"Go to Ecruteak. They will protect you. Escape while you can, we'll hold them off!"
She kept running, her breath coming sharp and ragged. Since she had escaped the facility she had ran, unable to convince herself she was safe and able to rest until she reached the city of ghosts. She had to keep moving. They would send assassins after her. A sob choked her for a moment and she slowed, before forcing it down. No. She couldn't be weak, she had to keep running.
"Don't be afraid. We'll help you."
She had been so stupid, so careless. She had believed them. They were the Blessing. They were supposed to help everyone. They had taken her, put her in a cage, cold rooms in which she could hear the cries and pleas of others. Occasionally pokemon came in, studied them. Occasionally humans would take her and do things--inject her, take her blood, make her run for hours or shock her with pulses. It was only because of a mistake that she was free. Someone had seen the others like her, made a mistake in where they were going, found themselves in places they shouldn't be.
Sounded an alarm. Let them free. She shook at that, whining. They'd be punished. She knew that intuitively. Likely harshly. That was the Blessing did, harm and maim and punish.
She was close to the city. She could hear the sound of people know. Slowly, she made her way towards the huge, hollowed out Tower that jutted up into the sky, watching a small figure in the distance soar around it.
---
"I know you have all heard the rumors of mutants escaping our facilities. Those rumors are nothing more than slander."
Ecruteak became a refuge for several of the escaped pokemon, although they wouldn't yet speak of what happened, only to weep and cry out that the Blessing did it. The Champions there were stubborn, they kept the refugees safe in their care, sheltering them.
"We were trying to help the mutants, as we help you. They became violent."
There were Blessing everywhere, outside the city, waiting. They knew what they had to do. No assassins, not quite yet. Too much attention had been drawn to them already. But perhaps they could coax the Champions to relinquish their newfound charges.
"The mission is clear. We must retrieve them before they hurt anyone else."
They had to be careful. The ones who lived in the Burned Tower were supposedly unpredictable. They couldn't make any mistakes, be perceived as a threat. They would do the Blessing well. They began to move towards the city...
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