The SAFARI Team

The location was the Johto's Safari Zone. This day was unlike the so common others, since a deadly infection has broken out. The Pokémon that have been stroke by the Infection became mindless monsters with a strong and deadly bloodlust going on a rampage to slaughter and consume anything that moves and attempt to spread their sickness.

At the entrance of this Paradise slowly turning into a Purgatory full of Hellish Nightmares, a creature, not native to Johto arrived in search of shelter. Kitana, a female Zoroark, was tired from running around, using her illusions and fighting against zombified Pokémon. There was little food by the looks of the continuous slaughter, but Kitana fortunately had brought some berries herself. She planted a few so it could grow.

The only thing that could be done now...Was rest, restore energies and be sure that there would be no attacks. The Infected were unpredictable...but there was far worst things...Sometimes survivors in panic with great paranoia are just as dangerous as the Zombies themselves. That leads to Kitana swear to deliver the only possible punishment to anyone that would threaten her life...That punishment is Death.

He was outside the Zone, looking at the huge building that you had to pass through in order to get into it. Kide had walked all the way here from the beach. He had crossed the entire mountain, and walked through the forest in order to find any life. Dodging the undead along the way. He had managed to meet a Furret back in Cainwood city. It had saved him from an infected Scyther and told him about what was going on. Kide couldn’t believe what the world had come to. He decided to stick with the furret, who said its name was Neara. She was very kind, sharing her home and food with him. But then a flock of undead Murkrow attacked them, and Neara was killed. He had managed to get away thanks to her, but he was once again on his own.

Kide started to walk into the building. Making sure to stay on alert in case he ran into some unwanted guests. He managed to make it to the desk, where he jumped up on the counter. He looked over it, making sure no one would jump him after he headed into the Zone. If anyone was still alive in the forsaken new world, they would probably be here.

Kide didn’t like hanging with other pokemon, but he’s smart enough to know theirs safety in numbers. So he hoped he would find at lest one living in this place. As he walked into the Zone he looked around. It was pretty wild. There were different places for different kinds of pokemon. Which also means more places for infected to dwell.

Casting an Illusion around her shelter to make it difficult to access and be noticed by other Pokemon, Kitana was able to rest while watching the surroundings. There wasn't a soul around, everything seemed as dead as the corpses she saw in the beggining of her journey, at least the plants had their green coloration and the flowers showed their multiple shines. Yet the absense of pokemon made things more depressing.

Kitana searched for a possible cave, where she could rest her mind in a calm slumber where nothing could threaten her for now. She tried to look for one near by, not wanting to lose from sight the berries she planted. Her illusions could only work if she was awake although she was becoming tired and Kitana would need energy in case anything would appear.

The young Zoura wondered through the forest part of the Safari Zone. Its trees were full of trees, and the sun would shine through it making little dots on the ground as he walked. Kide always like the forests. Not just cause there always so full of life, but because they made him feel at home. Even though this was his first time in a forest like this.

He needed to find a place to sleep for the night. But there weren’t a lot of places like that these days. Kide though a cave mite be his best option. So he went looking for one. But it was much easier said then done. He should have taken a much better look at the landscape before he rushed in. Though, it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference with his bad sense of direction. It was pure luck that he found his way to the Zone in the first place.

When he finally made it to the forest edge, he was looking out at a field full of flowers. He didn’t like the idea of wondering out into the open, but he could use his illusions to make it look like a forest, but that would just drain his energy, and that was not something he needed to burden himself with. So he walked out into the open, and across the field to the other side.

Hidden within a cave, Zoroark was resting in peace curled in her mane, hopefully no one would bother her while she was asleep which would mean she was defenseless and an easy prey for the infected.

As sleep was catching up with her and clouding her senses, dreams of her past started haunting her. How her trainer saved her from the Garchomp leading the group of Gabite when she was a young Zorua. She was so happy with such a life and such great friend but...the worst part came to her when the images of the pokemon living on the Power Plant and exploding violently...the worst part was the continous flashing of her trainers dead body.

Suddenly she wakes up sweating and breathing hard from that horrible nightmare. "Cursed lord of Nightmares..." she said in a whisper damning Darkrai, the pokemon known to be the embodiment of Nightmares. She sitted up and looked around at the quiet Safari Zone guarding herself from any danger.

Kide managed to make it to the other side of the field without running into any unwanted guests. He let out a sigh as he continues to find a possible shelter. There’s got to be someplace around here, he though to himself as he looked from side to side. Kide hated it when he got lost. Getting lost was like losing your favourite plush to him. Kide sat down to catch his breath. He started to wonder if he would ever find others that are still alive. But at lest he hadn’t run into any infected yet. That was a good sign. It meant that none made it into the Zone yet.

