Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty-Seven

     Perhaps Nyoromo was not entirely helpless, but the occasional bubble was no match for the vicious flock that waited outside. They wouldn't be able to fight their way out, but it was doubtful they could stay here either. The wind was picking up again, and loose dirt and small rocks were beginning to trickle down into the shallow cave they sheltered in. The might of the birds probably couldn't tear the tree from the soil, but Red suspected they could find some way to kill or expose them if they had long enough.

     "You don't have any other attacks you've been hiding from me, do you?" asked Red.

     "Wag," said Nyoromo, looking a little deflated.

     "Hey, no. Don't feel bad. You did good fending off that thing. We'd already be done for if not for you."

     "Poli?"

     "Yes, really," said Red, feeling foolish that he was holding a conversation with an animal.

     "Poliwag!" Before Red could stop him, Nyoromo scurried out to the entrance, puffed up to his large size. He staggered for a moment in the wind before blowing a bubble. Or, rather, attempting to blow the bubble. The film was pushed flat against his face by the gale, which grew stronger and stronger until Nyoromo flew back and bounced off Red's head, landing in his lap.

     "Ow!" Red cried. "Are you okay, Nyoro- Ow!" He rubbed his forehead where a pebble had struck him. The incoming detritus was growing in both size and amount. Before Nyoromo could do anything stupid, Red scooped the little thing up in his pack. Ignoring the pokémon's cries, he folded his arms over it and waited with his head bowed against the rising storm. Twigs and rocks struck almost continually, but none had enough force to draw blood. Red reminded himself of this fact repeatedly to aid his struggle against panic. 

     The winds continued for some long minutes, and Red shifted uncomfortably. When this proved difficult, he opened his eyes, blinking in the dust. The little cave he was in was filling up with dirt, and he was slowly being buried. Though he wasn't in immediate peril, it was clear that he would either be forced to face the pidgey's avenging family or accept that he sat in his own tomb. 

     Red pulled out Nyoromo and whispered fiercely to the tiny pokémon that surely could not comprehend. "We're going to make a break for it. It's our only hope, and it's a small one. I'm going to carry you out. If you have any more attacks, use them. It's life or death. Hopefully, they'll give up if they don't see the dead pidgey." He stuffed that in the bag. "If they stop me, I'm going to throw you and you'll have to run and hide. Don't come back. Neither of us can beat these. Got it?"

     Nyoromo gurgled.

     "I guess that's good enough. Here we go, then. One. Two. Three!"

     Red heaved himself from the hole, but the dirt around him held him tighter than he had thought, and he fell flat on his face in the open. He hadn't even had time to get Nyoromo to safety. He braced himself for the inevitable attack.

     Then he realized that the forest had fallen silent. No shrieks. No wind. Everything was still until one high-pitched little voice spoke.

     "Pika?"

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty-Six

For a moment, all was still. The birds seemed still as statues, an illusion made all the more real by the few wisps of fog that remained. Red slowly tightened his hand on his quarry, and waited. His slow breathing and frantic heartbeat were the only noises in his ears.
Then the eternity ended. With a cry, a large pidgeotto flapped down from a branch above. Reacting purely by instinct, Red hurled the stone he still clutched at the bird, missing it but causing it to veer away. Red scrambled to his feet, as the forest erupted into a maelstrom of feather and beak.
Even before the attack reached its height, Red could hardly keep on his feet as his assailants battered him with wings and talons. A larger pidgeotto flapped towards his face and cut a gash on his cheek with a razor-sharp wing.
The storm began to close about him, and suddenly Red realized the constant pummeling threatened the little pokémon in his pack as well. Still running, he tried to slip it off and shelter it in his arms. As he did so, a mass of feathers collided with his face, so disorienting him that he tripped over a protruding root and fell to the ground. Terrified, he curled up around his pack and closed his eyes.
After a painful minute, the birds' assault began to weaken. Soon after, there was nothing at all but a few faint flutterings. Slowly and carefully, Red opened his eyes. He sat up cautiously, and flinched as a bird flapped overhead. He followed its path with his eyes until it passed over him. When he turned, he saw it join a flock of its brethren.
At least thirty pidgey and pidgeotto were perched on the branches before him. Nearest to Red, hardly ten feet away, was a terrifying pidgeotto at least four feet tall. Its unblinking stare unnerved Red, who could do nothing but stare back. This continued for some time, and Red's leg began to cramp. He slowly shifted it, and began to lose his balance. He quickly tried to right himself, and in that second, the pidgeotto gave a shrill cry.
As one, all the birds spread their wings back, flapping to generate a massive gust.
The wind was of such strength that Red actually flipped backwards before landing braced against an ancient tree. Twigs, clods of dirt, and small stoned battered his face, and instinctively he tried to crawl back tighter against the tree. As he pushed, a small section of the ground gave way, and a small opening was opened to what must have once been a burrow in the tree's roots.
Red through in his pack and then turned to crawl in himself.  Though a few unearthed stems prodded him, he made it through without much trouble.
He sat in near total darkness, listening to the roar outside as Nyoromo butted softly against his leg. Almost without noticing what his hands were doing, Red scooped up the little pokémon and held it tight. He watched the flow of detritus from the cavern's mouth slowly taper off to nothing, and held his breath as the last pebble slowly bounced down.
A scratching sound came from the mouth. The scant light of the cavern became weaker as a large shadow blotted the back wall. A bird was hopping down the short tunnel. Red saw the first sharp talon come into view, and then the bird - a pidgeotto - bent it's head down to peer in.
With a loud "Poli!", Nyoromo sprang up and spat a bubble at the intruding pokémon. It recoiled and flapped back out, squawking.
Red looked in amazement at the pokémon he had thought to be useless until now.

