The eras, periods of time when scions with the powers of legendary pokemon are incarnated to fight. But that was all Marciel knew. Twelve years he has been searching as a lone pokemon. Forests, mountains, ancient temples and storybook tales of old heroes and yet he only loosely pieced this vague sentence together.

How long are the periods of time and when? Powers of legendary pokemon? Incarnated to fight what and how were they incarnated? He gained more questions from this vague statement than answers.

There was only one place in the world he hadn't been yet, the place where all roads and rivers were said to lead, Valor. The kingdom of courage it was often called, although it was also known as the War Nation.

Marciel was only a day's journey from reaching Valor. He was actually traveling by river, sitting on a log gliding through the forest that rained green leaves over his wings.

He was a Butterfree of average size but green eyes and a green scarf. He never knew how he appeared socially due to being rather closed in that way. The only pokemon he knew as friends were all legendary heroes from old times that were curious and kind enough to help the youngster. They had trained him along their travels which had also given him a great sense of exploring new areas.

However, although he found many treasures of battle use or that could make him rich for life, he only kept the green scarf he had found in a lonely temple by the sea one day while he gave every other treasure to the hero who accompanied him. He was traveling with a certain Shiftry at the time, who had undoubtedly taught him the most of all of the numerous heroes. When he found it, he felt like it spoke to him, something made him want it more than any other material he had ever seen.

The Shiftry of course allowed him to keep it, immediately noticing the glimmer in his eyes and small hops he took.

"It'd be faster to walk." His thoughts were interrupted. as a Palpitoad jumped on the log. Marciel immediately went left to balance the weight.

This Palpitoad was a relatively young hero slightly older than Marciel, and was a very highly regarded and ranked member of the Nightlight Association, who acted as Valor's peace keepers and law enforcers. He had been told of Marciel's prowess from another traveler who recently worked with Marciel.

"I know Smith, but this is how I do things when the option arises. I'm still weary from my last exploration as well. When I arrive, I need to make the most of my time there." Marciel responded looking down at the water. The river was clear enough so that he could see the bottom, though the only water pokemon around was Smith.

"So, where's your first stop?" Smith asked.

"Well..." Marciel looked up for his eyes to meet a ray of sunlight making it' way through the trees. "I was hoping you'd show me everything in Valor with an old backstory. Some ancient text on a sewer wall maybe, a cavern where children and adults are forbidden to enter, or perhaps someone with an old folktale to tell."

"Aw, don't think I tell good bedtime stories?" He winked at him laying on his back.

"Well, I don't exactly sleep a lot, about six or five hours average a night and I can go two nights without sleep with no effect." Marciel drifted the conversation unsure what he meant.

"Hey, I'm pretty high up in the world. I know a good book or two you could try, and tons of historians, especially in our day and age." Smith further explained.

Marciel paused when he said "our day and age". He was aware the world was quickly advancing technologically. Buildings were starting to be made of steel and become fairly tall, and they were experimenting with building shapes and gondolas for transportation. The Nightlight Association was by far at the top of this mechanical mountain using their machinery to build a giant black tower as a fortress. It had alarm systems, one-way glass, lighting systems, and worked day and night. They were leading this sort of revolution to make pokemon's lives generally easier. That being said, life was moving at a faster pace. Some could get lost in how loud it was becoming, and it would only make sense for them to research ways to keep in high spirits like the pokemon of old have.

"So Marciel, when we get there, you should ask to head of the Nightlight Association for advice on history. We are kind of in league with all explorers, we hand out tons of info on anything to explorers for free! Some of our teams are actually exploration-based too. But unfortunately, that's my only recommendation that I'd have for you, I'm not a big history book reader." Smith hopped back into the water leaving Marciel to react quickly going back to the center to keep balance.

"I'll take up your recommendation on that. Anything else I need to know? I plan on resting momentarily." He kept track of him in the water using his eyes only.

"Yes, one last thing." Smith's head popped from the water splashing the log. "You're a living legend around Valor, so you want to be careful out in public. If you say you're Marciel, people will automatically think you're a fraud out of disbelief you're the Marciel. Oh, and the amount of pokemon in Valor will be beyond anything you've ever seen, even in Verity. Are you prepared for that?"

"I've been chased by dozens of things in temples and such. Boulders, lava... I doubt fans will be something I can't outrun too!" Marciel chuckled. "Yes, I'll keep quiet. I may only have social experience from Verity, but I think I can handle myself fine."

"Alright, now that everything is settled, just like we planned?" Smith swam in front of the log.

"Yes, you go on ahead, I'll meet you there." Marciel nodded as Smith became a shadow in the water and moved on ahead.

