The heat had hardly been bareable for the past few weeks. Perhaps that was the cause of the rabid behavior that had been exhibited by the Pokémon of the mystery dungeons that Rescue Team Yellow had explored during their search and rescue missions.

"Tiny Woods is going to be a piece of cake to find Bellsprout's friend. She thinks that Budew is deep in the forest, down in 3F," a male Machop said to his yellow companion.

"Yep," the Psyduck replied. He stared at the ground, sighing. Then he said, "Muscle, I'm glad you're still with me."

"I know Psyle. Trust me, I'll never leave you, we're Team Yellow," Muscle, the gray Pokémon told his partner. "Come on, let's get going."

As they grew near Tiny Woods, Psyle grabbed his head and groaned in pain.

"Psyle are you alright?! What's wrong?"

"Ugh...headache!"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When Psyle opened his eyes, they flashed white and he psychically hurled Muscle down the hill.

"Are you alright?" Psyle ran down the hill, giving his friend a blue Oran Berry to heal him.

"You always do that when you have a headache," Muscle groaned, getting to his feet. He chuckled, "Maybe we should look for some herbs to get rid of those."

"Yeah, we should," Psyle said. "I should have looked for something to make them stop after she left."

"That wasn't your fault."

"I hurt her!"

"She was strong. She chose to leave Team Yellow. Now we need to continue her work and become a Gold Rank Rescue-Exploration Team like she would have wanted."

"Humph, she's probably already on her way to fame with Charcoal. Soon we'll hear about them like Team ACT or Team Charm."

"And they'll hear about the famous Team Yellow. Have faith in Arceus, Psyle. Everything happens for a reason."

Muscle gave his friend a sincere smile. Psyle politely returned one, but then his bill returned to a perpetual frown.

Muscle and Psyle knew that something was wrong before they entered Tiny Woods. The five trees and two logs that made up the entrance to the mystery dungeon had become rotted.

"How could this happen?" Muscle asked. "We were here just two days ago!"

Psyle shook his head, not knowing the answer.

The grass in the clearing had died and turned black.

"There's someone in there!" Psyle exclaimed, seeing a speck of brown fur amidst the black, rotting debris.

"We have to help them!" Muscle cried.

The two members of Team Yellow ran to the center of the entrance clearing and moved away the debris from the unconscious Pokémon.

As soon as Muscle touched the Eevee, her eyes shot open.

"Wh...where am I?"

"You're outside Tiny Woods. Do you remember how you got here?" questioned Muscle.

The Eevee shook her head. "I don't remember anything. Who...what are you?"

"We're Pokémon. I'm a Machop, he's a Psyduck, and you're an Eevee."

"I'm sorry...I can't remember anything at all."

"Do you remember your name at least?" Psyle asked.

She stared at him. "My...name...?"

"My name is Psyle, and this is Muscle," the Psyduck told her.

"I see," the Eevee nodded. "It's nice to meet you."

After staring blankly into space she told Muscle and Psyle, "I believe I am...Eve."

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance Eve," Muscle smiled.

"You know, if you have no idea who you are or where you come from, you could always join us," Psyle told her. "We're a Rescue-Exploration Team."

"What is that?"

"We help Pokémon from all over the Air Continent and do jobs for them. Most jobs consist of search and rescue missions, like finding lost items or missing Pokémon. But some are more intense, where we hunt down outlaws."

"Well...if you help people, I suppose I should be a good person and assist you."

"Maybe you'll discover you're past through the more good you do," Muscle suggested.

"Perhaps..." Eve gave him a small smile.

"So are you in?" he asked.

"Why not?" Eve decided to give it a shot.

"Great! Welcome to Team Yellow!"

"We're actually about to go on a mission through a mystery dungeon right now," Psyle said.

"Mystery dungeon?"

"They're like labyrinths, different areas of mazes that have multiple paths."

"And if that wasn't tricky enough, they're also home to rabid, wild Pokémon."

"So we must defend ourselves."

"Right, using the moves we know. Do you...do you think you know any moves?"

Eve said, "I do not know. But we will soon find out."

And so, with its new member, Team Yellow set out into Tiny Woods to find the missing Budew.

They fought the rabid Pidgey, Wurmple, Exeggcute, and Sunkern with relative ease. Eve did in fact know two moves, Bite and Swift. The flurry of stars she emitted from her mouth led to the defeat of numerous wild Pokémon.

