Aftermath: A nuzlocke: Prologue

A young boy clung to his mother's arm, watching as his father strode out the door. He was too young to fully understand what was going on; but old enough to understand that his father was about to enter a world where he would be in danger constantly. He heard his mother sobbing beside him. At the last second, his father turned around and looked directly at the boy. "Son, I'm going to be gone for a long while, but I promise that I won't forget you. I will send messages with the water Pokemon. Remember to go to the seashore. I'll send messages as often as I can."

The boy nodded, his eyes filled with tears, "Don't leave, daddy," he whimpered. His father smiled tearfully and waved goodbye, before closing the door and disappearing from sight.

~Six years later~

The boy was sixteen years old now. He sat by the seashore and gazed off into the distance. Beside him was a small Spheal. In the years that had passed, the boy had grown to be a rather angry child. He was quick to lash out as his classmates, and wasn't favored by teachers. The only time the boy felt at ease was at the end of the day, when he sat by the seashore and waited for messages from his father. There were no waves on this side of Hoenn, so you could barely hear the water at all. A wingull dove over the boy's dead, crying as it did so.

"Down here again, huh, Archie?" Archie's friend, Maxie, walked up to him. On any normal day, Archie would have replied kindly to his friend, but today he only glared. He wanted to be left alone. He wanted only the company of his Spheal. Maxie looked startled, "is something wrong? I thought you're father would be back by now. He sent you a message last week saying he was allowed to come home, right?"

Archie grimaced, "That's right. He said that he could come home, not that he would. You want to know what he did?" demanded Archie, standing up. He looked furious; more so than Maxie had ever seen him, "oh, I should have known, too. He always was a scumbag. I don't know how I didn't see it before."

Maxie watched as his friend paced back and worth in the sand, "What are you talking about? I thought your dad was your hero."

Archie laughed, "That's the funny part. He was, and you know what? I was an idiot for considering him anything of the sort. Mother considers him a hero, too, you know. She's always going on about how he's out there, fighting for Hoenn's independence, and then what does he do? He runs off with some whore!" Archie was absolutely seething now.

Maxie tried to calm his friend down, "I'm sure that's not true! It's a lie; a trick."

Archie shook his head, "No, it's true," he pointed at the spheal that lay huddled in the sand, too afraid to move, "she told me. I know it's not a lie. Pokemon never tell lies, unlike humans. That's what got me thinking, Maxie; what is all the humans in the world just died?"

Maxie took a hesitant step back, feeling genuinely afraid. "Archie. I think you need to calm down. You're being ridiculous. Your father is just one man. There's no need to punish others for what he did."

Archie sighed, "No, of course you don't understand. It's too bad. I was hoping you would, but alas, you're too stupid as well. All humans are like him, Maxie, even you, and even myself. We lie, we cheat, we kill for dumb reasons that we make ourselves think are good. The whole species deserves to die."

Maxie was ready to slap Archie, "Archie! Stop it, right now."

"It would be so easy, too, Maxie. I've been doing my research. Have you ever heard of Kyogre, Maxie?" he didn't wait for his friend to answer before he continued, "Kyogre causes great floods, I've heard. Ones that can submerge land entirely. Now wouldn't that be just delightful. More room for the Pokemon, and no more humans." He looked delighted at the idea. It was clear that he thought it was the single most brilliant idea ever conceived.

"T-that's a terrible idea!" shouted Maxie, "have you ever considered that all the pokemon that live on land will die, too?"

Archie shrugged, "I only owe anything to the water pokemon."

"Archie, please stop."

"I thought we were friends, Maxie. Friends help other friends no matter how crazy the idea."

"Your idea's insane, and involves killing! I can't help you with something like that!"

Archie sighed once more and began to walk off, "No, of course you don't understand," he murmured. Maxie stayed where he was, and watched as his friend left. He tried to assure himself that he would get over it, but something told him that this wasn't just one of Archie's outbursts. This was something more. He contemplated alerting the police, but decided against it. The Hoenn law system was very poor. They would most likely take Maxie's warning as a teenage prank, or an complete lie. After a while, Maxie decided to just try to forget about it.