A lone pokemon sat perched on a cliff edge, his crystal blue eyes gleaming in the dark.
It was the middle of the night, and the moon was at its highest point, large and round and entirely white. It lit up the murky black sky, along with the millions of stars scattering the night sky.
The pokemon sighed, bushy red and black tail twitching. He could never sleep at night. It wasn't that he was nocturnal - it's just that he was a dark type pokemon, and it was instinct to stay alert and awake during the darkest hours, as it was easiest to sneak around. However, seeing as he couldn't sleep during the day, this left him stumbling around like a zombie at all times.
Another reason he never slept - he'd rather face exhaustion than nightmares. They weren't normal nightmares...sometimes they were just memories of his father, his sick, twisted father, and sometimes there was just...voices.
The pokemon shuddered. He was, by all accounts, just a child, hardly more than a cub. Certainly not an adult, and yet he lived alone and put up with twice as much as what your average pokemon went through.
The fox like pokemon jumped down from his perch, deciding to try sleeping again. In his waking hours, he simply remembered, and remembering wasn't good.
He burrowed down into his small makeshift nest, nuzzling against the ragged blanket his mama had gotten him. He closed his eyes wearily, and allowed himself to fall into sleeps clutches.
As usual, there was a misty sort of darkness, and then...the voice.
"You with the darkened past...will be part of the team to light the future..."
'Shut up...' He thought, 'I'm not part of a team...leave me alone...'
"You still deny it...young zorua whose future is foretold, whose path is pre-written..."
'Stop it! I don't have a future! And my name is Cody, not 'young zorua'!' He furiously protested mentally.
There was the sound of the voice chuckling. "Oh, the innocence...your life shall change very soon...for the better...or quite possibly the worst."
With that ominous note, the darkness faded, and the young zorua jolted awake with a gasp.
He trembled for a moment, as usual, before taking a deep shuddering breath, and slowing his pounding heart.
The zorua, whose name was in fact Cody, stood on shaky legs, and pushed outside, after ensuring the coast was clear.
The sun was beginning to rise, which meant that Cody had at least slept for a few hours.
However, he still felt tired, and his brain was working overtime as usual, trying to determine just what that dream meant. He groaned in frustration, flopping onto the ground, head pounding.
The dreams, he'd been having them for weeks now. He hadn't had a wink of peaceful sleep since they'd began. It wasn't as if they were true, nothing interesting ever happened to him. The most interesting thing he'd ever done was run away from home, and that wasn't exactly to be admired.
His clear blue eyes followed the sun as it rose slowly up into the sky. The first bird pokemon began to chirp and sing, and the hoothoot flapped off back to their nests, content to sleep the day away until they could rise again at night.
Cody glared at them enviously. How could they sleep peacefully, while he was plagued by nightmares? How was it fair? Just once he'd like to have a dreamless sleep... Was that too much to ask?
Cody forced himself to his feet, and stretched, knowing he would have company in the form of the Searchers.
The Searchers were a group of pokemon, generally very cruel and mostly dark and ghost types. They searched through the citizens homes to see if there was anything suspicious, and if there was, they took it away, and depending on what it was, they sometimes dragged the owners were never seen again.
Shuddering at the thought, Cody went back into his den, and say down, waiting for the Searcher to arrive.
As expected, Cody passed the search.
The Searcher, who was an Alakazam, had searched around for about a quarter of an hour, before grunting, dropping an envelope on the floor, and flashing out.
The letter wasn't interesting, just said that he had, for the fifty sixth time in a row, passed the search. Congratulations!
Deciding to take a trip into town, he dug out of his den, and set off, money pouch jingling and bouncing of of him as he ran.
Five minutes later, he arrived. His first stop was to visit a friend of his. He sold berries, and because he felt sorry for Cody, always gave him things for half price.
Ducking into "Roger the Watchog's berry shack, he called out in greeting , "Hello? Roger? It's me, Cody. I'd like to buy some berries, please!"
