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The group splits up to find what Dr. Henry needs to help the Ultra-Hybrids", "writing": "[u][center]Chapter 60: Why Can’t we be Friends?[/center][/u]\n\nThe next morning, Helios and Holly picked up the anti-mutation pills from Dr. Henry, Cassandra got a list of supplies from Flash, then they set off down the mountain with Crafty, Alex and Lloyd with each group carrying some money the city had stored up from repair jobs Raelia had done whenever she left for supply runs. Crafty didn’t bother to get dressed for the walk down, revelling in the cold and snow on her bare skin; even carrying on conversation with Lloyd as he still only wore his woven shorts. The shiny Glaceon-woman only got dressed and pulled on her riot gear the morning when they were out of the snow.\n\nHelios watched Crafty for a moment, “Aren’t you going to be hotter in that out of the snow?”\n\n“Nope, the layers keep the cold in since ice types generate cold,” she thumped her chest before she pulled the top of the armor on, “I remember this show I watched as a kid in the brotherhood, some guy made ice cream and put a blanket over a bucket of the stuff to keep it refrigerated outside of a freezer.”\n\nHelios turned to Holly, “Is sleeping with her ever painful?”\n\nHolly shook her head, “Nope, hard to explain but… well she doesn’t give frostbite, Frankie can attest to that.”\n\n“Pretty sure her body is still warm inside, even if she emits cold her body would just stop if she was cold all the way through,” Alex turned to wave to Lloyd and Cassandra as they headed north-east, “Ready to go, Crafty?”\n\n“Almost,” Crafty grinned then gave Holly a big kiss, which the Zoroark-woman returned. Crafty pulled back with a big smile on her face and waved as she and Alex set off east, “See you in a couple weeks!”\n\n“Goodbye,” Holly sighed then turned to Helios, “You have the map, please show me the way.”\n\nThe Charizard-man smiled then checked his Rotom-boy, “This way, watch out for any remaining Death-Scyther.” They set off, Helios’s power armor stomping through the landscape.\n\nOoOoO\n\nCassandra and Lloyd talked about the River Mothers on their walk as the wasteland north of New Lumiose wasn’t that dangerous. One night, after hearing about how much Lloyd’s mothers wanted a big family, Cassandra had to ask something that was nagging at her brain.\n\n“Are you worried that there’s going to be too many of you if your tribe keeps up like this? I don’t remember that many children with the Auras when I was a kid.”\n\nLloyd sighed and shook his head, “Not right now. Honestly, we kinda need more children. There were so few of us left by the time you showed up.” He stared at the ground, “one of the Followers visited after I returned to take what he called a census, just to track our growth, and according to him our population is only 5% what it was 10 years ago, because of the tribal invasions,” he looked up at the Braixen-woman and saw her about to cry and say something so pre-empted her apology, “Don’t blame yourself, you didn’t know what your tribe was like.” He touched her shoulder, “You saved us all, and next time we can defend ourselves. We’re just going to have a lot of children running around for a decade or two.”\n\nCassandra wiped her eyes, “Thank you, Lloyd. For everything.”\n\nLloyd smiled and flushed from the praise, “Thank you, master.”\n\n“Just called me, Cassandra. You don’t need to show that much reverence,” Cassandra also blushed.\n\nLloyd laughed, “If you come visit us, you’ll probably have to get used to hearing that from everyone at home. My students all call me master.”\n\nCassandra sighed happily, “I’d like that, I think I just want to live there as a tribal again. I’ve seen enough of this world to be sick of it… I just don’t know what Frankie will want to do,” she touched her middle, “I don’t want our children to grow up without him but I don’t want to drag them back and forth across the wasteland either.”\n\n“You’ll work something out, Frankie doesn’t seem like… the controlling type,” bad memories of his ex drifted into Lloyd’s mind and averted his gaze.\n\n“He’s not, you’re right we will work it out, thank you.” Cassandra yawned, “for now, let’s get some sleep. How much farther to the Northern Passage?”\n\nLloyd yawned and lay down, “A day or two, I think. I used Aqua Jet to travel so I don’t know how fast going walking speed would be.”\n\nIt was noon two days later when the two aura masters arrived at the tunnel that was the northern passage. Lloyd had been in too much of a hurry the first time to see the changes: in the three months since Dee had departed Hisui the tunnel had been enlarged and set up as a small branch office for Happy Trails with a small dormitory, storage room and reception desk where a Sandslash-woman sat to greet them.\n\nThe Sandslash-woman, whose name was Joan, smiled at them, “Welcome to Happy Trails Caravan Company. Are you two looking for work?”\n\nLloyd shook his head, “No but we have a job for you, if you’re looking for it.”\n\nJoan nodded, “We’re always looking for new contracts. Where is it and what are they looking for?”\n\n“It’s Snowbelle city up the mountain to the west,” Cassandra dug a piece of paper out of her pocket, “Flash gave me a list of the supplies they need before we left.” She handed the list to Joan, “Mosty food and parts for machines. They’ll be good for a couple months but the sooner they have regular supply shipments, the better.”\n\nJoan read the list, “Looks doable, I should be able to get a shipment sent up in a month.” She looked up, “Can they afford this much?”\n\n“We have a downpayment,” Lloyd fished some NKR bills out of his pocket, “$500, is that enough?”\n\nJoan nodded, “Enough for the first full shipment and part of the second, we’ll talk it over with them when we get there. Is there anything else?”\n\n“I think we’re good, thanks,” Cassandra waved as she and Lloyd turned and left the cave office.\n\n“I knew they’d be willing,” Lloyd put his hands behind his head, “So I guess we should head back then.”\n\n“Unless you have somewhere to go,” Cassandra said. Lloyd shook his head and they set off back towards Snowbelle City\n\nOoOoO\n\nAlex and Crafty had to pass through the Fiends’ territory on their way to Freeside’s Follower’s Outpost and ended up having to fight an ambush of the disfigured Furfrou-people raiders, which left Crafty with a few burns from their laser weapons. Once they passed by Camp Silverman they were able to breathe a sigh of relief and sped up their pace.\n\nThe tension in Freeside was heavy as they entered and the NKR presence was stronger than before; the soldiers they saw looked even more worn out than the last time the visited.\n\n“The battle’s coming soon,” Crafty looked into the eyes of a soldier on leave and shuddered at the look in his face, “we’ve been out of contact too long.”\n\n“Skirmishes with the Kogun must have picked up,” Alex looked around, “Mr. House is probably raking in their salaries, not that I blame him.”\n\n“Let’s hurry this up then,” Crafty picked up to a jog towards the Followers’ fort.