It was a beautiful day at Serene Village and two Pokemon were on the little hill right outside the village under the tree that stood there looking at Serene Village. They seemed to be having a conversation and the little blue Pokemon started to seem sad. Then a bright light engulfed the yellow Pokemon and started flying away making the blue one cry and yell at the light. The light kept getting farther and farther and then vanished, and the blue one fell to the ground crying.

"Pikachu," the blue Pokemon said looking at where the light had had just vanished. The blue Pokemon stood up and decided to head back to the village, but before he was able to a darkness engulfed him and everything around him. He looked around the place and then called out, "What's going on? Is anybody there?"

"Only the shadow that lives everywhere," a voice said out of nowhere. The blue Pokemon looked everywhere searching for the origin of the voice. The blue Pokemon started to walk a little bit when he ran into the tree that had stood right behind him.

He shook his head and turned around and decided to try talking with the voice. He said, "What do you mean by 'the shadow that lives everywhere'?" he walked around feeling around trying to make sure that he didn't run into anything.

"You might think that you have gotten rid of the darkness but wherever there is light there is always shadows," the voice said again while the blue Pokemon's legs started to feel very heavy.

"What do you mean, and why am is everything going black," the blue Pokemon said as his vision started to blurry and his legs got to heavy that he couldn't pick them up, so he fell to the ground. "Who are you and what is going on?"

Just then a light appeared in front of the blue Pokemon and he saw the yellow Pokemon he was just talking with before it vanished. The blue Pokemon looked at it watching the light around it being snuffed out and darkness starting to engulf it. The yellow Pokemon screamed as the darkness started to fade into it. The Pokemon's eyes started to go black.

"PIKACHU!" the blue Pokemon called out as Pikachu's yellow fur started to turn to a black and red shade. The blue Pokemon started to crawl the best he could towards its friend wanting to help it out.

"Wake up!" a garbled voice said out of nowhere making the blue Pokemon feel weird and even more heavy, but it didn't give up it kept trying to reach Pikachu.

"Try all you want, you won't be able to save your friend as long as the shadows linger," the first voice said as the image of Pikachu started to blurry out and fade away. The blue Pokemon kept trying to reach Pikachu before the whole image of Pikachu faded away.

The blue Pokemon started to sweat terribly and even more tears fell down his cheeks, he then cried out, "NO!" he couldn't move anymore. His head fell to the ground and he started to cry. The darkness around him started to move towards him, he opened his eyes and saw the darkness inch closer and closer to him. The darkness finally got to him and started to fade into him making him scream in pain. He started to turn black and the darkness started to engulf him, even more, scratching and cutting him.

"WAKE UP!" the garbled voice said again louder and then the blue Pokemon's vision started to blur out till it faded into complete darkness.


"Hey, Mudkip, wake up!" the little blue mud fish Pokemon eyes shot open in a startle seeing the little pink new species Pokemon, Mew. The fin on Mudkip's head moved as he blinked away the sleep from his eyes, he noticed that he was sweating like crazy. He stood up and moved his eyes around spotting the blurry smiling Mew.

"Hey! Are you awake!" Mew said teasingly pushing Mudkip wondering why he was sweating. Mew waited for a response from him, she kept pushing and pulling him trying to get him to fully wake up, but he just kept yawning and blinking, "Hey, we have work to do today."

"What?" Mudkip finally spoke having his vision finally get into focus. He looked around his and Mew's room, which had two hay beds on the ground for him and Mew and a window in the back wall, they were an exploration team called Team Pokepals. He stared at Mew for a few seconds thinking about what she had just said, "Oh right! Work!" he said finally waking up completely.

"Nice to see you back. You were sweating and screaming like crazy. Must have been some dream to make you scared," Mew said looking at Mudkip with a curious look on her face waiting to see what Mudkip would do.

Mudkip looked at Mew then said, "I can't remember it," he lied not wanting to worry Mew. "Besides, we have other things to worry about, like work."

"Oh! Right!" Mew said flying around the room and then stopping right in front of Mudkip," Let's go and have fun out there then."

"Yeah," Mudkip replied turning towards the exit of their room.

They walked out of their room turning left into the hallway, they entered a big room where a lot of other Pokemon were waiting. The Pokemon in the room were Ampharos, Mawile, Jirachi, Bunnelby, Swirlix, Buizel, Archen, and Dedenne and they all turned their heads looking at Mudkip and Mew. The room they entered was a big room that had stairs leading up to some other rooms, two hallways on the left and right sides of it, and a big door leading outside the building they were in. Mudkip and Mew walked over to their spots in the room for when they were doing their morning routine.

"Morning, Mudkip and Mew," the Pokemon said greeting Mudkip and Mew.

"Is everybody here now?" Ampharos asked looking and counting everybody.

"Yes," Mawile said looking at all of the Pokemon smiling at them happily.

Ampharos gave his little morning speech as everybody listened to him. As he was talking he would look from Pokemon to Pokemon, then he said, "Give it your all out there, team."

"Yes, sir!" everybody said at the same time as they started heading to their stations for the day.

"Hey, Mudkip and Mew, may you come over here, please," Ampharos said waiting patiently for them to walk over to him. Mudkip and Mew walked over to him wondering what he had planned for them today.

"Yes, Ampharos," Mudkip replied as Mew flew right beside him and stopping suddenly.

"A new place has been discovered and it can't be found on the map," Ampharos said watching Mudkip's and Mew's confused expressions. "Yep. It doesn't have a name and it seems like no one has explored it. It is a cave at the Northwest part of Water Island and I would like if you two would go check it out for me."

Mudkip and Mew looked at each other for a while curious about the unexplored cave, then Mudkip said, "Sure, we'll go check it out," Mew and Mudkip looked at Ampharos waiting for him to reply.