Free of his sudden jumping on the log, Marciel laid on his back on over the log begin resting. One trait that he's kept since he was a child was that he was always patient to get places and impatient to explore them. Once he reached Valor, he didn't plan on sleeping for a while.

He slept for about two hours periodically waking up from dreams of past adventures. Just when the boulder cornered him he had woken up to find himself leaving the woods. The sun had also helped in waking him up as it was no longer mostly blocked by trees.

What he saw next was something that would change every further dream forever.

Valor was a huge city, from a distance appearing as a utopia. Standing out above it all was the giant black tower with the initials "N.A." sprawled over to top on one of the sides looking down on Valor. It overlooked many other high buildings but stood out by it's black color and height halfway to the clouds as it grew thinner and thinner the higher it was. All of these high steel buildings were mixed in with small homes, a few made of wood with hay for roofs. Even from a distance Marciel could see how crowded to ground was, and the air was not short of pokemon either, though there weren't as many. The entire city was surrounded by large walls that looked very old and unused.

While observing the scene he was ignorant of the fast approaching waterfall nearing. He noticed just barely in time jump to the nearby ground letting the log fall over. Only from the waterfall did he noticed the body of water circling the city on all sides, showing that Valor was built on land in the center of a lake.

"Well then... This would have made a bedtime story..." Marciel commented to himself. He began to slowly fly toward the Nightlight Association, where Smith had told him to meet. He began to blend in with the dots in the sky, all flying pokemon like himself. Once he reached just over the wall however, he chose to walk instead to see Valor up close.

The streets were incredible to him, all of them made of marble bricks making straight paths for walking giving the entire city a clean white and sparkly look. The blue sky made the overall scene a beautiful sight of blue and white.

Walking along Marciel noticed that life here was more laid back than his by a huge margin. The children were playing instead of training and the adults were simply watching instead of helping them train. Marciel always wondered what is would be like to have what most considered a normal childhood, but if anything he thought it looked confining exploring pretend ruins instead of real ones.

He was overall surprised at their general lifestyle, lax and busy at the same time. If anyone had told him this, he wouldn't have been able to understand it until now.

The Nightlight Association was in the center of Valor, making it a straight path save some turns from moving around buildings to reach it no matter where you were, and it was easy to see from everywhere.

Thankfully, he wasn't noticed by any other pokemon for being some legend. He reached the Association with ease and quickly too. For such a large building, it had relatively smaller doors than what he expected. Enough for all large pokemon, but no more than that.

Marciel jumped back when the doors slid open on their own when he approached them. This almost only ever happened to him in dangerous situations. He looked left and right out of habit to see no one noticed his behavior, but still felt awkward all the same.

"Hey, over here! I'll show you up!" Smith gestured to him to follow. "This way, come meet the crew!"

He led him a square room that had doors that slid closed behind him.

"What is this room?" Marciel inquired.

"Not a room, elevator! Well, sort of a room. This brings you to different floors of the Association. We're going straight to the top."

Marciel felt strange as the room they were in started moving upwards as he typically was flapping his wings for such. He noticed on one side of the room appeared to be open and overlooked the entire tower.

"Well, this seems a bit unsafe... How many have fallen?" He commented.

"Oh, this is called glass. It's a see through and solid material, so there's no danger... Just don't go punching it, some glass tends to break easy." Marciel nodded understanding.

"It's going to feel kind of awkward when we reach the top floor, so don't panic about it. It'll just be us slowing down reaching the top."

Marciel felt like a weight was on his shoulders when they came to a stop. The two doors slid open again revealing a huge black room with no windows and screens everywhere up high.

"So, who's this 'crew' you were referring to?" Marciel cautiously looked around inside.

"They're the highest ranks in the Association. Let's see, the list is the leader, the master ranks, and the overlord rank." Smith looked around casually.

"Overlord rank?" Marciel questioned feeling safe enough to look around.

"Yes. The overlord rank and leader both hold the same amount of power over the Association. The overlord rank is obtained through a team that has performed miracle missions, the highest level. The leader is chosen through a more political way. Also, there can only be one overlord rank at a time, and normally they remain the overlord rank for life. Our current overlord rank is quite young, around your age and has done countless miracle mission. Being quite powerful, I wouldn't mind seeing you two battle!" Smith was changing the screen projection somehow, which Marciel couldn't figure out.

"They're coming up the elevator right now." He reported.

"Have you told them who I am and why I'm here?" Marciel asked with a hand on his face in thought.

"No, I haven't. But the Association is always happy meeting and allying themselves with explorers. Here they are, I'll introduce you." Smith hopped over to the elevator door as it opened.