\n\nThey found the Pikachu-man Dr. Joy Gannon seated at the greeting table. He gave Crafty an odd look for a moment before he spoke, “I remember you. Has the Ice Beam been useful?”\n\nCrafty nodded, “It has, thank you Dr. Gannon.”\n\n“We won’t be here long, so we won’t keep you. Do you have any of the accelerant that helps human hybridize into Poke-people?” Alex asked.\n\nDr. Gannon gave Alex and questioning look, “We do keep some around, yes. Why do you want some?”\n\nAlex and Crafty shared a look, both mentally debating how honest they should be. Crafty decided to go first, “There’s a group of people who didn’t hybridize properly that need some to finish the process.”\n\n“I see,” Dr. Gannon gave the two a skeptical look, “It’s recommended that a qualified physician oversee any such injection to monitor the change and evaluate the process. If the situation is as serious as an improper hybridization, then you’ll need a real expert on this sort of thing. Do you have someone like that?”\n\nCrafty looked to Alex and the Ninetales-man took a deep breath before he answered, “His name is Dr. Henry at Snowbelle City.”\n\nDr. Gannon’s face unexpectedly lit up and he stood up with a smile on his face, and from the look on the faces of the other Followers it was a rare sight, “Well then, follow me and I’ll get some prepared.” The Pikachu-man motioned for them to follow him into the wall of the fort to the supply room.\n\nOnce the door was shut behind them, Dr. Gannon started searching as he explained, “Dr. Henry and I go way back, I was actually born into The Enclave and was taken away when I was about… ten I think. My name is actually Arcade Gannon but I took the Joy moniker the Followers all use.”\n\nCrafty and Alex were stunned, “You’re Enclave!” Crafty clapped a hand over her mouth and they all froze. Thankfully no one heard and she cleared her throat before she continued, “Why aren’t you still human?”\n\n“Because I never bought that staying human was inherently superior, if anything I felt the Enclave, despite having the best intentions, were woefully misinformed. Humans can’t shoot lighting out of their bodies,” Dr. Gannon found a padded case and began carefully loading vials of Accelerant into it, “Regardless, I’ve kept in contact with other Enclave Remnants in the area. Other than me they’re all still human but keep a low profile. Not that it always helps, Orion Moreno is just fine living in an old house out of the way until the NKR beat down his door and threatened to chase him out for ‘squatting on their land’ even though he’s been living there for 20 years before the NKR showed up.” He sighed as he finished loading the padded case with two dozen vials and an equal number of clear syringes. “I think the NKR could do a lot of good but their garden is full of weeds that need to be pulled before all the soil dies. Dr. Henry hasn’t sent me any mail about what he’s working on, so can you at least tell me?” Arcade turned to hand the case to the two.\n\nAlex took the case and carefully loaded it into his backpack. “There’s some failed experiments by Lusamine, Ultra-hybrids, he’s trying to treat them and he says the only cure is to change them into Poke-people.”\n\nArcade shuddered, “I heard about those, but never saw the results. Not sure I would want to.”\n\n“You don’t,” Crafty shuddered, “But thank you, Dr. Gannon, I’m sure he’ll appreciate this.”\n\nDr. Arcade “Joy” Gannon nodded, “Knowing him, he’ll have a solution. Tell him Arcade is doing well. Good luck.”\n\n“You too, thank you,” Alex carefully checked his bag again before they left.\n\nCrafty let out a sigh of relief as they left the fort, “That was easier than I thought. We’re lucky he was there to greet us.”\n\n“We both were,” Alex wiped his forehead, “Anyone else and that might have gotten dangerous if anyone overheard us. Let’s get back to Snowbelle. Keep any Fiends off me, can’t risk any damage to these vials.”\n\nCrafty pumped and arm and patted her sidearm, “Don’t worry, I will.”\n\nOoOoO\n\nHelios and Holly had the farthest to go but were able to keep up a faster pace as they skirted the edge of the Fiends’ territory and the few Gecleon they encountered didn’t even count as speed bumps. Two days of hustling from the base of the mountain ended with them setting out camp outside an old chain-link fence a short distance from where the Rotom-Boy was leading them.\n\nHolly was the first one to wake up the next day and survey the landscape while Helios roused himself and attached his power armor.\n\n“Death-Scyther ahead,” Holly pointed to two of the big mutants buzzing their wings and wandering around an old parking lot with ticket booth.\n\nAlex hefted his minigun, “And according to the map, that’s where Vault 19 is. Leave this to me.” A moment later the whirring of his minigun cut through the otherwise silent landscape. The first Death-Scyther was shredded before it could turn but the second flew up and charged at Helios. The Charizard-man wasn’t able to fly with the weight of the power armor so had to step back, avoiding getting his gun sliced in half by mere centimeters by dropping it. Holly reacted fast and sliced off one of the Death-Scyther’s wings with her Cosmic Knife before she stabbed her Blood Nap bowie knife into its back. The mutant monster screamed in pain as the knife was pulled out and rounded on her only to get its head crushed by Helios’ sledgehammer.\n\n“Thanks,” Holly cleaned and sheathed her knives as Helios retrieved his minigun. The Zoroark-woman ran her hand through her now long red hair and turned to the parking lot, “Where’s the Vault’s entrance?”\n\nHelios stowed his minigun then checked his Rotom-Boy, switching to the close map function, “Should be… this way,” he made his way carefully to the ticket booth and found a large manhole cover behind the small building. With the power armor enhancing his strength it was easy for Helios to just grab the cover and pull it off and to the side. Thankfully it was large enough for him to climb down. Holly joined him at the bottom and both spotted the cog-shaped door with a big 19 carved into the middle after a short slope down.\n\n“How did Silph Co manage to get everyone down here?” Holly looked around as they walked to the Vault’s door.\n\n“They might have sealed it early, or maybe whatever stopped Lumiose from being destroyed gave them time to move everyone underground.” Helios stopped in front of the door then banged on it with his fist, “Hello! Anyone there?”\n\nHelios’ voice echoed around the tunnel for a moment before a camera right above the door turned its electronic eye to look down at the two. “Talking Pokemon mutants?” the voice was male and sounded incredulous. “Go away! You won’t feast on our insides!”\n\nHelios glared up at the camera, “We’re not going to eat you and we killed the Death-Scyther that were roaming around your entrance.”\n\n“Please, we just want to talk.” Holly looked pleadingly up at the camera, “Is your vault still sealed or can we come in?”\n\nThere was a pause before the voice answered, “We got the all-clear signal a decade ago, but we didn’t want to leave, we’re still in the middle of a battle down here. I’ll have to ask the overseers first.” Then the voice cut off.