The young Zorua got back up and started to continue on to the rocky part of the Zone, he knew there had to be a cave there, if not, then he would have to risk sleeping out in the open. When he looked up at the now setting sun he noticed a cliff with a cave. Kide made a big smile like he had just found a life times supply of Petcha Berrys. He started to break into a run. When he reached the cliff that the cave was on he looked up. He would have to climb it, but it would be worth it if he could just get into the cave.

He started to climb up, he had plenty of experience climbing cause he would climb a lot of trees back at home. Before he knew it he was pulling himself onto the edge. He was now tired, that climb was a lot more work then he thought, even if it wasn’t that high up. It could have been because he was hungry. He looked back at the forest, and he noticed that this cave gave you a really good view of the Zone. After he took in the scenery and started to head to the cave, but he took it carefully cause he didn’t want to walk into any infected trap.

The roars of the Dragonite ceased as Leliana decapitated the Infected beast with a furious Slash, blood splattering on her claws and sharpened "wings." The female Garchomp rubbed the blood onto the ground and sighed at the dead dragon. What a waste. If the thing hadn't been Infected, they could've been allies. But then the thought of Kaze eating his own children entered Leliana's mind. "They deserve no mercy," the dragon growled to herself, flexing her arms to make sure they could be ready in case anything else attacked. Leliana lumbered on the rocky part of the Safari Zone, searching for more Infected to hunt and kill. At that moment, she looked up at a cliff and noticed something very tiny climbing up. Leliana was shocked she had noticed the thing, but bared her sharpened fangs. If it's an Infected, it's going down!

The female Garchomp sped off to the base of the cliff. Climbing would be no difficult matter; Leliana had spent most of her life climbing in the depths of Mt. Silver. She was the Mach Pokemon; speed defined Leliana perfectly.
"Time to rid this place of another monster," Leliana snarled, kicking up huge rocks and dust as she raced up the cliff, avoiding the falling rocks that had come loose because of her climb. Leliana jumped up on the top of the cliff, turning back to see a majestic view of the Safari Zone. But in front of the great dragon was the mouth of the cave. Unafraid but still careful, Leliana went inside, her heavy footsteps causing a great tremor.

Well, this was just fantastic. It felt like those damned infected were everywhere. Gideon had spent a long day walking among the darkness, trying to keep shelter in the many hiding places that trees held. He had managed to avoid major fights with the undead so far... but who knew how long this would last? The mightyena didn't doubt for a single second that there were parasitic Pokemon stalking him at every step.

When the sun was out it wasn't an extremely daunting task to keep an eye out for any lurkers behind nearby trees, but now that it was evening and darkness was beginning to swallow the land Gideon knew that he needed to seek shelter and fast. Noticing a cliff up ahead, he only had to look up to see that there was a cave at the top, a perfect shelter. Glancing around briefly to make sure nobody would attempt to attack him during the climb, he began to make his way up the cliffside, making sure to use the easiest paths.

I wasn't made for climbing, he thought, ever the pessimist, barely aware of the other Pokemon making their way up to the cave nearby. As long as there are no infected around here, I can take my time.

In the Rocky Beach part of the Safari Zone, Undine had been sleeping. She originally made her home in the ocean, but then it got too competitive for food, she she had migrated over to the Safari Zone to live. There weren't many Pokemon here, so finding and swiping some food wasn't as hard as before.

She was in the middle of taking a nap until she heard something. She rose up to hear better and identified it as roars. Suddenly, the roar was cut and abruptly ended as she stretched her body. There was something here, and it was possibly the living. Aggression started to kick in as she leaped into the water to refresh herself, then slithered out.

She started slithering at full speed through a forest zone towards the cliffside. Her blotchy pale-purple skin easily seen through the undergrowth. As soon as she reached where the cliffside started she stopped, observing the area. There was a Mightyena, and a Garchomp going in a cave. The Garchomp seemed too strong for her, but she knew the Mightyena would be easier to take down. Oh how she would love to coil around them and suffocate them to death and eat them.

From where she observed, she gave a distorted, ear-piercing cry for battle as she lunged towards the Mightyena at full speed.

Kitana looked through the great Safari Zone as the darkness fell into this magnificent place...The night would mean a great problem since the Infected would surelly pop out of nowhere to attack. Closing her eyes her body started to glow and she started to create illusions of a group of large Haxorus, Beartic and Mandibuzz feasting of a desfigured carcass. "That ought to scare some unwanted guests." she said to herself, not wanting to be bothered by infected nor her shelter to be stolen.

