Intermission: Plague

"Just a little... further."

He had to press on. He just had to. He coughed, before pushing his body onwards, trudging through the snow.

He had to press on. He had to make it.

Yet another cough as the snows picked up, this one worse than the last. He felt his body grow weaker. It was getting to him.

"Just... a little... further..."

He finds it harder to concentrate. It's robbing him of his senses. Not that there's much to sense in this snowstorm. Yet, despite the protests of his body, he presses on. He has to. He has to make it. If he can just make it there, he'll be saved. He-

The typhlosion coughs, weakly stumbling in the Snows. He lurches forward, his movements slow and hulkling, before he falls forward, flat on his face. He crawls forward, coughing up a dark, inky substance from his belly as he clings, desperately to life, trying to reach his destination, before falling flat, his life grinding to a halt, in front of many others that shared the same fate. Another victim of the plague.

Through it all, a lone drone of unknown make watched it all unfold. What it saw was being transmitted to a screen. Now being watched by a couple of mysterious figures.

"I see the plague continues to spread amongst the populace." One of them asks in a low, no-nonsense male voice.

"Yes sir." Its cohort, also male, replies. "So far the plague has claimed over 200 lives."

A moment of silent falls onto the room.

"And what of the royalty? Are they aware of the plague?"

"Quite aware sir. Quite aware. They've closed off all access to the outside, trying to keep the plague outside."

"And has it worked?"

"Not exactly. In fact..." The smaller associate sports a small grin of his own. "You could say it's hit... quite close to home for them. Their daughter has come down with it."

"I can only assume they are making no progress in curing it?"

"No sir." The associate shakes his head. "And not for a lack of trying on their part. They've thrown every primitive cure they could at it. Every magic spell, every 'move', every half-baked ritual, nothing works."

"I certainly hope not." The elder responds. "After all, it would be rather... inconvenient for us if they did."

"Most certainly. Although, speaking of inconveniences..." The small grin on the associate turns into a frown. "We've received word that Ivy has tried to arrange a political marriage with the Lord's son."

"Hmmm..." A hairy hand reaches up and rubs the figure's chin in thought. "We did not authorize nor advise her to do that. Most inconvenient."

"Thankfully..." The frown disappears. "It appears to have fallen through. The lord rejected it outright, citing her failure in the Sands as proof that she has no real power. She... was not happy when her envoy returned, to say the least."

"A small silver lining to that disaster." The elder sighs. "Still, a most troublesome development either way."

"Yes sir."

"We will have to let our grove operatives know to keep her on a tighter leash from here on out. Make sure that she knows that what we give her, we can take away, should she try a stunt like that again. After all, it would be quite a shame if this... 'Dungeon Liberation Army'-"

"I believe it was Dungeon Liberation Front."

"Was it? Does it matter?"

"Of course not."

"Hmph." The elder grunts. "Regardless, it would be a shame if these upstarts started to actually gain any traction. Ivy is fortunate that nothing came of this attempt at unification, or else we'd have to take more... stringent measures. We can't have them uniting together, now can we?"

"No sir."

The both turn back towards the screen, still showing the pile of bodies.

"Do we prepare the gift basket now, or..."

"Let it go on for just a little while longer. After all, those that have come here looking for a cure have proven to be quite... interesting test subjects. We wouldn't want that to stop too soon."

"Of course sir."

"But not for too much longer. After all, now that it's reached the royals themselves, panic is sure to set in. They'll get desperate. Keep an eye on things though, we can't let them stumble upon said cure on their own."

"Of course not."

"And then, we come in, cure in hand, ready to save the day."

"For a price, of course."

"Of course. And one more thing. We have to make sure they don't come and interfere with our project again." Another frown appears, this time on the elder's face. "Like they did with the Sands. They haven't figured us out yet, I hope?"

"Of course not." The associate replies quickly. 

"You sound unsure."

"We believe they may have suspicions." The associate sighs. "But nothing concrete. It is also fortuitous that these... 'Novel' humans started appearing as well, and should things go south in the community, we can point the finger of blame at them."

"Not that we need to at this point." 

"Of course not."

"Do we have any info on them, by the way?"

"Not yet. Their technology is different than ours."

"Of course it is."

"Yes sir. And it appears to be run by humans."

"Hmmph." The elder's eyes narrow. "Keep an eye on them, but do nothing as of yet. Let our... ehhem... 'friends' deal with that."

"So no direct contact as of yet?"

"No, and I would rather keep it that way. Though command might not share the opinion. We've already been inconvenienced by one group of humans once. A problem that thankfully solved itself with just a little bit of prompting on our part. We will not suffer another at the hands of another group of human upstarts."

"Yes sir." A small beeping noise comes from a device from the associate's labcoat. "Excuse me sir, I believe I'm needed elsewhere."

"Yes of course, you're dismissed, assistant."

The assistant gives a small bow before vanishing into the darkness.The elder sits on a nearby chair and folds his hands under his chin in thought.

"So the feathered upstarts think they can play benefactor and steal this world away from us? Well, we'll show them that they're not the only ones who can play this game. We aren't going to give up the scientific endeavor of a century. The USCM may have dropped the ball on it, but we most certainly won't. And we won't allow these 'novel' upstarts to take it away either."