\n\nHelios gave Holly a quizzical look, “Overseers? Plural?”\n\nHolly just shrugged.\n\nA few minutes passed before the voice returned, “The fire overseer says you can come in, but you’re going to need to go through decontamination.”\n\n“That’s fine,” Holly gave a sigh of relief as the door slid inwards then rolled to the side to admit them.\n\nThe Vault’s entrance was just a long corridor that led to another door. As soon as Holly and Helios were inside the external door slid shut behind them and the voice from outside came on through a speaker. “Alright just stay there while we decontaminate. Sorry about the smell.” Immediately there was a hissing as something was sprayed into the room. The two Poke-people coughed at the smell, Helios’ most prominent thought that he hoped it wasn’t flammable.\n\nAfter a minute the spray stopped and the voice came back again, “OK, you should be clean now. Just a moment.” The door at the opposite end opened which let the two Poke-people through into the Vault.\n\n“Just like mine was,” Helios commented and looked around.\n\n“Reminds me of home,” Holly sighed and shook her head.\n\nA voice, the same from the speaker, greeted both of them. “Wow, so I wasn’t seeing things.” They turned to see a black-haired man in a vault suit, except it was red instead of the standard blue but still had the yellow 19 on its back. Their gazes were immediately drawn to his belt, which had three Poke Balls attached. The man grinned and grabbed one of the red and white balls, “I’ve never seen a fully evolved Charmander before, I wonder if these will work on you.”\n\n“Don’t you-!” Helios’ voice came a moment too late.\n\n“Poke Ball go!” the man flung the ball at Helios.\n\nThere was a blur across their vising and a sharp *shing* as Holly intercepted the ball in mid air and sliced it in half with her Cosmic Knife. There was dead silence in the room, broken only by the clattering of the two halves of the ball as they hit the floor.\n\nHolly’s eyes flashed dangerously as the man stood there, dumbstruck, his hand still outstretched where he’d released the ball. “Don’t. Ever. Try. To. Capture. Us.” Holly’s dripped menace.\n\nHelios had to restrain herself from drawing one of his weapons or breathing fire at his attempted captor, “Put those things away now!” fire flashed from his mouth as he did his best to restraint himself.\n\nThe man gulped and pulled his hand back, “I… I’m sorry I…”\n\nHolly sheathed her weapon and stood up straight, “Alright, what’s your name? What’s this vault’s experiment? Do you have unmutated Pokemon here?”\n\nThe man had to screw up his courage for a minute before he answered, “My name’s Casey, as for experiment I think it’s the three-type split and yes we do.” He took one of the other Poke Balls off his belt and tossed it on the floor. The ball burst open and a form took shape.\n\n“Charmander!” The little orange lizard with a flaming tail appeared, then balked at the two giant Pokemon in armor in front of him.\n\n“Easy, Sepultura, they’re from the outside.” Casey patted his Charmander’s head.\n\n“So you have trainers here,” Helios took a deep breath, reminding himself that these people didn’t know what the outside world was like. “What’s this three-type split?”\n\nSudden shouts from farther in the vault interrupted the conversation, “Chikorita! Razor Leaf!”\n\n“Popplio use Water Gun!” the sound of sharp flying projectiles and the sound of a water hose striking a wall erupted.\n\n“A battle over breakfast! I gotta get in on this, let’s go Sepultura!” Casey took off with his Charmander in tow. Too curious to avoid this, Holly and Helios followed. They almost crashed into a massive series of battles in progress on the top level of the Vault’s atrium, with a dozen battle arenas where Vault Dwellers were engaged in Pokemon Battles. The dwellers and their Pokemon were seemingly color coded: those in red suits had fire-types, another group with green suits were using grass-types and those in traditional blue were using water-types and all of the Pokemon were the species assigned as starters from the games.\n\n“We’re up next!” Casey stood by where the Popplio and Chikorita were engaged in a battle, waiting for his turn.\n\nHolly and Helios stepped back into the hallway, both seething at the site. “Pokemon trainers and battles, its just… ugg…” Holly shook her head, “It’s like before the war! Trapping them in balls and forcing them to fight for entertainment!” She shook from anger and partly from her own memories of the Sierra Madre.\n\n“I know,” Helios put a hand on the shaking Zoroark-woman’s shoulder, but it was clear he was shaking inside his armor, “I just, I just!” his tail fire burned higher. Holly was starting to calm down when Helios suddenly burst through the doorway.\n\n“STOP THIS NOW!” Helios shot a massive flamethrower into the middle of the room.\n\nThe room stood still, even the battles stopped as they saw the seething armored Charizard-man standing by the entrance. Casey, who was the closest, stood back, “Oh right. Umm…”\n\n“A Charizard?”\n\n“It talked!”\n\n“Gotta be a rare one!”\n\n“Is it from the outside?”\n\nHelios heard and saw a couple reaching for Poke Balls. Enraged, he yanked the sledgehammer off the back of his armor and slammed it down, cracking the concrete floor, “DON’T YOU DARE!” he let out another blast, this time forming into a Fire Blast that flew up to the ceiling and exploded. Thankfully the reinforced roof was only singed but it had the desired effect as everyone returned their Pokemon and made a run for it, each heading for an exit that matched the color of their Vault suit and having a symbol over top: a flame for the red door, a leaf for the green door and a drop of water for the blue door. Even Casey recalled Sepultura and was about to run for it when Helios’ voice stopped him.\n\n“Hold it!” he pointed with a finger, “What’s going on here?”\n\nCasey slowly turned around to face the fuming Charizard-man and gulped, “W-w-we are split into th-three sides: fire red, water blue and grass green. When we turn ten and get our Rotom-Boys we also get a st-starter Pokemon and are told we need to battle to assert out superiority over the other two types.”\n\nBefore any more questions could be answered there was the sound of pounding feet and four Vault Security Officers emerged from each of the type-coded doors, their armor also color coded but each holding a pistol that was aimed at Helios, though each still had a Poke Ball on their belts.\n\n“Freeze!” one of them shouted, though they could all tell it was only a matter of time before bullets started flying.\n\n“Ack!” Casey gasped as he felt something grab him and he seized up. “Help!” he shouted which drew everyone’s attention as he seemed to be held in place, his arms squeezed against his sides.\n\nThere was an odd noise as Holly faded into visibility, holding Casey in place, Blood Nap in her right hand near his neck with her left arm around his middle.\n\n“Everyone calm down,” Holly kept her voice level, “lower your weapons and we’ll talk, alright?”\n\nOne of the security officers in green looked at one of his compatriots then turned back to look across at Holly, “Let the kid go and we’ll talk.”