"I've got them! Hurry, run! Run!"

Your name is EMBER, you are a CHARMANDER, and you really wish that your scaly legs were not so short. A curse, really.

You were on your paws, running. First rule of all fugitives from "justice": you were always running. The forest was thick as you continued uphill, and the darkness that settled in uncomfortably around you didn't help. But you cast your gaze warily over your shoulder, nearly tripping on your own paws in exhaustion from sprinting for so long. A figure moves from somewhere behind you, and you throw another glance over your shoulder- only to catch piercing amber eyes staring back at you.

"Keep moving, Ember!" You hear the figure's rough, reptilian voice call out. "You need to get ahead!"

"I'm trying!" You snarl back, before the glint of gemstones catches your eye, and you turn fully as you skid to a stop. The sound of gleeful cackling echoes through your ears, followed by a loud shout, and you strain to hear it in the humid air. Then, silence. The Sableye are not here, or else they are deep in hiding. Hell, maybe they'd been stopped up by your companions. Arceus knows how you got out of that particular scrape.

"We're not out of the woods yet." You mutter. "Michael?"

You haphazardly gaze from the Grovyle slowing to a stop to the trees, the colorless black of them sending shivers up your spine as they always had. The world's paralysis was all you've ever known, and all that you wished to come to an end. Your glance swings from the Grovyle to the undergrowth, and you stare at it for several moments, panting.

"Where is the prince? Did they catch him?" You bark, clenching your claws.

"The prince?" The Grovyle asks, and you see his jaw drop. "Nary a glance I had before we began to run. We must wait for him."

"We don't have time for any of your knightly duties, Michael!" You snap. "Believe me, I hate breaking your romantic tension, but we have to keep moving. He'll catch up with us eventually. Where's Celebi?"

"She's-" the Grovyle tensed, his words breaking off as a shuffle in the bushes was heard from behind him. The bipedal lizard jolted, pivoting on his claws as he turned, and another Pokémon tumbled from the undergrowth.

The smaller figure gave a groan in complaint as he pushed out of the undergrowth, another Pokémon at his side. You looked up, only to see a pair of- thankfully- brown, curious eyes staring back at you. The figure was very orange, very bright against the darkness, and very, very familiar.

"Jacob," you breathed, and the Buizel grinned at you as you went on, "and Celebi. Hey, what happened back there?"

"Oh, the usual! A couple of Sableye, but nothing that Celebi and I could not handle!" The Buizel looked very scruffy and confidant, as if he had just not encountered several attempts in a row on his own life. "I don't think they're following us now, but we need to keep moving."

"Oh, Michael!" the floating, childlike Pokémon cried. "And Ember, too! Thank goodness you're safe!"

"None of us are safe yet," you remark, with a short shrug, "but thanks to Jacob and you, Celebi, at least we were able to scout ahead a bit."

"Well?" Jacob asked, and you saw Michael, the Grovyle, nod his head slowly.

"Nothing except for the Passage of Time, your Majesty," he murmured, "I was quick to scale the area beforehand with the help of the ever-competent Ember."

"Thanks for the praise," you say, sarcastically, "but now is really not the time to be handing single heapings of love and care. We know where the time gears are, then, and how to get back. This is the last stretch. Celebi?"

The floating, smiling bipedal nodded with a short bob of her head. You'd always thought of her as appearing to be a grass doll of sorts, and the abilities she possessed concerning the very fabric of time itself were always flabbergasting to you. She spoke quickly, her voice light and playful like her personality.

"The time gears, which control the flow of time in every region, you know, are not in our possession, as they broke when the planet fell into ruin! But we know where they are in the past, thanks to your abilities and the prince's knowledge, and we are currently on our way to stop the world's paralysis in the past!" She chirps. "Anything else I missed?"

"Our personal lives, I guess?" Jacob said, and you felt a short twinge of guilt. Your parents had left when you were only in an egg, you never knew them. But upon escape from his palace, Jacob's father, the king, was killed. He had no siblings, and grew up alone with only you and Michael for company. Michael was a knight, Jacob's personal knight, who had nearly killed you in suspicion when you first met. However, Jacob was quick to catch on to your lack of aggression, and a friendship was born. Even as children, you were tightly knit.

After the burning of the castle and the fair king's murder in what seemed like weeks before, the three of you had fled with major injuries. Collapsing in a nearby forest, you hadn't expected to meet Celebi. But she was handy with healing, and it was there that you learned of her plan to launch the world back into orbit. The question was, how? The fall of the castle and tyranny reining from a different ruler had been heavy on you all, even not knowing the group causing it had been a little sham. But Celebi was quick to relay her plan: find out where the time gears used to be, and head back to the past to stop the destruction of Temporal Tower, where an old Pokémon called Dialga was said to reside.

Your ability to see events in the past or future involving the manipulation of time was certainly the biggest factor in bringing you this far, and you weren't going to give up now.

"I don't think that stubborn Raichu will catch us back here," you say, slowly, "but the Passage of Time is just up ahead, and it's time to walk."

Jacob nodded, and Michael warily glanced around as you continued to move over the blackened grass.

"We could intercept them, possibly, and head back to take them down once and for all," Michael suggested, as you traversed the ground at the head of the group, "the passage to the past would be much easier that way."

"Fat lot of good that'll do us if we're dead," you say, almost sourly, but fix your tone, "no, we can't go back. We have to move forward. Celebi, how much farther?"