Better Pidgeotto

Alright, some of you may have seen this already. Since the knew Apocalypse chapter featured a more impressive Pidgeotto, that is what I made. I am very fond of it.

Again, here is a normal Pidgeotto for comparison.

Hello Again

Hi, I'm back, also, before my post, there were 600 posts on this blog! I don't know if that means posts that are up now, or including posts that have been deleted, but it's still exciting! I've got more time now, so I'll be able to post more consistently. So yeah, here's a pidgeotto.

and here's my idea of an apocolypsed Pidgeotto. I made the wings longer, and ripped some chunks out of them, darkened some of it's colors, t

urned it's eye black and yellow, enlarged the tail, and gave it bigger, blood-stained talons. Any ideas to make it better?

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty-Five

Somehow, the trees were less forbidding and the forest less horrific in Red's mind than it had been when he first walked it. Perhaps it was simply being free from the cliff that so calmed him, or perhaps he was more comfortable now that he had safely traversed the forest before, but whatever the reason, Red found a small grin creeping onto his face.
As his mood lightened, so too did the fog. It occurred to Red that he was striding farther into the forest, which blocked the fog with its trees. Even so, he didn't turn from his path, thinking himself able to return if the haze dissipated.
Something began to paw slowly at his attention, and a vague disquiet settled over him. It was not until he heard a particularly old twig snap underfoot that Red realized what it was. Sound! Without the fog as dense, he was beginning to hear the faint static that fills everyday life again. Every step resulted in the faintest footstep rising from the ground; Nyoromo's faint twitching rustled wetly against fabric. In the distance he could hear a faint chirping.
Suddenly a new sound came to his attention. Wing beats. He turned to his right, and there in the air was a small pidgey, too young to fly properly, hopping from branch to branch in a tall sycamore. Turning to a maple some yards away, it tensed, then leapt, wings thrashing about in an attempt to stay aloft.. The bird made it, but lost a few feet of height in the process.
Red watched the bird progress for a few more trees before he realized how hungry he was. Looking back at the pokémon, who was not but a little higher than he could reach, he knew where his supper would come from. Making sure Nyoromo was carefully secured in his makeshift pack, Red crept after the fluttering fowl.
His progress was slow, for he knew that if he moved quickly enough to frighten his prey, it might find some reserve of strength and fly far enough that Red would lose it. His speed increased as the bird continued moving, though, because the farther it moved, the lower it went, and the more time Red would have to catch it. As he walked, he picked a large, mossy rock to use as a bludgeon.
Finally, after what seemed an hour of stalking, the pidgey flapped to the ground. Red froze for a while, watching it. The pokémon hopped forward, into a slight depression on the ground, then promptly placed its head beneath its wing. Red remained still for thirty breaths then, hoping the bird was soundly asleep, he crept forward and struck at its head with all his might.
The bird gave a single sharp squawk before falling, its neck twisted unnaturally. Red took it by the feet, and was beginning to rise when a curious chirp sounded from right beside him. He turned to see a large intelligent eye staring back at him. It turned to the corpse in his hand, recoiled, and made a trilling noise.
All at once, the fog vanished in a gust of wind, revealing a score of angry pidgeotto,

