anytime they needed to explore a new area, but with all the vegetation around Molly was eager for any excuse to not walk.

Besides, flying through the air on fast-moving platforms was, well, kind of fun.

It didn't take her long before she had caught up with Ralph, who seemed only slightly surprised.  Giving only a smirk in acknowledgement, he began to dart in and out of the trees in a clear act of showboating.  Molly was content to stick with the straight and less-narrow path, keeping one eye on the  route in front of her and another on the pokemon scanner she was holding.  At this rate, it wouldn't be long before they found something.

The forest soon grew thick with vegetation, and the pair had to slow down to avoid any embarrassing accidents.  Vines inches thick hung all over the place, threatening to send the pair tumbling down at their first misstep.  Ralph was small enough to weave through these without much trouble, while Molly had to slow down and find more clear patches.

It wasn't long before they came across a thicket too dense to navigate through, and wide enough to be a problem to navigate around.  Neither of them were eager to fly over this, fearing somebody seeing them and blowing the masquerade – it was the middle of nowhere, but one could never be too sure.  Ralph grunted in frustration at the obstacle, but Molly was unfazed.  Grabbing another pair of her blades with her mind, she held them in front of her and spun them around rapidly.  Eyeing some of the less-thick trees, she flung her buzzing weapons towards the obstructive foliage, and in a short time had carved a hole big enough for the two of them to pass through.

“You'd make an awesome groundskeeper, Molly!” Ralph teased, quickly darting through the new gap.  Molly promptly gave chase, though the pair had to travel at a greatly reduced speed as the foliage was now much too thick to do otherwise.

Suddenly a loud, clearly mechanical chiming sound rang out from the Pokemon scanner in Molly's hand.  Examining it, she noticed that it was now glowing a dull green – there was one or more Pokemon at the extreme range of the device's detection radius.

A radius Molly had totally forgotten to ask for.  She hadn't ever needed to know that until now, as previous rescue missions had been precise enough for specific street addresses, vehicles, or whatever the case may have been.  Here though, it was nothing but dense jungle in every direction, and there were no landmarks whatsoever.  At least they were within the general vicinity of their target, and the scanner did a fairly good job of gauging how relatively close they were, so she wasn't worried about not finding their target.

It was however a rather time consuming expedition.  On multiple times the pair found themselves having to turn around, and huge patches of vegetation had to be carved through more then once.  With no timepiece on hand and being reluctant to stick her head out of the foliage to see where the sun was in the sky, the two of them found themselves losing track of time.

But it wasn't until they came across a hole carved in the foliage that looked suspiciously like one Molly had made not too long ago that the idea they were going in circles occurred to them.  When it did though, it hit them like a freight train.  They had no supplies or provisions – if they got lost in this jungle they'd be in trouble.

Irritated, Molly came to a stop and looked down at her Pokemon scanner.  It had never glowed anything more then a pale amber, which was slightly more then the midpoint of the scanner's detection radius.  Yet Molly had been confident they had been going the right way.  She scowled at the device, examining it closely for any signs of malfunction.

Ralph, for his part, seemed to almost welcome the pause.  His enthusiasm for the whole endeavour had been gradually declining from about ten minutes – was it ten minutes, they didn't have a timepiece – after they first picked up the signal.  Now he looked about ready to collapse.  Molly had to wonder how much juice he still had left in him; she herself was growing rather tired, and she was certain her method of travel was more energy efficient, if less technologically advanced.

“Molly...” Ralph whined “Where the hell are these guys?  I'm running low here...”

Molly wished she had an answer.  Electric types ran out of stamina, or electricity, or whatever they ran on just as readily as any other type of Pokemon, and at this point she was starting to doubt the two of them could manage a serious fight in their present state, if things came to that.  Though given how fruitless their search had been, she was strongly considering just turning around and going back empty handed.  It would be shameful, yes, but certainly better then not going back at all.

She and Ralph looked one another in the eyes, the fatigue in the Emolga clear as day to Molly.  Ralph may have been cybernetically enhanced, or whatever term David was using for it, but he was still just a kid, really.  Granted, she herself wasn't all that much older, but still.

Giving one last forlorn look at her scanner, which was now glowing bright red, she turned back around to retrace her steps.  They had come in from the route on-

Wait.  Bright red?