"Not much," the Timekeeper said, "just a couple of moments?"

"Hard to keep track of time when the planet's paralyzed, don't you think?"

"I never thought of it that way," Celebi mumbled, "but time has to be measured ourselves now. By my calculations, you see, I've put together that it's been three weeks since we first set out- five if you count your healing time."

Absentmindedly, one of your paws moves to your face to touch an idle scar along your eye. She was right about that. Celebi was always rather brainy, and her quick and eager talk was something to take the mind off of the miserableness of the situation. You look back, over the hill, at lights flickering off in the distance. Though it was hardly time to feel miserable, you shook your head. Justice. Retribution. You'd kill the lot of them for doing this to the world.

"Cripes," Jacob whispers, roughly, "I think I see the Passage up ahead."

"We need to hurry, your Majesty." Michael says, and you see Jacob throw him an irritated look. "They'll be after us any minute now."

"Would you cease your dumb mannerisms and quit calling me that-" Jacob begins, but you hear his voice cut off as you raised a paw, and frowned.

"You hear that?"

A soft cackle in the distance reinforced your words.

"Yes! Footsteps, and fast!" Celebi exclaimed. "Hurry, now! There is little time to talk!"

"Keep moving!"

Your footsteps were quick, but you quickly turned at the summit of the hill towards the sounds in the distance. The break into a clearing wouldn't help to cover you. Jacob, who had been running at your side, stopped sharply to shout a question. Practically in your ears, you think bitterly.

"You're staying?"

"Only for a moment," you rasped, "I'm gonna slow them down. Keep going, there's little ground to cover now."

Jacob presumably nodded, before you heard the patter of footsteps behind you. That indicated that they had kept moving. Good. You glanced down at the forest below, a grin picking at your expression. The sound had grown louder until it broke into shadowy figures moving quick up the hill, and that's when you unhinged your jaw to release a short burst of flame. It streamed down the hill in a torrent, and you only stayed a minute to watch.

The Sableye gave up shrieks as the blinding light pierced their retinas, and it was well-known that they were not used to such a light. You managed a forced smirk, praising yourself for the knowledge.

The bright flare color was quick to swallow the dead grass, and block your pursuers from view. With a short pant of relief, you turn tail again to catch up to the others. They stood at the very edge of the summit, under a sturdy cliff. Celebi was tinkering with a strange artifact that formed a natural oval jutting up from the ground. Whatever it was, it appeared ancient, and you were certainly not going to ask any questions concerning it.

Michael sifts through a Treasure Bag hooked around his neck with a worried expression, but Jacob sits up immediately when he sees you. "Well?"

"I coughed up a blaze or two, maybe it'll slow 'em down a bit," you say, "they should know not to play with fire."

"Good!" Celebi chimes, from her post at fixing the Passage. "That should keep them for a bit, a Charmander's flames are very hot, you know-"

"I've experienced it like, a ton of times," you say, "and I can say firsthandedly that this is pretty hot."

Michael finishes his sifting, and glances up. "Are we ready to go?"

"Yes," Celebi murmurs, and her hands spread out as she begins to give off a soft pinkish glow, "just give me a few more moments.."

But there's little time. A short, sturdy Raichu flings itself from the undergrowth, fur stained black with burns. His snarl on the unusually skinny face he bore was one that made you shiver even now. A few remaining Sableye pushed out from the flames, looking startled and distant. You sharply look to Jacob and Michael, who pushes you both back with a snarl. "Go! I'll hold them off!"

You can't protest with that, and you grab Jacob's paw to haul him beside you as you both make for the now-glowing passage.

"Quickly, inside!"

"But Michael!" Jacob protests, and you shake your head as you push him towards it.

"No time! He'll be alright, I know he will!"

Jacob takes a last, long look over his shoulder before he steps into the rippling blue portal with a faint cry. He disappears instantly, and you can't help but notice Michael step back to parry a blow with his leaf-blades before he whirled around sharply to follow you and Jacob through, the Raichu sharply on his tail.

The last thing you see is a jolt of darkness eating away at your vision, and what felt like your body. You could hear them, Jacob and Michael, even through the distortion.

"H-hold on!"

"I can't! Something hit me.. I c-can't move!"

"Just a little longer, we're almost there!"

"And-!"

Jacob's piercing scream echoed through your ears, and you shut your eyes tightly as you allowed the blackness of the portal to wash over your vision.

.

an: this chapter may be a little confusing. however, i pondered over other options for the characters, how to introduce them in a manner that was more towards their characters. i decided to stay true to the cryptic author of the tale, ember the charmander, who will be narrating in this person for most of the story. i'll admit, it's a strange perspective, but i love it all the same.

you may be asking yourself many questions. a prince? why is there a king in a paralyzed world? why is the main character already a pokémon? should they not be human? i decided to expand on the idea of a region only inhabited by pokemon, which was largely influenced by a work known as "The Glaceon and the Shadow", a work on this site that i highly recommend reading! it is truly a work of art, though not mine. the only thing in this story that will reference that particular story is ember's quote, "Fat lot of good that'll do us if we're dead," which was spoken by Larissa the Quilava, if i'm not mistaken? you'll have to trust me, dear readers, on what is to come next. i shall be updating sporadically today and tomorrow, as i had originally typed the story up to the point where the characters.. well, i'll let you figure that out. for now, sleep well, and may the fire burn brightly for you always.