She heard a strange loud cry and knew that would ment trouble and could possibly summon an horde of those awfull infected. She quickly got up and looked around for the source, she only could identify 2 small creatures, although was unable to identify what they were, and 3 big ones. The big ones were easy to identify them by their features. One was a Garchomp at which Kitana snarled by what her history with such species, the other two seemed to be a Mightyena and a Milotic...although the Milotic seemed different, she focused on the Tender Pokemon and was able to identify that it was Infected by the miss-coloration and several wounds.

Quickly Kitana unleashed her illusions making a large Meganium appear in front of the Milotic to stop it. If the infected Milotic was after the Mightyena, the Dark Type pokemon was surelly a survivor, the strength in numbers would surelly help them.

The young Zorua approached the cave cautiously, making sure it was safe to enter. He sniffed the air, there was no sent of decay or death, so the cave was, untouched. Letting out a sigh of relief he walked into it. He could see the back of the cave so he knew that it only had one entrance. But it was big, and could probably shelter a whole herd of Rapidash from a rain storm without a single one of them getting wet.

As he walked to the back he heard a horrible sound, a blood churning cry that made him cover his hears. Kide hated sounds like that, cause it meant that an infected was nearby and had just found something to prey on. He decided it was best to block out the sound and try to get some sleep.

As he lay down and started to get comfortable a shadow fell over him. He raised his head and looked up to see a huge pokemon starting to walk into the den. Kide jumped to his feet as fast as he could, a look of pure terror now on his face. He started to back away from it, but he just backed up right agonised a wall. He was to scared to move, and he didn’t want to take his eyes off it either, if he did it mite attack him. He new he had to stay calm, so he let out a growl. He decided to wait for it to attack first, and then maybe he could run between its legs to the outside were he could fight with more movement.

Leliana heard a growl and knew it had come from ahead of her. She let out a louder and much more ferocious growl herself, and proceeded forward, deeper into the dark cave. She found herself at a dead end, and was met a small Zorua. She also knew it wasn't infected, as an infected would've attacked a long time ago.
"Dammit!" Leliana growled with frustration, angry that she had wasted her time coming after such a tiny uninfected. "Look, puppy, you might want to get out of here before things get ugly!" As soon as Leliana uttered the words, she felt a pang of sorrow. This young Zorua reminded her so much of her son, Fang.....but now was not the time to get sentimental. Leliana the heard an ear-splitting, strange battle cry and instantly snapped to attention. She recognized it as a call of an undead one. Now she could truly hunt, and Leliana turned to the Zorua.
"You might want to really get out of here." the Garchomp warned before racing out of the cave and towards where the cry had come from.

Looking down from the cliff's edge, Leliana was met with a horrible sight; a Milotic with dark purple patches, obviously an undead one, was heading after a Mightyena by the cliffside. Leliana let out a challenging roar and raced down the cliffside, her claws easily gripping the rocks and gravel. Suddenly a Meganium appeared out of nowhere, facing the charging Milotic. Leliana slowed down a bit in shock, passing a Blitzle in the process, but kept going, knowing the Mightyena was uninfected if the Milotic was after it.

So much for taking his time. Gideon's steady but somewhat slow climb was interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream, which was by no means the cry of a normal, sane Pokemon. He turned to face the challenger, just in time to see a Milotic lunging for him. She was bloody huge; there was no way he could face her alone. His only hope now was to get the hell out of its way.

Scrambling to hurry up the cliffside, wondering just how long he had been pursued by this creature, Gideon finally noticed that he wasn't alone. Someone had called out an unneeded warning, and soon after he saw a Garchomp rushing down to fight. Looks like I've got company.

Right now, the normally antisocial Mightyena welcomed the presence of others. He stopped his almost frantic climb, quickly turning around and using a Howl. A Meganium was already charging at the undead creature. Maybe this will be a fight we can win.

Undine stopped dead in her tracks when the Meganium appeared. She slowly slithered back a bit, staring at it. Sure Undine was huge, and big, but she definitely wasn't strong. Her whole life was only filled with contests and before the infection, she was a pacifist. She knew taking on a Meganium would only weaken her, and with no other way to rest than to sleep, her infected mind was debating wether or not she should retreat.

And she did, she started retreating a bit to the edge of the forest, but as soon as she got to where the trees stood, she let loose a blizzard that she had been charging around the whole area, freezing a few trees completely. She let out another ear-splitting screech of rage.

Seeing the Milotic retreating, Kitana wanted to make sure it would be gone for good. She made illusions of a Rhyperior and a Camerupt appear, than made the 3 illusions charge against the Milotic, although it was too late to stop them when the infected started to use Blizard, knowing that it would raise suspicion that the Blizard attack would have no effect on her illusions.