"So, you want longer lunch breaks is what I'm concluding from this conversation. Is this an excuse for more of a break?" An Ariados asked the group as they walked to seperate parts of the room, not noticing Marciel in the corner. The other pokemon in the group were a Victini, Lucario, Vaporeon, Staraptor, and a Grumpig.

"Well, I mean, I still am for the taking turns idea for eating lunch. Hey Smith, what say you?" The Vaporeon asked.

"I'm neutral on the subject. Anyway, I have someone to introduce-"

"Neutral? This is life-changing business we're discussing..." Staraptor cut him off.

"Ugh, I have some to intro-"

"Get down!" The Victini shouted to Smith firing a fire blast from her hands his way. He did as instructed not being able to process anything else.

Marciel reacted by defending himself with physic dispersing the flame in a harmless cloud of smoke around him that quickly faded. He stayed silent afterward.

"Wait, I was going to introduce him to you!" Smith stood back up again slightly blocking Marciel from view. "He's an explorer, alright?"

The entire group sighed besides Smith and Marciel.

"Ugh... This has happened far too many times..." The Lucario crossed his arms.

"Anyways..." Smith commented to prevent silence. "He's-"

"Yes, yes... What does he need from us?" The Lucario asked.

"I do not require anything to operate. I was simply invited here by Smith." Marciel answered blankly.

"Well, we only have time to help explorers who truly require our help for groundbreaking discoveries. Show your friend out Smith..." Lucario turned back to the screen which was changing intricately.

"Well, all I can say is sorry Marciel..." Smith looked down.

"Wait! The Marciel!" Vaporeon exclaimed as the entire group looked back at the two of them.

"Uh..." Smith looked around trying to avoid eye contact.

"Do you know this pokemon?" Lucario questioned.

"Oh, I've only heard of him! A living legend! The call him the dragon-winged Butterfree, the green shielded explorer, the villager's hero... He's the most powerful explorer in the world, and every other explorer knows it! They say his wings have unnatural powers!" Vaporeon finished as if she was reciting it from memory. However, just when she finished the elevator doors shut closed leaving the room missing Marciel.

"Wh-where's he..." Smith looked back at the elevator and immediately used another one next to it to follow.

Marciel exited the building in a hurry. The Association was clearly biased in what explorers they provided too, only those with some sort of record. Not only that, but he didn't require information to search for older places in the city.

"Wait, please, give it a chance! We could make it go faster if one of our teams helps you!" Smith called out to him as he left the building. He was breathing heavily as he ran to catch up, although Marciel had stopped for him. "Here, we want to discover more of the world. You've been to so many places and have learned so many things we don't even know about right now! If you just co-operate with us, you could be set for life with everything you've already done! That Victini up there, her name was Anne. She's the overlord rank, you two could work together!"

By now he had caught the attention of pokemon in the area. Marciel had guessed Smith was well-known as well judging from how they were reacting.

"Listen, as good as the offer sounds, it is clear they are in the history business to help their own name, even though I doubt they need help with it... I'm doing this for the betterment of the world, so that we know the past to predict our future, and avoid it if need be. And besides, I do just fine on my own..."

"I'm going with."

Marciel heard the voice that shouted earlier call to him again, this time much calmer but still as demanding. He saw Anne walk slowly through the sliding doors.

"Listen, it will be undeniably faster if I point out things to you and let you work your magic that you apparently have rather than you flying aimlessly till you spot something. And besides, from what Vaporeon said you've worked with pretty high level pokemon before anyway, and a lot of them. Besides, I'm curious." By the time she had finished talking she had reached Marciel walking at the same pace.

"Well, since you feel that way about it, I am willing to go along with this plan." Marciel held out his hand and she shook it. "I'll let you lead the way then."

"First on the list is the park. It apparently has been in Valor and kept in it's natural state for as long as the kingdom as existed... That's been a while." Anne explained.

Marciel followed close at her side, feeling rather uncomfortable because most pokemon took notice of her. He tired making as little eye contact as possible, but often the only way to avoid it was simply looking up into the sky. Anne didn't take notice of him being nervous.

"Oh, and when we get there, just do your thing, even if it looks weird. Your experience in things like this surpasses any viewer that'll judge you." Anne turned a sharp corner down a side street with not a soul to be seen on it.

"And listen, don't tell anyone at the Association about our little expedition, especially if we find something." Anne remarked just before they turned back onto another main road.

"Understood." Marciel absentmindedly replied.

"Strange, I thought you'd be curious as to why..." Anne wondered aloud.

"All of my hypothesis as to why you wouldn't want others to know only lead to showing you being pure in your intentions. That is enough knowledge to satisfy me on the subject." Marciel explained.

"Alright then. You certainly do know how to weed out details you want." Anne observed as they reached the park.

The park was completely covered in green save the brown paths and bark on the trees. In the middle was a like with what to Marciel looked like flowers of water erupting constantly from certain places on it.

