Nathan "Neo" Winterfield
Avalon Apostles
South of Maris, Aluna

"They're unnatural!" "Send them back where they came from!" "They're murderous!"

I swore, if I had a buck every time someone said these things, I could buy every city on the continent by now.

As of late, my job became all about putting out hysteria fires and trying to gather evidence that this whole crescendo of freaking out and panicking really wasn't necessary. But it was becoming difficult as a lot of rifts were opening up and these "Pokémon", which were probably lost, confused, and just as afraid as these people were, felt they needed to strike back and defend themselves. Every time this debate came up, I tried to see things from their point of view. How would you like it if you were sucked into an entirely different world where you are lost, alone, afraid, and simply struggling to survive? I figured most humans would be very guarded and be ready to steel themselves against everything. The only difference is these Pokémon definitely have more at their disposal than what humans have. Being able to breathe fire, discharge electricity, unleash blizzards of ice, and what have you was quite a feat in comparison to what humans can do.

But that didn't excuse what happened in Redinas and it was obviously a problem that couldn't be ignored or treated casually. This was a matter of trying to find and pacify hostile Pokémon and see if there was any way they could be controlled and brought to an understanding that peaceful human to Pokémon relations are possible. And we had already proven it was possible with some of the smaller, more tamable ones, but there were still plenty of very aggressive ones that wouldn't stop until they had more tranquilizer chemicals pumping through them than what would be needed to kill a human. But when push comes to shove, we had to be ready to sometimes make the call to put one of these creatures down if things became deadly.

Regardless of the efforts that were being deployed to get a grip on the situation here, there were many people that just plain didn't want them here regardless of the data, the studies, and the statistics that teams like the Avalon Apostles were trying to provide to prove the facts and weed out the fiction. Regardless, there were a lot of people that didn't want to listen to it and were in denial of these facts. Yes, I could understand these invasive creatures and there was no telling what introducing them to the environment would do to the area's biomes and ecosystems. We were still trying to understand both the short term and long term effects of what these incidents would bring. Still, more and more issues came up on a daily basis. We had people claiming they were causing other mishaps beyond even just regular destruction and injuring people. Some people claimed they were carrying diseases and infections and that humans here were very susceptible because we were only be exposed to these for the first time.

And that was what I was currently trying to investigate. Once again, I was deployed with a small team to capture a few wild Pokémon that locals claimed they were infected with something and bring these Pokémon back for scientific study and analysis to see if there was any validity behind that or if it was just paranoia again. Once again, that involved capturing them and holding them in cages usually meant for animals. But with Pokémon, we needed to be extra careful. We were still running into a lot of Pokémon we had never seen before and we didn't know what they were capable of until it was usually too late. Making assumptions could be fatal, but we were recognizing patterns. Usually a Pokémon's body coloring indicated what kinds of powers they were capable of. Reds usually meant fire, yellows usually meant electricity, and blues usually meant water or freezing attacks. But that was no guarantee of anything.

Still, as my team and I headed further south from Maris and deeper into the forested areas, I knew we were getting close to the incident site. We needed to be ready for anything. Thankfully, we had the homeland advantage, but they had the power. It was anyone's game right now.