Mission 3a: Scavenging in the Supermarket

[Evolutions]

Due to the change in the groups, thanks to not having enough numbers for 3 missions, the mission tags on this are changing to a EBC, rather than just EB

Trainers Present:

Andrew Winters
Kyle Silver
Kyosuke
Midori Mikana
Mori Ukiyo


With the hotel guards remaining downstairs, your group is guided by one of Jenny's adjutant into what is a familiar formal meeting room for several of the trainers. Even now, it's a wonder that this room hasn't been turned into an impromptu barracks or supply dump. Then again...with supplies running low, it's not like there's anything left to store in here. Unlike the briefing rooms downstairs, this one seems to have been intended for briefing politicians and other important guests, and the furnishings are much more well appointed, if spread around a bit haphazardly. Dominating the large elliptical table in the center is a highly detailed map of the city, as it was before the crisis, with numerous sticky notes, tokens and the like spread out over it, marking points of interest. What's most surprising though is that Jenny is already here waiting for you, a first. Sitting down at one of the chairs, staring intently at the map, she waves you in, and dismisses your guide, who closes the door behind you.

"Thanks for coming everyone." she starts, looking up. I'm glad to see that I've got a nice dependable group gathered here today. People who can understand some of the tough decisions we have to make..."

Gesturing you to all take a seat, she grabs a pen, pointing to the relevant portions of the map as she continues.

"I'll get straight down to business. Over here," she points to a location in the town's south east, marked by a green flag, "is Erika's Celadon Pokémon Gym. We can't keep in contact with them very well, since they're cut off from electricity and are conserving their generator, but what we do know is that, While Erika herself has gone missing, the trainers over there are holding out, and that they have enough stores to last them quite a while. Nothing they could possibly share though. It'd be more trouble breaking through to them than it'd be worth at this point. And as you know, this area here," she points now to a series of blue flags in the north of the city, serving as guide posts for a small district outlined in red string, "is our secure zone. We're not perfectly safe here, but we have strength in numbers, and we've been able to maintain some basic services, with rationing. But even rationing has its limits. Since the desalinization plant is out of the picture for the moment, we're forced to rely on rainwater, and on stores of bottled water. But that's only going to last us so far, with what we have now, so it's important that we secure more supplies, as soon as possible, before we exhaust what we already have."

Shaking her head, Jenny sighs, and continues.

"And here's where it gets difficult. Our scouts have located a number of relatively intact stores close by, marked by these poker chips here, here, here and here. However...there was some unexpected trouble. They were attacked...by other humans."

Looking up, she gives everyone a serious stare.

"We don't know if these people have succumbed to the same madness as the wild Pokémon, or if they're just desperate, but they appear to be heavily armed, both with weapons and trained Pokémon. Probably the remnants of a street gang, from their bandannas and the tags they put up on the buildings they loot. Our scouts located several large supermarkets that appear to have been completely ransacked by these people. Can you imagine it? Several whole supermarkets, cleaned out of everything they could carry, with the rest destroyed and rendered inedible and unusable by them. They appear to be only a small group, nowhere near enough to justify taking so much, and they certainly don't intend to share. They're like locusts, dangerous both to us, and to themselves, with their gluttony."

Jenny runs a hand through her hair, looking obviously stressed.

"What I'm asking you to do today isn't to go out there looking for a fight. I simply want you to accompany a group of the citizen's militia to one of these supermarkets. Kyosuke, you'll have overall command, but I'll have one of my officers accompany you, a Sargent who's already been working with the militia, so you can leave everything up to him regarding the loading of supplies, organizing of transport and so forth. You're all simply there to make sure everyone there is safe, both from marauding Pokémon, and from any rogue elements out there who don't understand that we have to all work together. It may be that you won't have any contact with either, and that the recovery of these supplies will go smoothly, but if it doesn't, if anything tries to get in your way....you're authorized to do whatever you have to, to ensure the safety of those going with you, and of our people here in the secure zone. As bad a taste as it puts in my mouth, if it's a choice between a biker gang, or the people here who've entrusted us with their lives, I don't think there's really any question what I'd choose."

"Any questions?"

[Kyle Silver]

When directed by Jenny, Kyle took a seat about a quarter of the way down the table from Jenny, so he could see the map with relative ease. He listened intently as Jenny outlined the basic happenings in the city for the past week.

When Jenny told them about the scouts being attacked by humans, Kyle's breath caught in his lungs. It was bad enough they had to fight Pokemon, sometimes to the death. Now they were fighting amongst themselves? 'What a mess...' he thought.

He nodded in time with Jenny's speech, all the while wondering why these people would do such a thing. Not that much would suprise anyone anymore. The world as everyone knew it ws turning itself inside out. At least rational thought was still on their side.

