It was the murky grey hours before dawn, as the night slowly slinks away and the sun prepares to present itself. The eastern horizon was tinged with a dusky purple, but the rest of the sky was still black, with its brilliant, harshly shining blanket of stars, with the moon casting ghastly light upon the earth. It should’ve been beautiful, or comforting, but out here in the wilds, were humans rarely tread and the most savage of the Pokegirls held domain, everything was wild and dangerous. Away from the city lights, the stars seemed so bright…too bright, almost, as if they were trying to blind you with their brilliance; the moon seemed to grin down on the earth, laughing at some joke were we’re the punch line. The stars weren’t powerful enough to blind you, the moon wasn’t really laughing. No, that was silly. There were real dangers to worry about here.

            It was here that the crumbling ruins of the old cities were found, their careful order reclaimed by the jungle…and its inhabitants, of course. And it is here where our story begins. Almost all of the buildings are gone, having been torn down by the passage of time. But here, we find a low building, mostly intact, only a few holes rotted through in the ceilings and the walls, the vines and tendrils only just clutching at it. The moon’s wild laughing light filtered in through one of these holes, lighting upon a crate, with a man sitting on it.

            A lit cigarette was held to his lips, its cherry glow playing across his pale cheeks, slightly darkened by a lack of shaving. His hair was dark and short, his eyes a bright, crisp blue, sharp and alert. He appeared to be in his early twenties, but had a confident air around him, as if he’d been around for much longer, as if he knew everything. Or at least, he usually had such an air. His arrogant aura couldn’t stand against the present situation; it positively shattered when he realized how much of an idiot he’d been.

            Sighing, he dropped his cigarette to the ground and crushed it with the toe of his boot, relishing a bit in grinding it into the floor; a simple bit of violence was always good in lifting the spirits, hmm? He looked up at the figure sitting cross-legged in front of him. The girl’s gaze was locked straight down, refusing to look at him, as she held a sheet of paper out to him.

             His mind ran over the situation as he studied her. It was obvious that there was no fabulous treasure out here, in the ruins. That had been obvious seen he had arrived to find a small group of Team Rocket grunts waiting for him, to be frank.

             The girl’s hair was a mousy brown, but unlike most specimens of her species, was long and silky, instead of matted and ropey, like wet fur, or stringy like old, over-used hay. Her nose was short and pudgy, though, upturned and slightly red. Her eyes were a muddy shade of brown, watery as if she was on the verge of tears, with large, bushy eyebrows. He couldn’t see her teeth, but imagined they were short and crooked.

             Leading the group had been an old…acquaintance of his. The last time they’d acquainted they left on a…sour note, so to speak. Specifically, his harem had ground the Rocket Lieutenant’s into the dust, causing his opponent’s prized Growlie to complain that she wanted to be a part of his harem instead.

            The girl, to put it bluntly, was ugly, but not horribly so; in fact, one could say she was kinda cute, despite that.

            It was an ambush, plain and simple. He didn’t have anything the Rocket Lieutenant- Darius, his name was- wanted, and he wasn’t looking for a rematch. No, he had simply beaten the ever-loving crap out of the young man, stolen his harem, and made off as he slipped into unconsciousness.

            He leaned forward, still sitting on the crate- causing the girl to jump, her eyes flickering briefly to meet his, offering only a scowl before looking back down- and took the paper out of her hands.