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty-Four

Red huddled against a tree, shivering. Even though he was on solid ground, he could still feel his hand slipping from the wet surface of the rock. He could still feel his body swing dangerously. He could imagine his broken body on the outskirts of Viridian being gnawed on by rattata and other pokémon.
His climb had been uneventful, and he knew there was no reason to withdraw so, but the fog made idle thought dream, and dream reality. It enveloped what was, leaving a void that imagination could fill and fear could rule. Red was left bereft of an anchor. He felt more alone than he ever had.
Except. Nyoromo was there in his pack. Bubbly, happy Nyoromo. Red removed his little pokémon and held it in his hands. The poliwag looked back at him with its large eyes, squirming gleefully. Its presence brought Red back from the nightmare he had believed.
"No point in wasting the day, is there?" Red mused.
"Poli!" exclaimed Nyoromo. Thus agreed, Red rose with his pokémon cradled in his arms, and walked a bit away from the Forest. He turned left and began the journey around the Fallen Viridian. The shroud across his vision slowed him as he worked to avoid the cliff, but he still moved at a reasonable walk.
He met the mountain within the hour. The Tojo range, it seemed, cut across the land even here, forming a wall to the west of the city. Red could only turn and try the other way, or scale the cliff once more and walk across the city.
He chose to retrace his path. Not only were the cliffs treacherous and full of bad memories, but the city could still be harboring any of the feral horde that had chased him away. Even so, he knew the city would be a much shorter path, and his inability to traverse it brought anger into his step. He moved foolishly, and didn't feel the ground crumbling until almost too late.
He leapt to his right just as a large portion of the earth broke free and fell into the city with a roar. The noise woke Nyoromo, who Red had kept safely with him. The pokémon uttered a bleary "Wag?" before returning to its slumber.
Red, however, was considerably more unnerved. The fear rose in him again, and he sat trembling. He had endangered himself and Nyoromo without cause. He cursed at himself under his breath, and then worked on steadying his pounding heart.
After a minute, his head began to clear and he saw the best course of action would be to walk closer to the Forest. This he did for some time, but his apprehension pulled him steadily closer to the trees until he had to duck branches with frequency. Still uneasy from the near-disaster, he chose the lesser of two terrors, and entered the Forest proper.
Had he waited but a moment longer, he might have seen a flame slowly descending into Viridian in the east.

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty-Three, Part Two

The sodden script fell wetly into his palm. Red looked at the spearow, which remained still as a statue, watching him with those unnerving eyes. The boy quickly turned his attention back to the letter, rather than let himself be mesmerized. As he unrolled it, he found that the ink hadn't run, even in such weather. He began to read.

Pallet Waif,
I trust this missive finds you and your aqueous associate well.  

At this, Red paused. His life, lived entirely after the Upheaval, had left him prepared for many things, but flowery language was not one of them. Of course the old man was referring to Nyoromo, but 'aqueous'? Was that some form of compliment? Sighing, Red looked again at the parchment.

The storms of the previous night, both stellar and terrestrial, made no lasting impact on my being. That is to say, despite a renewed battle with rheumatism, I am otherwise whole. 
Surviving too is Zume, my avian friend who has agreed to deliver this to you. Think not that I care nothing for your health. I merely assume that if you are reading this, you have survived unhurt.
Our current welfares aside, I think it appropriate that we address the meat of the matter. You braved the Lesser Forest to reach Viridian (may it find revival). Clearly you exhibit the spirit of an explorer. Allow me to suggest the next destination in your journey. Pewter City, if it still exists, would be the nearest bastion of human civilization, excepting Pallet, of course. Not only logical, the progression from Viridian to Pewter would mirror the journey taken by many in those years now lost to us. 
The route to the north, where Pewter lies, is a perilous one, though. For in its center grows the Old Wood- the trees from which all of Viridian Forest sprang. If what you passed through was dangerous, than these arborous ancients hide catastrophe. 
Celadon City is, in truth, nearer than Pewter, but to reach it on must traverse the Digda range- treacherous ground. So upset by years of burrowing are the rocks, that but a step can upset them and cause avalanche. It was a feat in my youth, when the pokémon themselves were no threat.
Thus it is to Pewter you shall go. While you will face terrors, I'm sure, the journey is not equatable with suicide as is the case with Celadon. I shall keep in contact with you by way of Zume. Fare well.


With hope,
(Here the signature was so wiry and expansive, Red couldn't begin to read it)


Post Script: Avoid the west. Strange storms brew on the Plateau. 