\n\n“Alright,” Holly lowered her knife and released Casey, who immediately ran to the red sector. Her action stunned the guards, who weren’t expecting cooperation, but she added, “don’t expect me to surrender. We want to talk to your overseers, then we’ll leave.”\n\n“How can we trust you?” One of the water security officers called across, though he did lower his weapon.\n\nHelios pounded the chest of his power armor, “Because if we wanted to overrun this disgusting place you couldn’t stop us. This is military grade hardware, we know how to use our techniques and we’ve killed Death-Scythers, including the two that were roaming around your Vault’s exit. So just let us see them.”\n\nAll three teams turned to talked to their own groups then one from each of the said, “Wait here, we’ll talk to them.” Each of the ones who spoke turned and left through their respective doors. The remaining nine security officers kept their eyes on the two guests the entire time as Holly walked back to Helios’ side.\n\n“Risky move,” Holly whispered.\n\n“Yeah. Sorry I couldn’t control myself,” Helios sighed, “But the sooner we get away from this horror show, the better.”\n\nHolly nodded, “Agreed.”\n\nThey didn’t have to wait long for the three overseers to arrive: a brunette woman from the fire door, a bespectacled blonde man from the grass door and a black-haired man from the water door. All three glared daggers at each other but approached the two visitors; all three carried three Poke Balls apiece.\n\nThe fire overseer was the first to speak, “What are you Pokemon mutants doing here? Where did you come from?”\n\n“We’re from the wasteland,” Holly folded her arms, “And we’re Poke-people. The world’s changed since you’ve been sealed in your sic-secluded vault having Pokemon Battles for Arceus knows what reason.”\n\n“To prove which type is the best!” the water overseer cut in, pumping his fist.\n\n“How has the world changed?” the grass overseer pushed his glasses up his nose.\n\n“Poke-people like us are the dominant species now,” Helios pointed to his face, “Humans hybridize into Poke-people over time, most Pokemon mutate or go feral.”\n\n“And why are you here then?” the grass overseer gave them a skeptical look.\n\nHolly unfolded her arms, “We wanted to ask if anyone here wants to leave. We want some of them to help us with something we need pure-strain humans for.”\n\nThe fire overseer folded her arms, “Well, we have been getting some rabble rousers who keep asking to leave. It would be nice to get them off our hands.”\n\n“Yeah, going on and on about not forcing their friends to fight, or fighting each other or just to see ‘the great outdoors’! Urrrg!” The water overseer growled, “Why not. Hey Bruce!” he turned to one of the security officers, “get those kids who keep whining and tell them they can leave if they want to.”\n\n“Can they take their Pokemon with them?” the grass overseer tiled his head to one side, “If what you say is true it might be dangerous, but they might throw a fit if they’re forced to leave them behind.”\n\nHelios and Holly shared a concerned look, “It might be risky, no idea how they’d adapt,” Holly said\n\n“Forget it! I’m not dealing with a bunch of Pokemon that might pine for their old masters,” the water overseer stomped his foot, “They take their pets with them and leave anything else behind.”\n\n“Make sure they have food and cold weather gear,” Helios called.\n\n“Fine. Might as well break out the nuclear winter storage we never used,” the fire overseer said as she turned back to her own guards.\n\nAn hour later, 15 young vault dwellers had gathered at the entrance, each with a single Poke Ball on their belt, wearing an insulated vault suit and backpack. Among them was Casey, who gulped when he saw Holly.\n\nThe Zoroark-woman gave a disarming smile, “Sorry about earlier. Are you sure you want to go?”\n\nCasey nodded, “Yes!” his voice cracked from nerves, “I want to see the outside, that’s why I volunteered for guard duty so I could stare at the cameras.”\n\n“Get into the quarantine hall,” the security officer at the door controls said, “I’ll let you open the outside door but once you’re in there, you’re not getting back in. If you have any cold feet then go back inside now and stop complaining about everything in here.” None of them said anything. “Good,” the door to the quarantine hall entrance/exit opened and they all were crammed in with Helios and Holly at the entrance.\n\nOnce the door shut and locked behind them, Helios turned to the group. “Alright listen up! My name is Helios and this is Holly. We’re heading into the wasteland and this is not going to be a cakewalk: there’s raiders, mutant Pokemon and radiation but stay close and listen to us and you’ll survive. Until we get to Snowbelle City don’t hold us up. It’ll be hot for a couple days but once we get to the mountain trail it’s going to get cold. Also don’t go near or try to fight any Pokemon you see with your own, they will kill you if you piss them off but if you ignore them then they’ll ignore you.”\n\n“Also don’t let your Pokemon out. I know they don’t need to eat much while in their Poke Balls and there will be food where we’re going.” Holly reached into her own bag and pulled out a pill bottle, “Lastly, you each need to take one of these before we leave.” She opened the bottle and showed them the red pills, “These are anti-mutation chems, the place we’re going needs you to stay human for a while. If you were eager to become Poke-people like us then you’ll just have to wait.” She started passing the pills around and watched each of them take them and a drink to wash it down.\n\n“It’s a gonna take over a week to get where we’re going,” Helios turned to open the Vault Door, “Just stay with us, stay close and don’t fall behind. After this, there’s no going back.” The door ground open and they stepped into the corridor.\n\nAs Helios climbed up the still open manhole to see if it was safe, a thought occurred to Holly, “Shield your eyes, the first glimpse of the sun will be blinding.”\n\n“Oh right, the sun goggles,” Casey pulled out some tinted goggled from his pack and over his eyes, as did the rest, “Vault exit gear.”\n\n“I grew up in a similar place, it was rough the first time,” Holly nodded.\n\n“It’s clear, come on up!” Helios called down.\n\nHolly stayed down at the bottom of the ladder until everyone was up. All of the Vault Dwellers became disoriented from the lack of a ceiling and just how far they could see but they managed to wait until Helios had closed the manhole behind them.\n\n“OK, kids, stay close and listen to us and you’ll all survived the walk. Let’s go!” Helios pulled out his minigun and started the trek. It took a minute for the vault dwellers, most of whom were starting to feel the heat from their insulated Vault suits and nausea from the sight distance as they started. Holly brought up the rear but kept her blades sheathed. It was going to be a long, long walk especially since they couldn’t hustle like they did on the way. Hopefully this would be enough.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "
Chapter 60: Why Can’t we be Friends?