When they reached the end of the Tiny Woods, Team Yellow saw Bellsprout's friend Budew being terrorized by a rabid Sunflora. The yellow flowers around its head were dying, and its green body was drying up.

"Maybe you were right about the heat wave turning all the wild Pokémon crazy," Muscle told Psyle.

"Sunflora, stop!" Psyle called. "We are Team Yellow, here to rescue Budew! We don't want to hurt you, just let her go!"

Sunflora snarled and began to run towards the three teammates. Muscle made a break for Budew, skirting around the rabid Sunflora.

Psyle used headbutted Sunflora, but it didn't do much besides worsen his headache. He grabbed his head and stood immobile, closing his eyes and trying to get rid of the pain.

"Arceus help me..." Psyle muttered, taking a page out of Muscle's faith book.

"Stay back!" Eve growled at Sunflora. She bit the rabid Pokémon, and with all her might tugged her away from Psyle. Sunflora moaned and lunged at Eve.

She held her mouth open in shock, then took a deep breath and remembered she could use Swift as well as Bite. Eve roared, opening her mouth wide, expecting a flurry of stars to shoot into Sunflora. But it was not so.

A black and purple glob of shadows formed outside Eve's mouth and blasted into Sunflora, knocking her out.

Just what was that move? I thought I had used Swift before?

"Great job Eve!" Psyle patted her on the back, having been curbed of his headache.

"You okay kid?" Muscle asked the little Budew.

"Now that you've all rescued me!" Budew replied, hugging him.

"Did you see what happened?" Eve asked Psyle as they walked over to Muscle and the little Budew.

"No, I was too busy trying to stop my headache."

"Instead of Swift, I preformed a different move. A glob of shadows emitted from my mouth."

"You used Shadow Ball?! But that's a Ghost type move, not a Normal type!"

"Um...what?"

"What Psyle means is that you, being a Normal type, shouldn't be able to know Ghost type moves."

Eve sighed. "I wish I could remember things..."

"Your memories will probably come back to you in time," Muscle tried being optimistic.

"Okay guys I'm pretty sure Budew has had enough time being in these woods. Let's get back to Pokémon Square," Psyle said.

Muscle nodded, and pulled out a rescue badge from his bag. "This signifies that we're an exploration team. It can teleport us out of a mystery dungeon after we've completed a job."

As Team Yellow and the missing Budew became enveloped by a blue light, Eve wondered, Why don't I remember anything? It's as if I was barely born.

Eve opened her eyes to a pair of bulletin boards next to the building of a white bird Pokémon.

"This is Pelipper Post Office, where we can get job opportunities from the bulletin boards," Muscle explained.

A Bellsprout ran over to the bulletin boards and hugged her missing friend Budew.

"Thank you so much Team Yellow! Is like to give you this Oran Berry and this Pecha Berry as a reward."

Psyle grinned as they obtained explorer points and moved up to Silver Rank.

"You joined at just the right time Eve. Soon Team Yellow will be a famous Super Gold Rank Exploration Team."

Eve smiled at him, all while wondering why he had such a desire for fame.

"Let's show you around Pokémon Square," Muscle decided.

Eve thought it was quite strange that most of the shops were simply large constructions of the owner Pokémon heads. Muscle dropped things off from the bag in Kanghaskan Storage, bought a Reviver Seed from the Kecleon brothers, and deposited money into Persian's Felicity Bank.

"It's been a long day," Muscle said as they were walking through the center of Pokémon Square.

"Team Yellow!" a young Caterpie rushed over to them. "I need your help!"

"Of course we'll help you Caterpie," Psyle told him. "What happened?"

"My friend Metapod and I were visiting our friend Gligar at Mt. Deepgreen when we were attacked by a monster!"

"Mt. Deepgreen, isn't that where many berries are grown because the soil is so rich?" Muscle asked.

"Right, but it's not so good anymore," Caterpie said. "All of the grass and plant life has died! Now instead of it being clean air, there's a dense fog over everything. Metapod and I barely managed to find our friend Gligar. But when we saw the monster I dropped my brand new exploration kit."

"We'll get it back for you," Psyle promised.

"What did this monster look like?" Muscle asked.

"All we saw was a white skull before we ran off."

"Don't worry, we'll set out in the morning."

"Do you two really believe the child saw a monster?" Eve asked as they walked out of the settlement of Pokémon Square.