As Jenny outlined the plan, Kyle's face grew a little harder. Before she was done, he'd leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. He looked at nobody in particular while he asked a question that wasn't really a question, but more of a general statement.

"So, we're basically an escort?"

[Evolutions]

"Essentially, yes. Your group is to give the militia whatever assistance they need, and to protect them from whatever or whoever is out there."

[Andrew Winters]

Andrew scowled when he heard the news of people ransacking stores and then leaving their mark as if to obnoxiously let everyone know that they were there. The poker chips serving as a warning that this was now their territory. Andrew felt his fist draw tight. While he may have wanted to go out and look for other survivors, he now knew that this was far more important. If the citizens began fighting one another the pokémon terrorizing the city would eventually be able to wipe them all out with minimal effort.

Eevee stirred from his position on Andrew's shoulder, breaking the tension the trainer was beginning to put upon himself. Regaining his composure, Andrew leaned in, interlocking his fingers together, and asked Jenny, "So do we need to scout the store for the milita before they begin their thing or has the area been secured?"

[Officer Jenny]

Should've used this before. Forgot we had this account. ^^''

"Each of the supermarkets we're targeting was confirmed to be free of Pokémon and the gangs 2 days ago. That doesn't mean they're free and secure now. You'll need to scout the store quickly, but in all honesty, it should be pretty obvious the moment you get there if there's likely to be any trouble or not. Worst case scenario is that the gangs trashed the store yesterday, and moved on without taking residence. In that scenario, salvage whatever they haven't ruined and return immediately."

[Officer Jenny]

"Well, if there's no further questions then, you're dismissed. The militia should be assembled within the hour. Meet the Sargent downstairs, and leave as soon as they're ready. Good luck."

[Kyle Silver]

Leaving the lavish briefing room behind, Kyle half-led the group back downstairs, arms crossed in thought. As they reached the lobby, he could see the remnants of the hotel team scurrying through the doors and out into the street, where Ferris' wrecker was parked haphazardly along the curb.

Settling down with a restrained groan, Kyle sat down on the hard tile floor, back against the wall facing the doors. Watching the preparations outside, he began to fall into deep musings.

'So our best hope is that when we get to this store, the gang hasn't been there yet, and we're free to take what we can. Worst is that the place's been raped already. And then, there's the possibility that we'll get into direct combat. Which mean there'll likely be some bloodshed...Damn! Ethics, man, Ethics! Even though these guys are beasts doesn't mean they'd intentionally try to kill us or our Pokémon! Does it? We're all trying to cope with Armageddon, and these guys are taking advantage of it!'

Standing up, Kyle let out a mixture of a shout of anger and yelp of pain. "Do they think this is some kind of sick game!?" Suddenly realizing he said this out loud, and that nobody else would probably understand what he had been thinking, the black-haired Trainer both paled and blushed before sliding back down the wall into his former position.

[Andrew Winters]

Andrew pursed his lips as he listened to Kyle expound his thoughts. The young man had a point, but Andrew knew that it wasn't that simple. There was no good and evil, black and white. Jenny had said they were like locusts, but if there was a gang out there collecting items to help their group, how was it any different than what they were about to do? Sure, the group Andrew was in was part of what was left of the city's governmental structure, but it wasn't their duty to force others to join them and hope that their way was the right way to survive. People had to be able to make their own choices. That's what freedom was all about. Andrew moved over toward Kyle.

"Relax," he said softly, "we don't know anything about this so called gang, and until we do, we can't just jump to conclusions that they are doing this out of greed. It is possible that they are part of a group of survivors that have a different idea about what it takes to survive than we do. Or maybe they are just low life scum. Like I said, we won't know anything unless we run into them. So instead of worrying about the things we can't control, how about we go see if we can lend the guys with the supply trucks a hand?"

[Midori Mikana]

Midori could understand pretty much everything Kyle was thinking, judging by the way he was acting at the time. She silently walked over next to Kyle as Andrew was speaking, a little more comfortable doing so thanks to the talk they had had previously, but not comfortable enough to say anything about the situation without studdering. After Andrew finished speaking, she added to what he had said, clarifying his point about what they may think is needed to survive. "I th... think their m... mentality is more k... kill or be killed by this p... point... though th... that's probably not the b... best wording." She found it easy to give perspective on the situation, having been a hunter and knowing the sort of mentality needed to survive in dire situations. "H... hopefully, if that is th... their mentality, it shouldn't b... be too h... hard to get them on our s... side. If they kn... know that th... there's a safe place that they'll b... be able to g... get to, they'll p... probably come w... with us."