The next morning, Helios and Holly picked up the anti-mutation pills from Dr. Henry, Cassandra got a list of supplies from Flash, then they set off down the mountain with Crafty, Alex and Lloyd with each group carrying some money the city had stored up from repair jobs Raelia had done whenever she left for supply runs. Crafty didn’t bother to get dressed for the walk down, revelling in the cold and snow on her bare skin; even carrying on conversation with Lloyd as he still only wore his woven shorts. The shiny Glaceon-woman only got dressed and pulled on her riot gear the morning when they were out of the snow.

Helios watched Crafty for a moment, “Aren’t you going to be hotter in that out of the snow?”

“Nope, the layers keep the cold in since ice types generate cold,” she thumped her chest before she pulled the top of the armor on, “I remember this show I watched as a kid in the brotherhood, some guy made ice cream and put a blanket over a bucket of the stuff to keep it refrigerated outside of a freezer.”

Helios turned to Holly, “Is sleeping with her ever painful?”

Holly shook her head, “Nope, hard to explain but… well she doesn’t give frostbite, Frankie can attest to that.”

“Pretty sure her body is still warm inside, even if she emits cold her body would just stop if she was cold all the way through,” Alex turned to wave to Lloyd and Cassandra as they headed north-east, “Ready to go, Crafty?”

“Almost,” Crafty grinned then gave Holly a big kiss, which the Zoroark-woman returned. Crafty pulled back with a big smile on her face and waved as she and Alex set off east, “See you in a couple weeks!”

“Goodbye,” Holly sighed then turned to Helios, “You have the map, please show me the way.”

The Charizard-man smiled then checked his Rotom-boy, “This way, watch out for any remaining Death-Scyther.” They set off, Helios’s power armor stomping through the landscape.

OoOoO

Cassandra and Lloyd talked about the River Mothers on their walk as the wasteland north of New Lumiose wasn’t that dangerous. One night, after hearing about how much Lloyd’s mothers wanted a big family, Cassandra had to ask something that was nagging at her brain.

“Are you worried that there’s going to be too many of you if your tribe keeps up like this? I don’t remember that many children with the Auras when I was a kid.”

Lloyd sighed and shook his head, “Not right now. Honestly, we kinda need more children. There were so few of us left by the time you showed up.” He stared at the ground, “one of the Followers visited after I returned to take what he called a census, just to track our growth, and according to him our population is only 5% what it was 10 years ago, because of the tribal invasions,” he looked up at the Braixen-woman and saw her about to cry and say something so pre-empted her apology, “Don’t blame yourself, you didn’t know what your tribe was like.” He touched her shoulder, “You saved us all, and next time we can defend ourselves. We’re just going to have a lot of children running around for a decade or two.”

Cassandra wiped her eyes, “Thank you, Lloyd. For everything.”

Lloyd smiled and flushed from the praise, “Thank you, master.”

“Just called me, Cassandra. You don’t need to show that much reverence,” Cassandra also blushed.

Lloyd laughed, “If you come visit us, you’ll probably have to get used to hearing that from everyone at home. My students all call me master.”

Cassandra sighed happily, “I’d like that, I think I just want to live there as a tribal again. I’ve seen enough of this world to be sick of it… I just don’t know what Frankie will want to do,” she touched her middle, “I don’t want our children to grow up without him but I don’t want to drag them back and forth across the wasteland either.”

“You’ll work something out, Frankie doesn’t seem like… the controlling type,” bad memories of his ex drifted into Lloyd’s mind and averted his gaze.

“He’s not, you’re right we will work it out, thank you.” Cassandra yawned, “for now, let’s get some sleep. How much farther to the Northern Passage?”

Lloyd yawned and lay down, “A day or two, I think. I used Aqua Jet to travel so I don’t know how fast going walking speed would be.”

It was noon two days later when the two aura masters arrived at the tunnel that was the northern passage. Lloyd had been in too much of a hurry the first time to see the changes: in the three months since Dee had departed Hisui the tunnel had been enlarged and set up as a small branch office for Happy Trails with a small dormitory, storage room and reception desk where a Sandslash-woman sat to greet them.

The Sandslash-woman, whose name was Joan, smiled at them, “Welcome to Happy Trails Caravan Company. Are you two looking for work?”

Lloyd shook his head, “No but we have a job for you, if you’re looking for it.”

Joan nodded, “We’re always looking for new contracts. Where is it and what are they looking for?”

“It’s Snowbelle city up the mountain to the west,” Cassandra dug a piece of paper out of her pocket, “Flash gave me a list of the supplies they need before we left.” She handed the list to Joan, “Mosty food and parts for machines. They’ll be good for a couple months but the sooner they have regular supply shipments, the better.”

Joan read the list, “Looks doable, I should be able to get a shipment sent up in a month.” She looked up, “Can they afford this much?”

“We have a downpayment,” Lloyd fished some NKR bills out of his pocket, “$500, is that enough?”

Joan nodded, “Enough for the first full shipment and part of the second, we’ll talk it over with them when we get there. Is there anything else?”

“I think we’re good, thanks,” Cassandra waved as she and Lloyd turned and left the cave office.

“I knew they’d be willing,” Lloyd put his hands behind his head, “So I guess we should head back then.”

“Unless you have somewhere to go,” Cassandra said. Lloyd shook his head and they set off back towards Snowbelle City

OoOoO

Alex and Crafty had to pass through the Fiends’ territory on their way to Freeside’s Follower’s Outpost and ended up having to fight an ambush of the disfigured Furfrou-people raiders, which left Crafty with a few burns from their laser weapons. Once they passed by Camp Silverman they were able to breathe a sigh of relief and sped up their pace.

The tension in Freeside was heavy as they entered and the NKR presence was stronger than before; the soldiers they saw looked even more worn out than the last time the visited.