"It had to have been a Pokémon," Psyle said.

"We'll find out tomorrow," Muscle stated.

Muscle and Psyle brought Eve to a large yellow and tan colored hut. A stone path led to the entrance of the hut, a small pond was on the right side of the hut, and green shrubbery and flowers grew on the left side of the hut. A brown mailbox was near the stone path near the shrubbery.

"This is our Team Base, where we live," Muscle explained.

The three Pokémon walked inside. There were four beds of hay inside the circular hut. Many beautiful flowers decorated the walls, and there were buckets of berries and water to eat and to drink.

"We should get a good night's sleep," Muscle said.

"Right," Psyle agreed.

As Eve lied down to go to sleep, she announced, "I'm glad I met the two of you."

After Eve fell asleep, Muscle sat next to Psyle.

"I'm surprised you invited Eve to join our team."

"It's what she would have done."

"Right."

"You know, outside Tiny Woods where we found Eve is where I first met her. She found me unconscious and helped me. Eve reminds me of her, with her strong desire to help people."

"I just wish we could help Eve," Muscle sighed, "you know, get her to remember her past."

"Do you think she's a Human?"

"What? You're crazy, she can't be a Human!"

"Why not? It's not unheard of. Remember the Ninetails Legend! And not to mention the Legendary Explorer that saved the world."

"Let's just go to bed. Enough crazy theories for one night."

The next morning, Eve opened her eyes to an empty hut. Did they leave me behind? No they wouldn't have!

She was debating on whether or not to tell them of her strange dream. She had been tormented by a shadowy figure with red eyes shrouded in darkness. She shook her head, trying to get the image out of her mind.

Eve decided not to say anything when she saw Muscle and Psyle smiling at her.

"Good morning!" Her teammates told her.

"Ready to go?" Muscle asked her.

"Yes," Eve nodded.

Team Yellow walked west from their Team Base and traveled to Mt. Deepgreen. Caterpie was not lying, the formerly lush area was now shrouded in fog and full of dying vegetation.

As Team Yellow walked cautiously through the dense fog, they began to hear wailing and rattling that sounded close.

A plaintive and mournful sound echoed around them.

They saw a brown figure slumped over on the edge of the mountainside, looking at the sinking moon and rising sun.

"Hello," Muscle called. "We're Rescue Team Yellow. Do you need any help?"

"It sure looks like it," Psyle muttered.

"He seems so...sad," Eve whispered.

"No," the Pokémon replied, with bitterness in his voice. "Leave me alone!"

"Please, let us help you," Muscle would not give up on this sad Pokémon.

"You can't help me!" The brown bipedal Pokémon jumped up, grabbed a nearby bone and turned around. The brown Pokémon with a light brown belly was wearing a white skull over his head. The only parts of his face that were visible were the areas around his triangular black eyes. He was shaking in rage. "Go away! Leave me alone!"

As Psyle edged closer to Caterpie's exploration kit, the Pokémon threw his bone like a boomerang which collided with Psyle's head. He collapsed next to Caterpie's kit, saying, "Like I needed another head injury..."

"That's a Cubone!" Muscle told Eve, handing her his bag. "He just used Bonemerang. Go check on Psyle, I'll try talking to him."

Eve nodded, running over to Psyle. She gave him an Oran Berry to heal.

Muscle walked towards the Cubone, telling him, "We're a Rescue Team. All we want is to get our friend's lost explorer kit."

"Then take it and leave!"

"But you need help too!"

"I said it before, you can't help me!" The Cubone lunged towards Muscle and let out all of his rage. He punched and kicked the gray Machop.

"Get off of him!" Eve commanded. She ran towards the two fighting Pokémon and raised her claw, about to slash the Cubone, when a black and purple shadow formed around her claw. She clawed him and managed to knock the Cubone off of Muscle.

"Another Ghost type move?" Muscle asked.

"I guess so..." Eve nodded. "It was like a shadowy claw formed over my own."

Psyle opened his bill and emitted a stream of water, hitting the Cubone and knocking him to the ground.

"Nice, super effective Water Gun!" Muscle grinned. He and Eve ran over to the Cubone, whose rage had turned into confusion.

"Did you do that?" Muscle asked Psyle.

"Nope...my psychic abilities have been spotty since...you know."

"I'm sorry," the Cubone told them, snapping out of confusion.