"Okay then. Pull out your map," Mudkip and Mew pulled out their map in front of Ampharos and Ampharos looked around the map and then pointed to the top left corner of Water Island. "Here is where the cave should be, that's at least where I remember running into it."

Mudkip and Mew looked at the spot the Ampharos was pointing to and then they put away their map. Mew looked up then down and then at Ampharos and said, "Okay. Sounds like fun. I can't wait to go."

Mudkip looked at Mew and then back at Ampharos and Ampharos was looking at Mew and then at the both of them. "Good luck you two. I believe in you," Ampharos said heading upstairs to his office.

Mudkip and Mew looked at each other and then Mew flew in the air making a loop cheering that she gets a special mission. Mew flew in the air for a few minutes then Mudkip said, "Come on, Mew, we need to get ready before we can go!" Mew heard what he said and then flew down right away stopping suddenly before hitting the ground.

"Okay. Where are we going to go first?" Mew asked extremely excited about the new unexplored cave that she and Mudkip will get to explore.

"We need to go to Kecleon Shop to buy supplies before we head off," Mudkip said being extremely excited about the cave himself.

"Okay then, let's go," Mew said quickly flying out of the building. Mudkip followed as quickly as he could trying to catch up to Mew. They exited the building and walked into Lively Town. Lively Town was a happy town with friendly Pokemon and great places. It his a Connection Cafe, Kecleon Shop, and other great places.

As they walked towards Kecleon Shop they spotted some familiar faces. They saw Doduo doing his daily run around town trying not to run into anybody, the town kids and just some of the town people were all talking and having a great time in the town square, and they saw Buizel and Archen heading out of the town heading for a mission. Swirlix passed them on their way to Kecleon Shop.

They finally got to Kecleon Shop looking through the stuff on sale. The Kecleon their, being green with its red zigzag stripe across its belly, said, "How may I help you two? I have some Lapras Travel Liner passes left for you to get," he grabbed the one pass left and held it out for Mudkip and Mew to see.

"No thanks. We are just here to see if you have any perfect apples or reviver seeds," Mudkip said grabbing a few Pokegold from his bag around his neck.

"How many would you like?" Kecleon asked grabbing a few reviver seeds.

"Five apples and five Reviver seeds, please," Mew said taking the Pokegold from Mudkip and getting ready to pay Kecleon.

"That will be, let's see the reviver seeds are two hundred and twenty a piece so five of those will be one thousand and one hundred and we are all out of perfect apples or any apples for that matter, so it will just be one thousand and one hundred Pokegold for the reviver seeds if you are still interested," Kecleon said holding five reviver seeds for Mudkip and Mew.

"Okay, just the five reviver seeds will do," Mudkip said taking the reviver seeds and Mew paid Kecleon.

"Anything else I can help you with?" Keckleon asked with a huge smile on his face.

"Nope that should do it, thank you," Mudkip said putting the reviver seeds into his bag.

"Thanks for your business. Come back anytime!" Kecleon called at them as they started to walk towards the exit of Lively town.

"Thank you!" Mew called back at Kecleon.

"Now are we heading to the 'mystery cave'?" Mew asked excitedly.

"Yes, now, we are heading there," Mudkip said walking past Pokemon.

They walked past Pokemon after Pokemon being greeted by any and all Pokemon they passed by. They had stopped a few times and talked with Pokemon like a Minun, Plusle, Murkrow, Mienfoo, Poochyena, and other Pokemon and this made Mew even more Impatient than ever. Mudkip also wanted to get to Connection Cafe, but he also didn't want to be rude so he stopped and talked with anyone who greeted them. They finally made it through all of the Pokemon and made it to the exit of Lively Town.

Before they exited the town, Mudkip spotted a dark Pokemon in the corner of his eyes and he instantly remembered being engulfed in the darkness from his dream and how much it hurt. He fell to the ground wincing wishing that the pain would end. Mew looked at Mudkip confused and worried.

"Are you okay, Mudkip?" Mew asked him concerned. The pain left Mudkip and he was able to get back up. He got back up and looked around trying to find that dark Pokemon again, but no success. The dark Pokemon had vanished and Mudkip could still feel a little bit of the pain. "Are you okay?" Mew asked him again still worried.

"Yeah, I;m fine. Just got a little headache," he lied. He still didn't want Mew to know about his dream, the strange voice, and now the mysterious, dark Pokemon.

Mew looked at him unconvinced that he was alright. Mew kept staring at Mudkip while he looked around the place searching for something. Mew decided to look around the place too but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Are you sure your alright?" she asked him just to make sure.

"Yeah," he said giving up on looking for the dark Pokemon. "Well, we better get moving, we have a new place to explore," he walked out of Lively Town and waited for Mew to catch up to him.

Mew stayed floating where she was looking confused at Mudkip and then decided to fly over to him, "Okay, I'm coming," she said as she flew past Mudkip. Mudkip saw Mew fly past him and then started to run after her.

The dark Pokemon Mudkip saw leaned his head to the right to see Mudkip and Mew racing each other out of Lively Town. He chuckled knowing that Mudkip had at least seen him and remembered his dream, "how long will it take for the shadows to corrupt you, Mudkip?" he laughed to himself trying to make sure that no one could hear him.

Mudkip and Mew walked up to the entrance of the unexplored cave. They looked around the entrance noticing that the mountain was giant and that exploring it will take some time. But they didn't care all they wanted to do was explore it.

"Ready, Mudkip?" Mew asked floating up and down in anticipation.

"Ready," Mudkip said as he and Mew entered the cave shortly followed by the dark Pokemon.