Imkal gazed thoughtfully at the piece of rock beside his bed. Slowly, he traced the strange pattern inscribed on it with a claw. He'd stumbled across it one day, and never thought much of it, except for, "Hey, this is a pretty cool design."

But for the first time, Imkal was beginning to wonder about it. Where did it come from? What did that pattern mean? The more he brushed the feeling aside, the stronger his curiosity when it returned. With a groan, the Totodile climbed out of his woven grass nest and picked up the stone. This was something best mulled over while watching the Krabby blow bubbles at the sunset.

He made his way from Sharpedo Bluff and cut through Treasure Town, the Pokémon settlement dying slowly for the night, except for the ever-vigilant Duskull at the bank, who watched him pass with a glowing red eye.

Iridescent bubbles were already drifting into the soft orange glow of the sinking sun as Imkal walked along the shore, watching the rainbow of colors within them.

He didn't see the waterlogged orange body until he'd almost tripped over it.

"What the…?"

It was a Torchic, feathers soaked to the skin and eyes squeezed tightly shut. She was breathing shallowly.

"Hey! Are you all right?" Imkal started to go towards one of the Krabby to ask for help, but they were all scuttling back into their homes for the night. The bubbles vanishing slowly as the light dwindled, Imkal returned attention to the unconscious Pokémon before him. What if he'd gotten there a moment too late and these breaths were her last?

"Ngh…" A soft groan from the Fire-type's beak was enough to convince him otherwise.

"Hey, wake up. Wake up. Are you all right?"

"Mm…" She opened her eyes. "What happened…?"

"You tell me."

She blinked and looked up at him, sitting up for a second but falling down with a startled squawk. "A Totodile?"

"Yeah. Hi." He helped her sit up again.

"You can talk?"

What kind of question was that? "Are you all right? Did you hit your head or something?"

"I wish I knew… How'd you learn to speak English?"

"English? That's a human language, right? I'm afraid I don't know a word of it."

"But you're…you just said that in English."

"No I didn't." Now he was sure she'd hit her head. Crying shame, too. Female Torchic were pretty rare. In this state of mind, she wouldn't make a good mother at all. That's five or so less Torchic for the world. At least she wasn't somewhere on a Starter Farm.

"If you're not speaking English, what language are you speaking?"

"Pokémon, of course. Why, are you hearing English?"

"Yes!"

"You must've had a pretty patient Trainer to have learned it in the first place. You get shipwrecked?"

"Trainer? What are you talking about? Why can't I feel my arms?"

"Arms? Oh, no, we're devolving now?"

"What do you mean?"

"You used to have arms. Were you a Combusken or a Blaziken before getting shipwrecked?"

"Wait a minute, what are you talking about? Last thing I know, I was… I was… Was… What was I doing last?"

"Amnesia?"

"Ugh…darn it, I guess. The last thing I remember was waking up here with you."

"At least you survived. You're one lucky Pokémon."

"Pokémon? I'm human."

"You look like a normal Torchic to me. A very wet Torchic, but a Torchic."

"No way! See these hands?" She moved her wing. When she, of course, didn't see a human hand in front of her face, she panicked, leaping to her feet. "Oh no! What's happened to me?"

"Um…either you've gone insane, or, somehow, you're telling the truth."

"Gee, thanks." She looked at her new legs and bent them experimentally. If she used to be human, as she claimed, then her legs would now be jointed the wrong way. "I'm a Torchic! How did this happen?"

"There's nothing wrong with Torchic. Female Torchic are actually pretty rare."

A short, wailing moan of dismay. "Yeah, but if I had to turn into a Pokémon, why couldn't I have been Charmander or Treecko? You know, something with arms."

"Wet as you are now, I don't think you'd have wanted to be a Charmander."

"But I …Oh. Good point."

Imkal sighed. "So you have amnesia. Do you at least remember your name?"

"Yeah. It's Angie. Angie McCall."

"That sounds like a human name, all right. A surname, even. I'm not so sure I believe you, Angie, but for now, I don't think it makes much of a difference. My name's Imkal."

"Imkal? What kind of a name is that?"

"Well what kind of a name is Angie McCall?"

"A normal one!"

"Not to me."

"Well, Imkal isn't normal to me, either."

"…Never mind. Look, I'll take you back to my place. It's getting dark, I can't just leave you here." He turned and started to lead the way, but looked back over his shoulder. "And Imkal means 'Crashing Waves' in saurian dialect. That's what kind of name it is."

"Whatever. …Ack!" Angie tried to take a step, but didn't move her leg the right way and fell over.

Imkal sighed. "Geez. All right, hold on, I'll help you." He walked over and set down his Relic Fragment to pick her up. "There, all set. Remember, your legs move like your arms now."

"You believe me?"

"No, but it's all I have to go on." He shrugged.

"Oh…" Angie looked down at the Relic Fragment. "Oh, what a pretty pattern." She tilted sideways a bit before groaning at her lack of arms and lifting a foot to trace the pattern with her claw. Of course, she wound up falling over again.

"Yeah, that's my Relic Fragment," said Imkal, setting her on her feet again.

"What's that?"

"I don't know. I've been wondering about it recently. Maybe I'll set off to try and figure it out someday."

"…Oh, okay."

And then a voice came from the deepening shadows of the rock.

"Relic Fragment? Sounds valuable. Heh-heh-heh…"

"Who's there?" Imkal demanded, stepping forward to guard his Fragment.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" came another voice from behind him. He spun around, as did Angie, but they both were met with a cloud of poisonous gas. Imkal doubled over coughing (Koffing, that had to be what had attacked him – he'd caught a glimpse of the skull-mark), eyes stinging from the gas as a blue form snatched up his treasure and carried it away on leathery-sounding wings.

"Hey-!" he called, still coughing. A twilight breeze had come in, and it blew the cloud of gas out to sea. Eyes narrowed, the Totodile started to race off after them, but stopped when he heard the soft thump of a body hitting the sand. He looked over his shoulder, and Angie was struggling to keep up with him, tripping over her own legs, but managing to stand every time.

"It'll be two-on-one if I don't go with you," said the Torchic as she fell over again.

"Angie? You'd help me get it back?"

"Yeah. You offered me your home, right? It's only fair."

"You're gonna slow me down."

"Well, how am I supposed to learn if you don't let me come along?"

Imkal sighed heavily. "Fine. There's only one place they could've gone from here. That cave up ahead." He pointed to the hollow in the rock face. "I've been in there lots of times, and I know for a fact it dead-ends a lot. And it's a Mystery Dungeon, so they can't have memorized it."

"What's a Mystery Dungeon?"

"I'll explain it to you on the way. If you're gonna help me, let's follow them."