Hey, peeps! This is the first chapter of FADE, my new pokemon fanfic! Erm, I'm brand-new here, so I honestly don't know what the hell I'm doing, but enjoy! :D Btw, my DeviantArt account has an illustration to each chapter I post. I'm SupahFanGirl424 on DeviantArt.

Zero awoke early one morning, when the sun had just risen over the silent, pink horizon. He sighed. He didn't want to go out today. Everyone made fun of him. Being a shiny umbreon, you'd think he'd get a bit of respect, but his stripes were zig-zag instead of circular, making him a target of bullies. He looked in his mirror, which had a huge crack in the center. He had smashed it one day because he was tired of looking at his stripes which he loathed so much. As much as he didn't want to leave his home today, he was going to have to. He had errands to run. His sister had gone missing a few days before, and she was a misfit also, and she was the only one who understood him. He decided to get out early, to avoid being noticed.

He hesitantly stepped outside, and padded silently along the dirt path that was glimmering orange in the dim morning light. The sun glistened on the dewdrops, dappling silk spiderwebs with it's glowing rays. Zero hoped not to run into anybody this morning, especially Kurra. Kurra was an umbreon who always was making fun of Zero. He had a little group of followers along with him. a mightyenna named Taka, and an absol named Duskie. Zero shuddered a bit at the thought of the taunting group. Some of you might be wondering: "what the heck kind of name is Zero?" Well, his name wasn't really Zero to begin with. Other pokemon thought he was a nobody, so they nicknamed him Zero. He was called that awful name for so long, that he forgot his real name. Zero continued along the dirt path tentatively. He heard a slight shuffle in the grass to his right, and his worst fears became reality. There in the grass, raising up from the rock he was resting on, was Kurra.

"Hey, little nobody! How are you this morning?" He sneered. "Avoiding the crowd? Pah, that's just like you, ziggy." Zero turned away from him and kept walking. "Where're you going, Zero? Hm? You're not gonna say hi to me? Rude, as always." Zero's eyes glistened with anger, but he continued walking, folding his ears back. "Oh, now you're gonna give me the silent treatment? Ooh, you're so bad. Maybe I should teach you some manners!" Kurra shouted before unsheathing his claws and lashing out at Zero. He striked his shoulder, drawing a bit of scarlet blood. Zero winced, and continued walking. Ignore him, ignore him. He thought to himself, before feeling another sharp blow to the side of his head. Kurra had struck him with the back of his paw.

"Hey? You're not going to fight back? Little wuss. Such a little girl. You're pathetic." Kurra grinned before slamming his shoulder into Zero's side. Zero lost his balance and fell over. Kurra pinned him down. "Hey, little baby. Why don't you just fight back? You too wimpy? Afraid you'll embarrass yourself because you can't fight worth crap?" He spat into Zero's face before hitting him across the nose. He continued hitting him back and forth. Zero winced, but held his ground. He lay there, unable to move, unable to speak up for himself. He refused to make eye contact with Kurra. After what seemed to be a long time of being hit, he felt the weight being lifted off from him. Somebody had knocked Kurra away! He heard scuffling in the grass. He sat up and opened his eyes, although they were clouded by blood. He saw somebody attacking Kurra. It was a vaporeon. She sprayed water at Kurra until he ran back to the settlement.

"This isn't over. She might not be there next time, Zero, you little zero." Kurra shouted before running back. The vaporeon turned over to Zero.

"Wow, he's a jerk." She said, dusting herself off with her fish-like tail. "Are you okay?"

Zero wiped the blood away from his eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Thanks for that." He muttered. He stood up unsteadily. The vaporeon walked closer to him and held out her paw to shake hands.

"I'm Misu." She said cheerfully.

"I'm Zero." Zero answered her, shaking paws with her. He seemed unsure.

"Hey, where's your friends? Where're the ones to back you up?" Misu asked him.

"I don't have any. Nobody likes me. They think I'm a misfit, because of my stripes." He told her.

"Well, that's not quite fair. That's just the reason I left my settlement." She turned to her side, revealing royal blue wings, just small wings, but noticeable. "I don't know how the heck I got these, but I was born with them, and the taunting got out of control. So I left." She told him. Zero smiled at the wings.

"I think they're pretty cool." He told her.

"Thanks! I like your stripes." She told him. Zero smiled.

"I actually had a plan to leave..." Zero admitted. "My sister was kidnapped and I don't know where she went. I had a plan to find her. She went missing a few days ago." Zero told Misu. She looked into his eyes.

"A few days ago...I noticed a dark aura in the air. Something's coming, and it's not going to be pretty. We might want to find your sister before it's too late. I've started a group called FADE, Fighting Against Dark Eternity. You can be the first member! But also, what did your sister look like?" Misu asked him.

"She was an espeon. Her eyes were abnormal, they were red spirals. Her name was Daze." He told her.

"That's enough info to start searching. Lets go, right away!" She said before flicking her tail and starting off down the path. Zero gave one last hesitant look at the settlement, and then ran off after Misu.