Red sat back, thinking. Pewter seemed a sensible destination, but the Old Wood worried him. Yet what choice was there? A return to Pallet was out of the question; with no spoils he had no right. The forest he had passed through surely held Green, and was therefore possibly more dangerous than the north.
As he thought, he watched Nyoromo, who had squirmed his way to freedom, and was waddling around Zume. The tiny thing was bubbling slightly, and kept repeating a friendly "Poli!" Zume, however, merely preened. When the poliwag came too near for its liking, it thrust its foot - Spearow apparently do kick - and knocked Nyoromo to the ground. The pokémon's large eyes fell on Red, who looked back as it squirmed.
"Wag?" asked Nyoromo
"Alright. Pewter it is." sighed a defeated Red. After a fruitless search to find a way to write a reply, he opted to tie a scrap of cloth from his already ruined bag to Zume. Almost before he finished, the bird made a single powerful flap to become airborne, a second to turn, and a third to vanish from sight.
Red watched it leave, wishing he could travel so quickly. Turning, he gazed up to where the cliff vanished from sight. The wall would be slippery, and he could barely see it. But the light, which had been steady for some time, could only fade as day wore to night.
"No time like the present." he muttered as he scooped Nyoromo back into his improvised pack and began to climb.

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty-Three, Part One

Red slowly turned his head upwards. He stared into the fog for a moment, attempting to assemble a picture of what was above. There was the cliff face, pockmarked with holes and ledges. There, farther on, was a larger form in the fog of a significant outcropping, perhaps as large as Red's pack. And there, around and beyond everything, was nothing but the nothingness the world had been enveloped with.
He sighed, and allowed his head to sink back down. His eyes closed, and he thought bemusedly that it made no difference in this spirit realm. He remained still for a while, first listening for the bird, then pondering its fate. How long it was he would never know, but it was long enough that his pupils protested when he looked again. He blinked away the spots from his vision and raised his head. His breath caught in his throat.
There was a bird in front of him. Standing on the cliff before him, it scratched absently at the ground. Finding nothing, it raised its head and looked directly at Red, cocking its head. The boy tensed, expecting attack. The bird was clearly a spearow, and a more ill-tempered pokémon one would be hard-pressed to find.
The bird turned its head the other way. Its golden eyes closed for a moment, and it hopped forward. Red flinched, and hit his head against the wall behind him. The bird hopped closer again.
Whether it was from the minor cranial trauma or the proximity of the pokémon, Red suddenly recognized the bird. It was the spearow that had helped them when the Shadowed Pokémon blotted the sun. He reached out a tentative hand. The bird looked at it quizzically. Taking a breath, the boy tried to pet the pokémon's head. The spearow promptly pecked him, and he withdrew his bleeding appendage.
Sucking on his wound, Red studied the bird before him. The pokémon stared back, seeming both contemptuous and bored. It scratched at the ground again, and looked at the boy. When no response was given, it scratched more insistently.
It dawned on Red that the bird was trying to tell him something. But what? He leaned slightly forward and, keeping one eye on the spearow, looked at the ground in front of him. It was nothing but smooth stone. The bird was watching him expectantly.
"Well, what do you want?" asked Red. "There isn't anything there."
The bird scratched again, and hopped forward. Red braced himself for another peck, but to his surprise, it kicked him. Could spearow do that? It wasn't like it hurt. Neither did the next kick. It wasn't until the third that Red realized what was happening. The bird wasn't attacking him; it was extending it's leg to him.
It was delivering a letter. Red moved his hand carefully forward, and untied the string that held the message.

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty-Two

Red cried out and instinctively raised his hands in defense. The bird flew past on his right, close enough to brush Red with its wingtips. It wheeled about slowly in the air, presumably readying for another dive. Red took the moment's respite to scramble towards the cliff face and secret his pokémon and pack in the tiny alcove. The sodden material of the bag matched the hue of the cliff face remarkably, and in the fog seemed to meld seamlessly.
His duty complete, Red rose and looked out to where the bird had been. Nothing. He scanned the entire view, but all he saw was the same, wraithlike white. The blanket consumed his view and devoured sound. The ominous senselessness filled Red with a creeping terror, and he slid slowly down the wall behind himself until he sat beside the cloth that heaved slowly with Nyoromo's breath.
For the first time, Red envied the pokémon's size. He wished he could simply crawl in a hole and hide. But he was exposed. He drew his legs to his chest, but still felt that he was an unmissable target. His right hand held his limbs tightly, while his left worked itself deeper and deeper into Nyoromo's alcove. He made no sound in the silence, but his heart thundered in his own ears.
He couldn't have sat there for long, but while he did it was his own private eternity. His tiny, blank universe not seen nor heard. Though his eyes strained for sight, he knew only touch. The coolness of the rock against his back, slowly warming with his body heat. The faint brush of mist on his face. The steady rise and fall of the canvas against his fingers. The pounding in his chest, slowing steadily.
The tapping of recently dislodged pebbles from above.