“The battle’s coming soon,” Crafty looked into the eyes of a soldier on leave and shuddered at the look in his face, “we’ve been out of contact too long.”

“Skirmishes with the Kogun must have picked up,” Alex looked around, “Mr. House is probably raking in their salaries, not that I blame him.”

“Let’s hurry this up then,” Crafty picked up to a jog towards the Followers’ fort.

They found the Pikachu-man Dr. Joy Gannon seated at the greeting table. He gave Crafty an odd look for a moment before he spoke, “I remember you. Has the Ice Beam been useful?”

Crafty nodded, “It has, thank you Dr. Gannon.”

“We won’t be here long, so we won’t keep you. Do you have any of the accelerant that helps human hybridize into Poke-people?” Alex asked.

Dr. Gannon gave Alex and questioning look, “We do keep some around, yes. Why do you want some?”

Alex and Crafty shared a look, both mentally debating how honest they should be. Crafty decided to go first, “There’s a group of people who didn’t hybridize properly that need some to finish the process.”

“I see,” Dr. Gannon gave the two a skeptical look, “It’s recommended that a qualified physician oversee any such injection to monitor the change and evaluate the process. If the situation is as serious as an improper hybridization, then you’ll need a real expert on this sort of thing. Do you have someone like that?”

Crafty looked to Alex and the Ninetales-man took a deep breath before he answered, “His name is Dr. Henry at Snowbelle City.”

Dr. Gannon’s face unexpectedly lit up and he stood up with a smile on his face, and from the look on the faces of the other Followers it was a rare sight, “Well then, follow me and I’ll get some prepared.” The Pikachu-man motioned for them to follow him into the wall of the fort to the supply room.

Once the door was shut behind them, Dr. Gannon started searching as he explained, “Dr. Henry and I go way back, I was actually born into The Enclave and was taken away when I was about… ten I think. My name is actually Arcade Gannon but I took the Joy moniker the Followers all use.”

Crafty and Alex were stunned, “You’re Enclave!” Crafty clapped a hand over her mouth and they all froze. Thankfully no one heard and she cleared her throat before she continued, “Why aren’t you still human?”

“Because I never bought that staying human was inherently superior, if anything I felt the Enclave, despite having the best intentions, were woefully misinformed. Humans can’t shoot lighting out of their bodies,” Dr. Gannon found a padded case and began carefully loading vials of Accelerant into it, “Regardless, I’ve kept in contact with other Enclave Remnants in the area. Other than me they’re all still human but keep a low profile. Not that it always helps, Orion Moreno is just fine living in an old house out of the way until the NKR beat down his door and threatened to chase him out for ‘squatting on their land’ even though he’s been living there for 20 years before the NKR showed up.” He sighed as he finished loading the padded case with two dozen vials and an equal number of clear syringes. “I think the NKR could do a lot of good but their garden is full of weeds that need to be pulled before all the soil dies. Dr. Henry hasn’t sent me any mail about what he’s working on, so can you at least tell me?” Arcade turned to hand the case to the two.

Alex took the case and carefully loaded it into his backpack. “There’s some failed experiments by Lusamine, Ultra-hybrids, he’s trying to treat them and he says the only cure is to change them into Poke-people.”

Arcade shuddered, “I heard about those, but never saw the results. Not sure I would want to.”

“You don’t,” Crafty shuddered, “But thank you, Dr. Gannon, I’m sure he’ll appreciate this.”

Dr. Arcade “Joy” Gannon nodded, “Knowing him, he’ll have a solution. Tell him Arcade is doing well. Good luck.”

“You too, thank you,” Alex carefully checked his bag again before they left.

Crafty let out a sigh of relief as they left the fort, “That was easier than I thought. We’re lucky he was there to greet us.”

“We both were,” Alex wiped his forehead, “Anyone else and that might have gotten dangerous if anyone overheard us. Let’s get back to Snowbelle. Keep any Fiends off me, can’t risk any damage to these vials.”

Crafty pumped and arm and patted her sidearm, “Don’t worry, I will.”

OoOoO

Helios and Holly had the farthest to go but were able to keep up a faster pace as they skirted the edge of the Fiends’ territory and the few Gecleon they encountered didn’t even count as speed bumps. Two days of hustling from the base of the mountain ended with them setting out camp outside an old chain-link fence a short distance from where the Rotom-Boy was leading them.

Holly was the first one to wake up the next day and survey the landscape while Helios roused himself and attached his power armor.

“Death-Scyther ahead,” Holly pointed to two of the big mutants buzzing their wings and wandering around an old parking lot with ticket booth.

Alex hefted his minigun, “And according to the map, that’s where Vault 19 is. Leave this to me.” A moment later the whirring of his minigun cut through the otherwise silent landscape. The first Death-Scyther was shredded before it could turn but the second flew up and charged at Helios. The Charizard-man wasn’t able to fly with the weight of the power armor so had to step back, avoiding getting his gun sliced in half by mere centimeters by dropping it. Holly reacted fast and sliced off one of the Death-Scyther’s wings with her Cosmic Knife before she stabbed her Blood Nap bowie knife into its back. The mutant monster screamed in pain as the knife was pulled out and rounded on her only to get its head crushed by Helios’ sledgehammer.

“Thanks,” Holly cleaned and sheathed her knives as Helios retrieved his minigun. The Zoroark-woman ran her hand through her now long red hair and turned to the parking lot, “Where’s the Vault’s entrance?”

Helios stowed his minigun then checked his Rotom-Boy, switching to the close map function, “Should be… this way,” he made his way carefully to the ticket booth and found a large manhole cover behind the small building. With the power armor enhancing his strength it was easy for Helios to just grab the cover and pull it off and to the side. Thankfully it was large enough for him to climb down. Holly joined him at the bottom and both spotted the cog-shaped door with a big 19 carved into the middle after a short slope down.

“How did Silph Co manage to get everyone down here?” Holly looked around as they walked to the Vault’s door.

“They might have sealed it early, or maybe whatever stopped Lumiose from being destroyed gave them time to move everyone underground.” Helios stopped in front of the door then banged on it with his fist, “Hello! Anyone there?”

Helios’ voice echoed around the tunnel for a moment before a camera right above the door turned its electronic eye to look down at the two. “Talking Pokemon mutants?” the voice was male and sounded incredulous. “Go away! You won’t feast on our insides!”

Helios glared up at the camera, “We’re not going to eat you and we killed the Death-Scyther that were roaming around your entrance.”