The head of Roger peered out from behind a large crate labeled "Pecha berries". He gave a toothy grin.
"Howdy, Cody! Want some berries? Status or power? Or maybe just snack, I know that's what you usually go for!"
"Yeah, just some snack berries , thanks. And..." He hesitated for a moment, thinking before adding, "some power berries can't hurt."
With another grin, Roger grabbed a bag and stuffed several bright coloured berries in the bag until it was filled to the brim. He sealed it, before passing the bag to Cody. "That'll be fifty pokedollars for the lot," he said.
Cody nodded, and shuffled in his pouch for several large round gold coins.
He dropped them into Rogers waiting paw, before smiling thankfully, and hurrying back outside, already planning out the rest of his day.
Perhaps he'd help out at Kecleon's shop? Or Chansey's daycare?
However, just as he was thinking this over, he collided with something large and very heavy. He fell onto the floor with a crash, crying out as there was a CRACK'ing noise from his front right paw. He looked up to see who he'd bumped into and instantly regretted it.
It was Dusknoir. He was the one in charge around this town. The right hand man of the master. Holy arceus, he was going to KILL Cody for hitting him!
Gulping, Cody stood up shakily, making sure he did not put too much weight on his presumably broken paw. He forced himself to meet Dusknoir's eyes, well, eye.
His eye was narrowed as he scowled down at the little Zorua.
"Hmph. Watch where you are going, boy." He grumbled.
"Y-yes sir...sorry..." Cody stammered.
Dusknoir snorted, before he suddenly seemed to realise something. He smirked, making Cody feel uneasy.
"You were, as it turns out, just the pokemon I was looking for." A feeling of coldness spread over Cody.
"M-me?" He asked nervously.
"Indeed. You will, as of tomorrow, be joining the Master's army. You will become a Searcher, and leave this old life behind."
This took a few seconds to hit Cody. He leapt back with a yelp, oblivious to the searing in his paw.
"What?! N-no!" He cried. Dusknoir's eyes narrowed.
"You do not have a choice. Your evolutionary line is rare, and extremely powerful, should it be trained correctly. We have had our eye on you for a very long time. There is no escape."
By now, most of the town had gathered around, watching the horrified zorua. In the shadows, a small group of pokemon were also watching, muttering to each other, some looking quite worried.
"No! I won't! I-I can't! I refuse to do it! You can't make me!" Cody cried.
"I think you'll find...I can."
Before Cody could react, a shadowy fist was slamming into him.
He cried out, paw bending into an incredibly unnatural position. He fell to the ground, but still pushed to his feet, trembling.
"I-I'll join you when HELL freezes over..." He stammered out, teeth grit in determination. Before he could get attacked again (because it really hurt), he scarpered off, running off into the distance.
Instead of going after him, as most of the town believed he would, Dusknoir simply chuckled ominously.
"Very well...so he has chosen the outlaw path..."
Meanwhile, Cody was limping off. He had used his illusion to make it seem as though he was sprinting, but obviously he couldn't, with his broken paw. He wasn't sure where he was going. He wasn't even paying attention, his mind on other matters entirely.
He was an outlaw now. He'd broken the law. He couldn't ever return to Treasure town, he'd risk being captured and exiled or worse...executed.
When he broke out of his trance-like state, he found himself on Jewel Beach, which was reassuring. It was where he always went if he was sad or scared.
The sun reflecting off the sea, the warm sand, the jewels embedded in the cliff walls glistening in the sun...it was beautiful. Sighing, Cody dropped onto the sand.
What would he do? Treasure town was his home, and he didn't have any family. Except his father, and he'd swore he'd never see him again after he ran away. He'd have to do that again, he realised sadly. He'd have to leave home, and run for the wild. Become a wilderness pokemon, living in the woods. It wasn't a happy thought. It was then he spotted a pink lump a few metres down.
"Huh? That wasn't here before..."
Cautiously, he stood up, and approached it. What he found made him gasp and stumble back.
It was a Mew, legendary pokemon.