It was clear to Anne Marciel was impressed by the sight. Although he's seen a life's worth of nature, he'd probably never seen it look so friendly, and certainly not children running around in it.

"There's definitely something here." Marciel felt his heart race as a familiar feeling washed over him.

"Uhhhhh..." Anne looked over at him in wonder.

"This layout triggers far too much familiarity. I have seen a place that mirrors this. I am trying to remember where and what..." Marciel slowly grew quieter as he spoke.

He began to start poking around the trees as Anne watched awkwardly. She was being stared at much more than Marciel was, even if he was acting a little strange. He had begun to start hitting the trees lightly while he had his head to them listening to the sound they made.

"Right here, Anne." Marciel called to her. She followed trying to look casual at the crowd watching.

Marciel was standing in front of a relatively small tree looking down at it's trunk. When Anne stood next to him he flapped his wings with a shocking power sliding the tree over making a small path in the ground, and revealing a gaping hole underneath.

"You don't have to follow if you don't desire to, but I am entering." Marciel said as Anne was still processing his power and what he found. Onlookers were astounded as well.

"What do you say?" Marciel turned to her though she was still gaping. "I'll take the lead of course so you won't be in as much danger."

"I... I'll be fine of course. I'm the most powerful known pokemon in the world. Let's go." She nodded recomposing herself quickly.

"Alright." Marciel hopped down inside as Anne nervously followed. Most missions she took were outlaw missions or rescue missions. Although explorers tended to be weak overall, Marciel was in a different league entirely, and she worried just how much danger he was used to.

She was surprised by how deep the hole was, having to use her wings eventually once she started falling to fast. She landed slowly in a surprisingly lit room with Marciel already looking around. The ground was purely grass and the entire room had brown circular walls.

"Something feels wrong here. Get close to me." Marciel ordered.

"What is this place?" Anne whispered the question while obeying.

"An ancient Acuitan temple. Acuity is a kingdom that fell centuries ago, but I feel danger in this room. Anne..." Marciel turned looking her in the eyes. "Get out of this room quickly." Marciel shook his head in the direction of the opening in the ceiling. Anne obeyed wordlessly going under the ray of light before jumping upwards and out of sight.

Marciel looked back to a part of the circular walls on the other side of the room that had writing on it. He couldn't shake the ominous feeling he was having now, it was beyond what he had during his first exploration, pure dread.

He had grown to understand their language over the years, and began reading what it said to himself.

If you are reading this, run and find my sword and its wielder, quickly.

Marciel of course turned around to leave the room, but saw what looked like a pokemon floating in the ray of light, and it wasn't Anne. The pokemon was pink with unnatural and sickening purple eyes. It had what looked like a tail from it's head and was staring with murderous intent that Marciel could feel in the room.

He was able to identify it as a form of the pokemon Mewtwo he had seen depicted in Acuitan murals. It was often shown as an enemy partly responsible for Acuity's downfall and that it received power from a demonic bird.

And he had just awoken it, and it had an sinister look.

"Well done, explorer."

Marciel heard a voice from above as a familiar Lucario and Palpitoad fell down. They were also accompanied by a Munchlax.

Marciel stepped back in fear.

"I'm surprised you found him so quickly, but I did know you did the moment this one was fleeing." The Lucario held Anne, who was struggling, effortlessly in one hand. "You may address me as Greed."

"You may address me as Sloth." Smith now known to Marciel as Sloth spoke up.

"Gluttony." The Munchlax said. "You're lucky to be the live bait instead of what we're going to catch..."

Find my sword and its wielder, quickly.

The words came back to Marciel's mind quickly. Obviously these two things were their weaknesses, and he actually knew just who they were live bait for.

Marciel flapped his wings using an extremely powerful silver wind, making it hard to see although Mewtwo was the only one to not react.

In the confusion, Marciel quickly tackled down the Lucario, grabbed Anne's hand, and quickly flew upwards letting go once out of the room.

"I'm going to the forest to look for someone, what's your plan?" Marciel hurriedly as they neared the opening.

"I'm going with you. I don't know what was just unearthed in there, but you're the strongest pokemon I can trust. You lead the way!" Anne replied as they both shot into the sky.

Below in the cave, Mewtwo was watching emotionless as Greed trudged around checking to see if they were still inside.

"Shall we hunt master Yami?" Gluttony asked bowing to the Mewtwo now identified as Yami.

"No, would be a waste of time better used. Making Valor our fortress and the Association our army is our main priority." Yami disappeared in quick but bright flash.

"Then let's begin. By the time they return, they will know the true power of greed..." Lucario looked up to where his superior was a moment ago.

"And they will submit."