"You know, we didn't just come to rescue the explorer kit. We're Team Yellow, we rescue items and Pokémon."

"You can't rescue me from my pain," the Cubone cried. The sorrowful rattle echoed around the team.

"What happened to you?" Eve asked.

"My mother was killed," he told them. "She was everything to me, my only family."

"We're sorry for you," Psyle told him.

"When was she killed?" Muscle asked.

"After everything started dying. I was with my friends when she was attacked by a huge fiery monster that was brought out of the shadows."

Muscle, Psyle, and Eve exchanged looks.

"We thought the heat wave was the cause of the rabid Pokémon that are in the mystery dungeons, but what if those fiery and shadowy Pokémon are behind it?" Muscle suggested.

"It's definitely a possibility," Psyle said.

"Do you have a name?" Eve asked the Cubone.

"Yes," he told her, "my name is Marrow."

"Marrow, you could join our team," Muscle said. "You don't have to be alone anymore."

Marrow looked down at the ground, deep in thought. After several moments, he finally asked, "Even after I attacked you?"

"You just had your rage focused on the wrong thing," Psyle said. "How about you use that rage against outlaws and the fiery and shadowy Pokémon?"

Marrow nodded.

"Okay," he said with a hint of happiness in his voice. "I'll join your team."

"Welcome to Team Yellow!"

As Muscle shined the Exploration Badge on the team, Marrow thought to himself: It's strange to feel happy...but I'm glad to be accepted instead of being feared and lonely.

"Thank you for getting my explorer kit!" Caterpie told Psyle when he saw them outside the post office.

Accompanied by Metapod and Gligar, they gave Psyle a Rawst Berry and two Oran Berries as thanks.

"Did you see the monster..." Caterpie's voice trailed off when he saw Marrow behind Muscle.

"This is Marrow," Eve told them.

Marrow waved at them with the hand that was not holding his bone.

"He's not a monster," Muscle assured the novice explorers. "Marrow just experienced an extremely traumatic event."

"Oh we understand," Caterpie, Metapod, and Gligar nodded.

"Thanks again Team Yellow! See you around!" They walked off to their other friends in the center of Pokémon Square.

"How's that for a day?" Muscle asked as they walked to the Team Base.

"This is our home," Psyle said.

"Where is Marrow going to sleep?" He asked as they walked inside.

"There's a bed of hay right here," Muscle said.

"That's Floral's..." Psyle's voice trailed off. "Uh, nevermind..."

"Who is Floral?" Eve asked.

"She was a member of Team Yellow," Muscle explained, "but she left us a while ago."

"You loved her?" Eve questioned.

"I...how do you even know what love is, you lost your memories!" Psyle replied.

Eve shrugged.

"Marrow can take the bed," Muscle said. "Psyle...Floral is not coming back any time soon."

Psyle sighed. "I guess you're right. Well, everything happens for a reason is what you always say, right Muscle? Maybe it's fate that we're all together."

Marrow scoffed, "Right...a bunch of tortured souls working together. The perfect team."

"Hey, I'm not a tortured soul," Muscle said.

Yes you are, Eve thought. You're just better at keeping it bottled up than we are.

As she curled up to go to bed, Eve wondered, How is it possible that I know Ghost type moves? I hope that I can find that answer if I can get my memories back...

A dark figure emerged out of the shadows of the Magma Cavern, once occupied by the mighty Groudon. Now it was inhabited by Heatran.

"Thank you for your services. The King of the Netherworld is pleased with all of the death and destruction your heat wave has caused."

"Only because you forced me to!"

"Tell that to the ones who want you dead. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must return to my master. Sweet nightmares, Heatran."

A black and purple ball shot out of the shadows and hit Heatran. It enveloped him in a sphere, and Heatran fell asleep.

The shadow-like Pokémon transcended planes, leaving the world of the Air Continent and entered the Netherworld.

"Master," it kneeled to a towering figure with gleaming red eyes and horns that were visible in the darkness.

"Darkrai, you have done well turning the wild Pokémon rabid and using Heatran to cause the wildlife to die. But we must find the Reikieon. I cannot allow any other souls to return to that land."

"I shall scour the entire Air Continent, master."

"I expect no less. You know what happens to those who fail me."

Darkrai bowed to the King of the Netherworld and faded into the shadows.

"Let the hunt begin!"