Kitana closed her eyes and made the Meganium use Vine Whip, the Rhyperior use Fissure and the Camerupt use Flamethrower to strike away the Milotic, although aware that the attacks are mere illusion tricks and would have little to absolutely no effect, Kitana would hope that the Milotic would dodge away or her cover would be discovered.

Kide was surprised when the huge pokemon talked, cause it meant that it was alive, and it seemed frustrated that it found him instead of something else. "Look, puppy, you might want to get out of here before things get ugly!" It told him. His face went from fear to shock. Then he realized this thing just called him a puppy, the one thing that he hated to be called.

“Don’t call me a puppy!” Kide said to the huge pokemon, but it didn’t seem to care what he said.

"You might want to really get out of here." It said one last time before running out of the cave.

Kide didn’t like that thing, anyone that called him a puppy he never liked. But he knew he probably couldn’t stay, so he walked out of the den. The sun had completely set now, but that didn’t bother him. He walked over to the edge of the cliff and looked down, were he saw the creature that made the ear-slitting screech. Then he saw a Meganium appear out of nowhere. Wait a minute, that’s an illusion! Being able to use illusions himself he knew right away that that pokemon wasn’t real. There must be another Zorua, or maybe a Zoroark around here someplace. He thought to himself as he started to look around for the possible illusionist.

After not being able to pinpoint the possible illusionist, he decided to make an illusion of his on, even though the infected was now backing away at the sight of the fake Meganium. Using his power he started to make the pokemon on the cliff start to disappear by having them appear to be fading. Making what the infected saw like it was a mere mirage.

Leliana stopped in her tracks when that damned Milotic used Blizzard; she absolutely hated the cold and ice, being so freakin' weak to it. Shivering from the freezing temperatures, Leliana climbed back up the cliff, much slower this time, but was satisfied the Infected had cleared out so quickly. It had to have been a weaker Infected. When she reached the top of the cliff, Leliana saw the Blitzle that she had passed before but ignored the electric horse. The Garchomp had no business with the smaller Pokemon and wasn't interested in any social encounters at this point. Ridding this place of all the Infected was Leliana's main goal, and she refused to let anyone else stop her from completing that goal.

At least we don't have to fight. To Gideon's surprise, the infected Milotic seemed to have enough sense to retreat. He watched for a few moments, just enough to feel the icy chill of the undead's Blizzard, before turning and continuing his climb and to the shelter the cave offered. There's no use watching. I'm the reason this fight started in the first place.

Fighting back a small twinge of guilt, Gideon huffed as he kept climbing, finally reaching the top. He really ought to thank these Pokemon for defending him, but chances were that they had no idea he was even around. For all he knew they were fighting for themselves. Still, there was safety in numbers, and there was no turning back now.

Looking into the cave, he was a bit disappointed when he realized that it was already occupied by a Zorua and a Blitzle. A good shelter like this won't stay empty for long, Gideon thought grimly. There was that Garchomp, too, who's probably headed this way. A guy just can't be alone for long out here without getting his brains torn out, can he?

Undine saw 2 more Pokemon appear, and all three start using attacks. As she moved out of the way a bit to dodge the Vine Whip, is completely went through her body as if it were a Hologram. Confused, she started looking around everywhere, just to see the living starting to fade away. Undine shook her head wildly, confused.

As she let out a large roar she retreated into the forest. This was way too confusing. Was that a mirage? Or maybe... An illusion? She didn't know but she had to rest. Her head was pounding.

Kitana was starting to fear that the Milotic would be suspicious, but fortunatelly Kitana's plan succeeded. The Milotic was confused and frightened and moved away.

Kitana sitted down resting and made the 3 illusions wonder away and disappear slowly like mirages or ghosts. Hopefully she didn't attract too much attention to herself.

After the infected Milotic finally slithered off in the other direction, Kide went back to the cave, which was now occupied by other pokemon. “Hello, my name is Kide. Who are you?” He thought that introducing himself would be a good way to earn trust with these other pokemon. He didn’t know what types they were, probably cause he was only familiar with pokemon from Johto and not with ones from other regions. He wished he could have located that other illusion pokemon. With two illusionists around, it would be a whole lot better.

It was safest on this cliff anyway, it was high enough up, and it would be easy to defend if any infected managed to get up. But that infected Milotic was the only infected he’d seen in the safary zone. And he hoped it was the only one. In Kides dreams he could always hear his trainer calling out to him, but he was never able to respond. He knew he would have to stay with these pokemon if he had any chance of finding her, but he knew she was probably already dead. Lost in the vast seas.