Red Standing Awkwardly On The Cliffs

The background picture is from http://media.photobucket.com/image/cliffs%20edge/Sorenai/Digital%20Blasphemy/attheedgeofacanyon.jpg

I am sorry, but my computer will not allow me to place a period at the end of the previous sentance. You can zoom in on the picture, Red is just as detailed as normal, it's just very large, and Blogger will not let me make the picture bigger. So that's Red, standing on the cliff that he had climbed to escape the Mankey. I was rushed (yet again) to make it, and I have a strong ambition to make it better, but I probably will never get around to it.

Red Sees a Flying Shadow

Yeah, so this is the part where Red sees the flying shadow. What could it be? I don't know, this is just half a ninjask painted black. It could be anything.

Fog

This is my rushed attempt at the bird-ish thing mentioned in the Golden Apocalypse. I did not have a lot of time, but I kind of like it, as it works.

Apocalypsed Venonat

Here is a Venonat, doing what Venonat do best. Dying. They are pretty pointless. I'm trying to work on backgrounds. Here is a picture of an unapocalypsed Venonat.

Delicious

What is the illustration this week? Well it is some extraordinarily delicious...

ROASTED MAGIKARP! Yum, doesn't that just look appetizing? I am really hungry now, wow, that is just so appealing that I kinda want to vomit. I really want some Magikarp now...yeah, not sure why anyone would eat one of those. Ew.

Green's Charmander

So I altered Charmander a little to make it look less healthy, due to Green's harsh treatment on him. I made it skinnier, lightened it's skin tone significantly, and lessened it's flame, which is basically a measure of it's health. Tell me what you think, I love criticism!

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty-One

High above Viridian, a strong wind blew eastward. The clouds of smoke from the mountains drifted ominously across the peaks and began to settle in a dense blanket over the city. Flecks of ash preceded the mass in a downward spiral to the ground. As the mass settled, it filled the depression in which the city sat, and wisps licked gently over the brim of the cliffs. The parching fog slowly grew moist with condensing water, until it became a dense mist, obscuring anything an arm's length away. 

It was into this world of spirits that Red woke. When first he opened his eyes, he thought himself still dreaming. There was nothing to see but an ashy gray veil, within which no shadows moved. His groggy mind refused to function, and so he sat waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, he sighed, and shifted to sit up.

Every muscle in his body protested the movement. Red found himself suddenly fully awake, and gasped. He coughed at the unexpected moistness of the air, and began to take stock of his situation. His clothes were glued to his body by moisture, and his hair was flat against his scalp. The ledge he sat on was nearly obscured by the foggy air, and nothing else was visible. He began to feel his way around the ledge, and his hand brushed against a sodden piece of fabric. He pulled it closer, and raised it nearly to his face so he could see it. 

The wretched scrap was what remained of his pack. The bottom had been torn out completely, and every pocket was exposed. Nothing remained inside, and the thing couldn't be trusted to ever hold anything again. Sighing, Red cast it aside into the white void. He began to feel around again, crawling slowly around the ledge. Once or twice his fingers brushed against nothing but air, indicating the edges of Red's worldlet. He slowly maneuvered about, and soon found the cliff face before him. He felt about it for a bit, until his hand fell on something cool and more moist than the surrounding air. He recoiled instinctively, before crawling close enough to see it, hoping it wasn't something interested in biting his nose off.

It was Nyoromo. The little creature was slumbering peacefully under its own little outcrop. Red lifted the creature gently, and moved to place it inside the pack that wasn't there. He stopped halfway, realizing his mistake. He set the little pokémon down inside its chamber again, and crawled off in search of his broken pack, trying to keep a sense of direction so he wouldn't need to search for the pokémon again. 

He felt about the entire ledge without any success until he came to the edge. Somehow, the pack had become snagged on a small rocky spur jutting from the main body of the outcropping. Red lifted it gently, feeling the spur crumble away as the pack brushed by it again. Gripping the pack tightly, Red crawled back to Nyoromo.

He at once set to the work of making something usable from the ruined bag. Tearing the water-weakened fabric with his teeth, he assembled an assortment of scraps from what was left of the inner pockets. Here he stopped, realizing he had nothing with which to sew them back on. He stared at the bag unhappily, as wisps of fog drifted across his vision. Suddenly struck with inspiration, he tore off a strap that was already hanging loose. Using a tight knot he had learned from the fishermen in Pallet Harbor, he closed the bottom of the pack. He checked the knot by pushing at the bottom from within. It refused to give, and so satisfied Red placed Nyoromo in the bag, along with the scraps he had accumulated. As he did so, he suddenly recalled the events of the previous evening.

