Chapter 1
Crack!
My head snapped up, and I scanned the snow-covered trees for the source of the noise. Ever since Team Galactic had taken over Sinnoh, and then captured my best friend, Lucas, I'd been very jumpy, certain that Damion (my other best friend) and I would be next. The three of us had, after all, been most active in undermining their schemes. A shadow flitted from one tree to the other. A humanoid shadow. It wasn't Lucas, who'd been captured. It wasn't Damion, who was in the house, still unconscious from Team Galactic's attack. No one else knew we were here. It was either a random stranger or a Team Galactic goon. Better safe than sorry. I nodded at Zora, my Lucario, who was on guard duty with me. Then I called toward the forest.
"You in the trees! Show yourself!"
The shadow made no response. Zora jumped up and sniffed the air, trying to pinpoint the shadow's location. I decided to give it another chance.
"If you don't show yourself, I'll assume you're a bad guy and my Lucario will drag you out."
The shadow melted out of the trees and solidified into a young woman, barely older than me. She had shoulder length aqua hair and deep brown eyes. She was wearing what would have looked like a space suit, except that it was not bulky. She was a Team Galactic grunt; they all looked like this. This girl was a member of the group that went around stealing Pokémon from innocent trainers and menacing society by wearing those ridiculous outfits, not to mention they'd captured and done who-knows-what to one of my best friends.
I snarled. So did Zora, and hers was much more impressive. She stalked forward silently to battle the girl. Zora had seen how Pokémon suffer at the hands of Team Galactic, and she felt no mercy for them. At times like this, I realized just how glad I was that she was on my side; when Zora was angry, she was terrifying.
The girl backed up a step, glancing from Zora to me, and said shakily,
"I have no Pokémon. I won't hurt you, so please don't hurt me."
I looked at Zora for confirmation. Her ability to sense auras meant that she could read thoughts and understand all human languages. And, of course, communicate telepathically.
I sense no insincerity from her. You are safe. Zora told me. Then she came up out of her battle crouch and backed up toward me, still studying the girl, a mixture of wariness and curiosity in her eyes. I knew what she was thinking. The girl might not be about to leap at our throats, but she was still one of Team Galactic. Then Zora glanced sharply at the house behind us. Hesitating, she looked back and studied the girl for another moment, then went inside. Before I could begin to formulate a question, she was gone.
The girl looked curiously at the door Zora had vanished through. "What was all that about?"
"No idea," I answered curtly.
She noticed this and raised her hands in defense. "Look, I'm not Team Galactic."
I raised an eyebrow at the hair and suit and retorted, "It's a little late for Halloween."
She elaborated. "I was part of Team Galactic, but I left them. At first I agreed with their plan to destroy this world and create a new one, but then I saw what they were prepared to do to attain their goals. I left."
"But that's not the only reason, is it?" I guessed. For whatever reason, I was really good at reading peoples' faces and body language, and maybe some of Zora's ability had rubbed off on me, but I could tell this girl wasn't being entirely truthful.
A shadow crossed her face and she bit her lip. She studied me for a moment, then seemed to come to a decision.
"Okay," she said. "I might as well tell you everything. My name is Haley. I joined Team Galactic almost a year ago. My Croagunk didn't want to, but he came with me. My job was to go around and convince people to join us. After nearly a year, I'd recruited thirty-four people, more than anyone else with my job.
"Then I got a new job. We were getting ready to take the lake Pokémon and I was supposed to help keep people out of the Lake Acuity area. But the boy with the white hair-"
"Damion." I interrupted.
"Yes, Damion. He showed up and defeated all of us before falling to Commander Jupiter. We were all punished for our failures, and they-" Haley stopped, seemingly unable to go on. Her face pinched up, and I could tell she was reliving a painful memory. I couldn't help putting a hand on her shoulder- I felt a strange connection with Haley.
"What happened?" I asked, feeling compassion and genuine curiosity. Haley was obviously the tough, determined sort; what could have happened to break her calm mask with only the memory?
"They- they… took Croagunk. I just woke up one morning and he wasn't there. Commander Mars had had a grunt sneak into my room and take him while I was asleep. They wouldn't give him back; they said I was 'undeserving'. They said if I was so desperate for a Pokémon, I should just go and steal one like the other grunts. I had stood by and watched them steal Pokémon before and it hadn't bothered me much, but I realized then how wrong it was. So I left. I decided I would get other Pokémon, then come back and challenge them. I would get Croagunk back if I could.
"Char?" A low, growling voice interrupted us. I whirled around; I knew that voice.
A Charmeleon jumped out from behind a rock. "Char! Char-charmeleon!" My friend greeted me.
"Does she know you?" Haley asked me.
"Yeah." I said, and launched into the story. I told her how Team Galactic had chased us (Damion, Lucas, and I) through the Coronet Range's cave systems. We'd taken the main path, which led more or less straight through the range, and then we'd decided to follow a side path to lose our pursuers, ignoring the stories of how many people had gotten lost in the labyrinth. Well, of course we'd gotten lost, and we'd been wandering aimlessly for around an hour. Then my Houndoom, Kati, found an injured Charmeleon, which was odd because they didn't live in this region. We'd stopped to help her, and when she had healed, she showed us the way out of the caves.
Once we were out of the range, we were ambushed by Team Galactic. They'd captured Lucas and knocked out Damion. They would have gotten him, too, and then me, but I'd gotten my Pokémon to dig a hole in the snow just beyond the fringe of the forest, which we hid in. With the falling snow and the confusion of the ambush, nobody had noticed and they'd left shortly, thinking we'd escaped.
I had found an old house a few miles away, one that was once used as a resting place for weary travelers. It had been hastily abandoned, probably soon after the Team Galactic takeover three weeks previously. Abandoned with it was a month's supply of canned and dried food, and I'd decided we should stay there, that is, here, until Damion woke up and then we could figure out how to get Lucas back. We'd been here four days since, and I was starting to worry that Damion wouldn't wake up.
In those four days, I had organized a guard shift. Two Pokémon, or sometimes one Pokémon accompanied by me, would stay outside at all times and watch for Team Galactic goons. Damion's Pokémon decided among themselves that one of their number would remain by his side at all times, waiting for him to wake up.
Just as I finished my story, Zora came out of the house.
Come, she told me.
"What is it?" I asked, slightly nervous. Had Damion…
Come. She repeated, the thought completely devoid of emotion.
Still nervous, I followed her inside.
There didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary- the refrigerator, stove and sink stood against the east wall, two bedroom doors on the west wall, and a long table and a bunch of chairs took up most of the north wall, with a space for the bathroom door. Against the south wall, a couch and a few chairs were grouped around the fireplace. There were windows in every wall, and the only outside entrance was in the western corner of the south wall, and I raced through it now.
Since no problem presented itself to me immediately, I decided it must be Damion. I skidded into his room. There he was, on the lower bunk of one of the two bunk beds in the room. Only something was different.
His eyes were open.