“Please, we just want to talk.” Holly looked pleadingly up at the camera, “Is your vault still sealed or can we come in?”

There was a pause before the voice answered, “We got the all-clear signal a decade ago, but we didn’t want to leave, we’re still in the middle of a battle down here. I’ll have to ask the overseers first.” Then the voice cut off.

Helios gave Holly a quizzical look, “Overseers? Plural?”

Holly just shrugged.

A few minutes passed before the voice returned, “The fire overseer says you can come in, but you’re going to need to go through decontamination.”

“That’s fine,” Holly gave a sigh of relief as the door slid inwards then rolled to the side to admit them.

The Vault’s entrance was just a long corridor that led to another door. As soon as Holly and Helios were inside the external door slid shut behind them and the voice from outside came on through a speaker. “Alright just stay there while we decontaminate. Sorry about the smell.” Immediately there was a hissing as something was sprayed into the room. The two Poke-people coughed at the smell, Helios’ most prominent thought that he hoped it wasn’t flammable.

After a minute the spray stopped and the voice came back again, “OK, you should be clean now. Just a moment.” The door at the opposite end opened which let the two Poke-people through into the Vault.

“Just like mine was,” Helios commented and looked around.

“Reminds me of home,” Holly sighed and shook her head.

A voice, the same from the speaker, greeted both of them. “Wow, so I wasn’t seeing things.” They turned to see a black-haired man in a vault suit, except it was red instead of the standard blue but still had the yellow 19 on its back. Their gazes were immediately drawn to his belt, which had three Poke Balls attached. The man grinned and grabbed one of the red and white balls, “I’ve never seen a fully evolved Charmander before, I wonder if these will work on you.”

“Don’t you-!” Helios’ voice came a moment too late.

“Poke Ball go!” the man flung the ball at Helios.

There was a blur across their vising and a sharp *shing* as Holly intercepted the ball in mid air and sliced it in half with her Cosmic Knife. There was dead silence in the room, broken only by the clattering of the two halves of the ball as they hit the floor.

Holly’s eyes flashed dangerously as the man stood there, dumbstruck, his hand still outstretched where he’d released the ball. “Don’t. Ever. Try. To. Capture. Us.” Holly’s dripped menace.

Helios had to restrain herself from drawing one of his weapons or breathing fire at his attempted captor, “Put those things away now!” fire flashed from his mouth as he did his best to restraint himself.

The man gulped and pulled his hand back, “I… I’m sorry I…”

Holly sheathed her weapon and stood up straight, “Alright, what’s your name? What’s this vault’s experiment? Do you have unmutated Pokemon here?”

The man had to screw up his courage for a minute before he answered, “My name’s Casey, as for experiment I think it’s the three-type split and yes we do.” He took one of the other Poke Balls off his belt and tossed it on the floor. The ball burst open and a form took shape.

“Charmander!” The little orange lizard with a flaming tail appeared, then balked at the two giant Pokemon in armor in front of him.

“Easy, Sepultura, they’re from the outside.” Casey patted his Charmander’s head.

“So you have trainers here,” Helios took a deep breath, reminding himself that these people didn’t know what the outside world was like. “What’s this three-type split?”

Sudden shouts from farther in the vault interrupted the conversation, “Chikorita! Razor Leaf!”

“Popplio use Water Gun!” the sound of sharp flying projectiles and the sound of a water hose striking a wall erupted.

“A battle over breakfast! I gotta get in on this, let’s go Sepultura!” Casey took off with his Charmander in tow. Too curious to avoid this, Holly and Helios followed. They almost crashed into a massive series of battles in progress on the top level of the Vault’s atrium, with a dozen battle arenas where Vault Dwellers were engaged in Pokemon Battles. The dwellers and their Pokemon were seemingly color coded: those in red suits had fire-types, another group with green suits were using grass-types and those in traditional blue were using water-types and all of the Pokemon were the species assigned as starters from the games.

“We’re up next!” Casey stood by where the Popplio and Chikorita were engaged in a battle, waiting for his turn.

Holly and Helios stepped back into the hallway, both seething at the site. “Pokemon trainers and battles, its just… ugg…” Holly shook her head, “It’s like before the war! Trapping them in balls and forcing them to fight for entertainment!” She shook from anger and partly from her own memories of the Sierra Madre.

“I know,” Helios put a hand on the shaking Zoroark-woman’s shoulder, but it was clear he was shaking inside his armor, “I just, I just!” his tail fire burned higher. Holly was starting to calm down when Helios suddenly burst through the doorway.

“STOP THIS NOW!” Helios shot a massive flamethrower into the middle of the room.

The room stood still, even the battles stopped as they saw the seething armored Charizard-man standing by the entrance. Casey, who was the closest, stood back, “Oh right. Umm…”

“A Charizard?”

“It talked!”

“Gotta be a rare one!”

“Is it from the outside?”

Helios heard and saw a couple reaching for Poke Balls. Enraged, he yanked the sledgehammer off the back of his armor and slammed it down, cracking the concrete floor, “DON’T YOU DARE!” he let out another blast, this time forming into a Fire Blast that flew up to the ceiling and exploded. Thankfully the reinforced roof was only singed but it had the desired effect as everyone returned their Pokemon and made a run for it, each heading for an exit that matched the color of their Vault suit and having a symbol over top: a flame for the red door, a leaf for the green door and a drop of water for the blue door. Even Casey recalled Sepultura and was about to run for it when Helios’ voice stopped him.

“Hold it!” he pointed with a finger, “What’s going on here?”

Casey slowly turned around to face the fuming Charizard-man and gulped, “W-w-we are split into th-three sides: fire red, water blue and grass green. When we turn ten and get our Rotom-Boys we also get a st-starter Pokemon and are told we need to battle to assert out superiority over the other two types.”

Before any more questions could be answered there was the sound of pounding feet and four Vault Security Officers emerged from each of the type-coded doors, their armor also color coded but each holding a pistol that was aimed at Helios, though each still had a Poke Ball on their belts.

“Freeze!” one of them shouted, though they could all tell it was only a matter of time before bullets started flying.

“Ack!” Casey gasped as he felt something grab him and he seized up. “Help!” he shouted which drew everyone’s attention as he seemed to be held in place, his arms squeezed against his sides.

There was an odd noise as Holly faded into visibility, holding Casey in place, Blood Nap in her right hand near his neck with her left arm around his middle.