He had been chased from the mountains by those horrific apes. They had pursued him up the cliff. Nyoromo had fallen to the ledge below, and Red fell soon after. The next thing he knew was this ethereal world without substance. What happened? The beasts wouldn't have abandoned an easy kill. Red had been unconscious, and he knew Nyoromo couldn't put up a fight. As if to accent this thought, a bubble drifted lazily from the open pack on his lap. The only reason for them to leave would be if something more dangerous had scared them off. But if that happened, the other thing would have still killed them.

Red looked off into the mists, almost as if to divine the answer. Suddenly a shadow materialized in the air, squawking as it flew towards him.

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Second Interlude

The forest afforded no mercy.
At first, families stayed together, and those students who had come alone clustered with their peers. We were a large group. We didn't need to fear the Forest. Not as long as we stayed together. We thought we could survive. We couldn't.
The young and fit were the first to go. At the front of the crowd, they stumbled into the webs. Almost before the first cries for help reached our ears, the first screams came from those the caterpie reached first. Once small and tame, the larvae had grown long and vicious. They devoured flesh at a pace only an insect could sustain. Students with fire pokémon hurried to save them. They succeeded.
Mostly.
The webs burned too well. Many escaped with few burns, but some suffered. Most survived. A young, handsome man had been charred beyond recognition, and we witnessed only his dying breaths. His friend, somewhat of a scholar on the forest, was never found. Back home, we had buried bodies. We had respected them.
We left it.
We kept a vigil then, with students guiding us and guarding the sides. Their pokémon should have kept us safe. There was nowhere else for danger to come from, we thought.
We were wrong.
They came from between roots and down from branches. They were in the logs around us. As we walked, they silently emerged and struck. Poison spiked pierced through clothing, shoes, and flesh. The students did what they could, but by the time the weedle were sent running, ten score had been felled. They twitched with their brains' spasms as they gasped on the ground like magikarp out of water. Then, one by one, they stiffened and died.
We moved on.
As night fell, we made camp. The bugs were primarily diurnal, and we needed our rest. We slept, all at once, and prayed that we would survive the night. It was dark. We were cold. We were lost. We were alone.

We were scared.

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Twenty

Red pulled himself to the edge of the ledge and looked down. Nyoromo was stranded on a lower platform, and the ape-like pokémon were only seconds below. Knowing it was too late, knowing that it would only serve to endanger himself more, he lifted himself to his feet, grabbed a handhold to his right, and swung off the ledge to climb down to the poliwag. His feet scrabbled against the rock face to find purchase, succeeding after only an agonizing second. Red took a breath and took his first step down.
His muscles rebelled, tensing and relaxing in mad fits. Darkness consumed his vision, and blood thundered in his ears. His lungs seized up, and he lacked the will to find his breath again. He felt rock slip past his hand as it came free from the wall.
His last sensation before unconsciousness was that of freefall.

Green emerged from the forest and looked west over the Fallen Viridian. Though not as tall as the southern cliffs, the drop here was still quite formidable, and for that Green was glad. Even as the light decayed, he managed to make out the forms of pokémon rummaging through the ruins.
"Dim." The command was issued quietly, but fiercely, and Hitokage complied, his tail's flame diminishing to little more than a candle flame. Green waited for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, only to realize that the Tojo Mountains made for rapid sunsets.
He cursed, abandoning hope of seeing the city and turning back to the forest to make camp. He looked at Hitokage to instruct him, but a flash from behind stopped him. Light brighter than day flooded around him, casting his pokémon and the forest into sharp relief, and making his shadow grow and dance fiendishly. His pupils contracted painfully, and even as the light dimmed he fell and covered his face with his sleeve. There was a moment of silence, followed by a roar loud enough to justify the light. Then the forest fell into absolute silence.
Part of Green wanted to stay like that, but his survival instinct screamed at him to run. He rose, wiping his watering eyes, and had just taken a step to the forest when the light came again. This time, he kept his eyes open and glanced back, despite the pain it brought.
What he saw terrified him. Two gargantuan beasts, were weaving back and forth above the mountain range. Their silhouettes danced and turned in the glow, and even as Green watched a third rose from some hidden valley. It's maw began to open as the light faded. Just as the scene faded to darkness, it exploded into sharp relief as a beam of light lanced forth from the thing's mouth to explode on something surrounding the largest creature, which resembled a bird of some kind.
Green wanted to watch more, despite his eyes' protest, but as a delayed report came from the blast he hadn't seen, his instinct overtook his sense and he fled into the trees, Hitokage on his heels.

The girl reached the edge of the forest as the colors of sunset began to paint the sky. Despite her pokémon's anxiousness, she sat on a nearby rock to catch her breath.
Whatever you want it can wait until- what's that smell? She sniffed the air, and felt the bile rise in her throat. She glanced about and found the source quickly. A small scattering of partially dissolved chunks of something organic was on the ground nearby. She took a step towards it, noticing something encrusted over it, as the wind picked up and brought a fresh whiff to her nose. She gagged, fighting her bodies urge to eject its stomachs contents. Th last thing she wanted to do now was vomit.
Vomit! That could be what this was. She remembered the smell from sickrooms when Pallet faced the Plague in her youth. But why would a human's vomit be out here?
A shriek from below answered her question. She hurried to where her pokémon danced frantically about the edge of the cliff and looked down. The shriek had come from a hideous ape-thing ascending the face of the cliff. It had almost reached a ledge where
The boy and his poliwag! With no way to help them, and no desire to watch, the girl slipped back into the forest, and found a tree-nest half a mile away.

Nyoromo prodded Red urgently with his foot, but the boy refused to wake. A shriek from nearby startled the poor thing, and it jumped, tripping over its feet and rolling back. It was stopped by a furry mass as large as it was. It scrabbled back as another rose over the ledge and settled upon it.
They were hands. Nyoromo could see the fingers tighten as the creature below began to pull itself up. The little poliwag reacted instinctively, and a lone bubble shot from its mouth. It slowed quickly in the air, but continued to drift lazily as the beast pulled its face above the ledge. Just as its snarling mouth was revealed, the bubble popped right between the thing's eyes. A noxious-looking green vapor rose from the spot, and the ape shrieked and clasped its hands stupidly over the point of impact. With nothing to secure it to the ledge, it fell.
Nyoromo bubbled happily. It turned to Red and as it did so saw three more apes climbing over the ledge. It tried to expel another large bubble, but nothing came. Nyoromo hurried back over to Red and poked him.
"Wag? Wag?" It's urgent cries went unheard. It turned to face the rising danger, but the animal forms were cast into silhouette by a glow from behind. The light faded, but the pokémon remained motionless. Then, as a crash shattered the air, they dropped to the ground and hurried to find shelter. Nyoromo watched them go.
"Poli!" it cried defiantly, but as the next flash came, the little pokémon scurried under Red's arm and cowered.

Away in her shelter, the girl shivered as she dreamt about the fate of the boy and his diminutive pokémon. When the first crash woke her, she slept no more.

"Dim, I said, dim!" The terror was creeping back into his voice, but Green didn't care. He didn't dare think of what would happen if those things found them.
"Char." The pitiful pokémon whined as its pilot flame dropped another level closer to death. Something in its voice touched Green.
"You did your best. Don't hurt yourself." Shocked by his own compassion to a mere pokémon, Green turned over and pondered himself to sleep in the crashing night.

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Nineteen

Red looked up at the looming cliffs, and tried to recall how he'd ever gotten down them before. It seemed a long while ago, though it had actually occurred that morning. When he had traversed them that time, he wasn't fighting against gravity, and he was well-rested, though admittedly dehydrated. Now, he could barely stand, and his vision was swimming. If not for the poliwag squirming slightly in his arms, he would have laid down and waited to die. As it was, he doubted he could ascend past the first ledge, a scant ten feet from the ground, without fainting.
He took a step forward and the darkness at the corners of his vision pulsed, sending pain through his head, and causing him to stagger into the cliff face. His breath came in short, painful bursts as he sank down to the ground. Behind him, muffled shatterings came from the buildings the pokémon had broken into. Above both this and the sound of his blood pounding in his ears, Red heard the screeching and caterwauling of the ape-creatures as they discovered the pond. He took a breath to steel himself and turned to see, to his dismay, that they were no more than a minute's ambling walk from him.
Fighting muscles that protested every movement, Red managed to shift Nyoromo from his arms into his pack, which he had somehow kept with him during his flight. He rose slowly, forcing himself to stay conscious. Raising his right arm, he found a handhold just above his head. He hoisted himself up, and clung to the wall as the world spun. For a moment the cliff was above him, threatening to fall, and the next it was below, yet he was being pulled up. Red could feel the bile rise in his throat, but somehow managed to choke it back and climb up the madly rotating landscape.
At some point during the hellish climb he heard a screech of discovery from one of the pokémon at the lake, and he knew that it might already be to late. He climbed anyway, through his world of madness, so that Nyoromo might escape. His eyelids fluttered, and touch guided him. Without sight, the dizziness prevented him from telling up from down, and he could only hope that he ascended. It was only when he found his hands and feet scrabbling uselessly along a smooth surface without finding purchase that he looked again, expecting to see the stone flying past him as he fell. Somehow he remained still against the wall. He gave his spinning mind a chance to figure out how he was floating when reality became fixed once more.
He was on a ledge. The world made sense, but he felt no relief. He didn't feel anything. Nothing had any emotion attached to it. As he stood, there was pain, but that was it. He didn't feel it. He simply recognized it. Just as he recognized the sounds of his pursuers, close by yet muffled. He began to climb again, noticing a pull on his pack and the faint sound of ripping, but that meant nothing.
It was only when he reached the next ledge that Nyoromo's cries from below caught his attention.