“Everyone calm down,” Holly kept her voice level, “lower your weapons and we’ll talk, alright?”

One of the security officers in green looked at one of his compatriots then turned back to look across at Holly, “Let the kid go and we’ll talk.”

“Alright,” Holly lowered her knife and released Casey, who immediately ran to the red sector. Her action stunned the guards, who weren’t expecting cooperation, but she added, “don’t expect me to surrender. We want to talk to your overseers, then we’ll leave.”

“How can we trust you?” One of the water security officers called across, though he did lower his weapon.

Helios pounded the chest of his power armor, “Because if we wanted to overrun this disgusting place you couldn’t stop us. This is military grade hardware, we know how to use our techniques and we’ve killed Death-Scythers, including the two that were roaming around your Vault’s exit. So just let us see them.”

All three teams turned to talked to their own groups then one from each of the said, “Wait here, we’ll talk to them.” Each of the ones who spoke turned and left through their respective doors. The remaining nine security officers kept their eyes on the two guests the entire time as Holly walked back to Helios’ side.

“Risky move,” Holly whispered.

“Yeah. Sorry I couldn’t control myself,” Helios sighed, “But the sooner we get away from this horror show, the better.”

Holly nodded, “Agreed.”

They didn’t have to wait long for the three overseers to arrive: a brunette woman from the fire door, a bespectacled blonde man from the grass door and a black-haired man from the water door. All three glared daggers at each other but approached the two visitors; all three carried three Poke Balls apiece.

The fire overseer was the first to speak, “What are you Pokemon mutants doing here? Where did you come from?”

“We’re from the wasteland,” Holly folded her arms, “And we’re Poke-people. The world’s changed since you’ve been sealed in your sic-secluded vault having Pokemon Battles for Arceus knows what reason.”

“To prove which type is the best!” the water overseer cut in, pumping his fist.

“How has the world changed?” the grass overseer pushed his glasses up his nose.

“Poke-people like us are the dominant species now,” Helios pointed to his face, “Humans hybridize into Poke-people over time, most Pokemon mutate or go feral.”

“And why are you here then?” the grass overseer gave them a skeptical look.

Holly unfolded her arms, “We wanted to ask if anyone here wants to leave. We want some of them to help us with something we need pure-strain humans for.”

The fire overseer folded her arms, “Well, we have been getting some rabble rousers who keep asking to leave. It would be nice to get them off our hands.”

“Yeah, going on and on about not forcing their friends to fight, or fighting each other or just to see ‘the great outdoors’! Urrrg!” The water overseer growled, “Why not. Hey Bruce!” he turned to one of the security officers, “get those kids who keep whining and tell them they can leave if they want to.”

“Can they take their Pokemon with them?” the grass overseer tiled his head to one side, “If what you say is true it might be dangerous, but they might throw a fit if they’re forced to leave them behind.”

Helios and Holly shared a concerned look, “It might be risky, no idea how they’d adapt,” Holly said

“Forget it! I’m not dealing with a bunch of Pokemon that might pine for their old masters,” the water overseer stomped his foot, “They take their pets with them and leave anything else behind.”

“Make sure they have food and cold weather gear,” Helios called.

“Fine. Might as well break out the nuclear winter storage we never used,” the fire overseer said as she turned back to her own guards.

An hour later, 15 young vault dwellers had gathered at the entrance, each with a single Poke Ball on their belt, wearing an insulated vault suit and backpack. Among them was Casey, who gulped when he saw Holly.

The Zoroark-woman gave a disarming smile, “Sorry about earlier. Are you sure you want to go?”

Casey nodded, “Yes!” his voice cracked from nerves, “I want to see the outside, that’s why I volunteered for guard duty so I could stare at the cameras.”

“Get into the quarantine hall,” the security officer at the door controls said, “I’ll let you open the outside door but once you’re in there, you’re not getting back in. If you have any cold feet then go back inside now and stop complaining about everything in here.” None of them said anything. “Good,” the door to the quarantine hall entrance/exit opened and they all were crammed in with Helios and Holly at the entrance.

Once the door shut and locked behind them, Helios turned to the group. “Alright listen up! My name is Helios and this is Holly. We’re heading into the wasteland and this is not going to be a cakewalk: there’s raiders, mutant Pokemon and radiation but stay close and listen to us and you’ll survive. Until we get to Snowbelle City don’t hold us up. It’ll be hot for a couple days but once we get to the mountain trail it’s going to get cold. Also don’t go near or try to fight any Pokemon you see with your own, they will kill you if you piss them off but if you ignore them then they’ll ignore you.”

“Also don’t let your Pokemon out. I know they don’t need to eat much while in their Poke Balls and there will be food where we’re going.” Holly reached into her own bag and pulled out a pill bottle, “Lastly, you each need to take one of these before we leave.” She opened the bottle and showed them the red pills, “These are anti-mutation chems, the place we’re going needs you to stay human for a while. If you were eager to become Poke-people like us then you’ll just have to wait.” She started passing the pills around and watched each of them take them and a drink to wash it down.

“It’s a gonna take over a week to get where we’re going,” Helios turned to open the Vault Door, “Just stay with us, stay close and don’t fall behind. After this, there’s no going back.” The door ground open and they stepped into the corridor.

As Helios climbed up the still open manhole to see if it was safe, a thought occurred to Holly, “Shield your eyes, the first glimpse of the sun will be blinding.”

“Oh right, the sun goggles,” Casey pulled out some tinted goggled from his pack and over his eyes, as did the rest, “Vault exit gear.”

“I grew up in a similar place, it was rough the first time,” Holly nodded.

“It’s clear, come on up!” Helios called down.

Holly stayed down at the bottom of the ladder until everyone was up. All of the Vault Dwellers became disoriented from the lack of a ceiling and just how far they could see but they managed to wait until Helios had closed the manhole behind them.

“OK, kids, stay close and listen to us and you’ll all survived the walk. Let’s go!” Helios pulled out his minigun and started the trek. It took a minute for the vault dwellers, most of whom were starting to feel the heat from their insulated Vault suits and nausea from the sight distance as they started. Holly brought up the rear but kept her blades sheathed. It was going to be a long, long walk especially since they couldn’t hustle like they did on the way. Hopefully this would be enough.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "New Submission", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "image/png", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "2", "name": "Nudity", "description": "Nonsexual nudity exposing breasts or genitals (must not show arousal)", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "5", "name": "Strong Violence", "description": "Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "1" }