Pokémon: The Golden Apocalypse, Chapter Eighteen

Red began to throw dirt on coals, while the old man scattered the remaining fish about the clearing. Just as the last coals had been covered, the man reached Red. He picked up the wooden grill he had roasted the magikarp on, and handed it to the spearow, which took it in its talons.
"Take this with you, if you can. If it's too much, leave it. Fly quickly." The bird hopped off the man's shoulder, and began to fly haphazardly away, weighed down by its burden.
"Sir, what exactly is happening?" asked Red.
Rather than speak, the man looked up. Red followed his gaze. The sky was empty, and had just a hint of the brilliant hues of evening. The only odd thing about it, was the lack of birdsong in the air. Red tried to see what the man was looking at.
A moment passed.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared at the west end of the sky, and moved quickly forward to fill Red's view. Complete darkness fell over the clearing, and only the man's breathing told Red he was not alone. Two seconds passed in the shadow before the shadow gave way at the polar edges. Light trickled around some obstruction, and for another second, the clearing was faintly shown in a dusky haze. Then, the two lines of light met in the west, and quickly moved east revealing the light of day.
Red gasped as he realized a massive pokémon had just flown overhead, a pokémon so large that even its tail could block out most of the sun. He opened his mouth to ask what it was, but was instead nearly pulled over as the man tugged him to the crevice they had entered from. Despite his age, the man moved quickly, with the crazed stride of a creature terrified.
Though younger, Red tired faster, as his exertions from the day before left him drained. As he ran, his mind raced. What could that thing have been? Why are we running? Isn't it gone? Maybe if it finds us Nyoromo could- no. Not against that. Nyoromo couldn't- Where is Nyoromo?
Red spent a terrified second trying to recall where his poliwag had been in the clearing before he realized he held it in his arms. In his shock, he hadn't even realized he had picked it up. His relief gave him enough renewed energy to keep pace with the man until the mouth of the first canyon was in sight, with the Fallen Viridian beyond it. There was no sign of danger, and safety was in sight. Instead of slowing though, the man only ran faster, his staff swinging dangerously in his right hand. Red couldn't ask why, as all his breath was spent trying to catch up. Without any visible danger, though, Red lost the will to continue, and began to slow once more.
A cacophony of squawks burst out above him. Red looked up to see the largest flock of bird pokémon fleeing from the direction the behemoth had gone. The cliff walls were so high that most were contained in the same canyon Red ran through, and they quickly overtook him and reached the opening. They scattered in all directions over Viridian, leaving an ominous silence that gave Red the motivation to sprint once more.
Then he heard it. A rumbling in the distance joined with faint squeaks and growls and roars to produce a quiet, but ever-louder background to his pounding heart. He glanced back, and a faint dust cloud was brewing near the rear of the valley, kicked up by a thousand score of scurrying feet. Red gave everything he had, and ran until he reached the man's house, just as the old man did as well. He stood, panting, as the man turned to him.
"Kakuna... shell." he managed to get out. "Only room... for... one. Go south." He paused to wheeze. He waved his arm as he caught his breath. "Go. Most... can't climb." He slipped inside as Red tried to process what the man meant. He heard the faint whisper of a bolt being drawn. A voice drifted out from inside. "Good luck."
Red didn't waste a moment. He hurried to the forested cliffs of the south, glancing to the foothills of the Tojo mountains as he did so. The cloud was hurrying toward the opening, and reached it as Red passed the pond where he had entered Viridian. A herd of nidoran galloped out, accompanied by rattata and a screeching band of primates. These pokémon swung their bodies forward on their hands as much as they ran. Red recognized them from pictures he had seen in some of the few books in Pallet, but couldn't recall anything else about them in his panic. The beasts scattered as the birds had, and the forerunners of that arc headed straight towards the ruined city.
The wave broke on the first buildings as Red reached the cliffs.