Welcome! This is the portal that leads to the world of Pokemon!

What? Where…?

Before we begin, I'd like to ask you a few questions.

Questions? About what?

Are you ready?

I...I think so…

Okay!

Who did you bring with you?

What? I didn't bring…

It seems a pokemon is following you. We'll just move him somewhere else.

Done!

Okay, go right through!

Where?

To the world of pokemon, of course. Now remember, don't trust anyone.

What? Wait, why should…!

"Hey, wake up. Please, wake up." A voice rang out from somewhere.

"Uggghhh…" He let out a moan of aching.

"Are you okay? Come on, wake up." the voice said beseechingly. With some effort, the cyndaquil laying before the voice came to open his eyes and scan around him. He saw a pikachu standing over him. And the branches of the trees in the meadow stretched out behind her, splitting the sunlight into sunbeams that shone down on his face. He felt the warmth on his cheeks, but felt no comfort at this.

"Are you okay?" The pikachu asked with apparent concern. She seemed unafraid, but decidedly curious.

"Uhh...yeah, I'm good." He responded with no thought. Of course he actually felt terrible.

"Cool. Come on up." And with that the pikachu extended a paw to help him up. He took it and pulled upward. He expected her to fail immediately, but her grip was steady and she gently brought him onto his feet. When he stood, he felt something was wrong. Something deep and primal was wrong with him. With this. With this pikachu. With the meadow and the breeze and the birds and the bugs. It sounded so...different. It felt different. And then, slowly but surely, it dawned on him.

"I'm-I'm a cyndaquil…?" He asked tentatively, now looking to his paws.

"Um, yes?" The pikachu responded with a notable mix of amusement and confusion.

"But...but I...talked." He continued quietly, unsure if he was where he indeed thought he was.

"Hehe, yeah, I know. It was pretty cool." She answered again with now obvious enjoyment.

"Is...is that why you can talk?" He asked with mounting bravery at his questioning.

"Well, I kinda chalked that off to my parents, but sure." She replied.

"So why am I not…!" He started angrily, but realized that he couldn't ask why he wasn't home. Where was home? Who was he? Could he remember anything? He searched his brain and could only feel footprints. Like he could remember remembering. There was only one thing he was sure he knew. He felt a name in his mind. He felt the name Cy in his mind. Was this his name? Was it still his name? Why couldn't he remember anything? And what the heck was going on?

"So...so...so who are you?" He asked with an accusing jab of his little paw.

"Me? My name's-!"

"Help! Someone help me!" A woman's voice split the peaceful atmosphere of the meadow with shrieks of despair. A huge butterfly then burst from the undergrowth just ten feet from the two pokemon. Cy (is my name Cy? Let's say it is for now…) saw this and took a quick step back to face this new thing next to the pikachu. That thing is HUGE! Cy thought.

"Please help me!" The towering Mothra exclaimed to the two of them.

"What's the matter?" The pikachu asked, pricking her ears straight up. She was she suddenly so alert and serious that Cy took a quick step back from her as well.

"It's my son! My Caterpie! He fell into a fissure and I can't help him because I was attacked!"

"What!?" The pikachu yelled in disbelieving indignanance. "You were attacked in this forest!?"

"Yes, I think the fissure opening is scaring and confusing them. Please help me! I can't get him myself!" The butterfree pleaded desperately.

"Don't worry! We'll find him!" The pikachu reassured her with hell-bent determination.

"Wait, we-?" Cy barely had spoken the words when she had grabbed his wrist and started to pull him away in the direction the butterfree had come from. He mused with the thought of pulling free, but then heard the rumbling growl of the pikachu and saw her ears flatten over her head. abruptly he felt just fine with following her into a place where they would be presumably attacked. Why did he feel so comfortable with her? He felt like he knew her, like there was something he wasn't telling himself. Almost like meeting an old ex. Almost like he loved her…

No. He couldn't. He barely knew her? What did she say her name was? No. It couldn't be love. Logically, he must be having some deja vu of some sort. But he certainly felt something…

"Keke...ke...keke…" Cy coughed roughly when he felt this feeling. His walking stopped and he doubled over.

"Are you okay?" The pikachu asked, now turning to face him.

"Ke…ke...yeah, I'm -ke- okay." He lied between coughs. Looking up at her concerned face, he seemed to go on the kind of autopilot you go on when reciting something often said.

"I like you." He wheezed slightly. The pikachu looked taken aback for a moment.

"My name's Sayben." She offered quietly.

"I think my name's Cy." He returned as the coughs started to subside.

"You think?" She questioned, turning away to continue travelling, or perhaps to hide her cheeks that had just turned redder than usual.

"Well, yeah. It's all I remember." He replied while following her.

"Remember from what?" She asked while easily scaling an overturned tree.

"From what I was before I woke up just now." He answered, failing to jump over the same tree and ending up in the brambles.

"You mean, like, amnesia?"

"I guess so." He said, wincing and pulling himself from the tangled mess of thorny vines.

"Here's the funny thing. I'm pretty sure I was a human." When he was freed, he hurried over the fallen leaves after Sayben, not wanting to be too far away from her. The trees had started to grow too close to each other, and the forest had fallen quiet. He looked around at the scenery. The sunlight only came through in slits that danced on the forest floor all around them in the dark woods. The birds that were happily chattering away a second ago had fallen silent, and the insects likewise had ceased to hum.

"Hey, what just-?"

"Sh!" Sayben snapped quickly and quietly. She stood completely erect and totally still. She seemed to be focusing on what she could hear and what she could smell. Cy doubted she could even see in her focus. Cy himself started to listen, and heard nothing but his own breathing.

"What is it?" Cy murmured. A tense moment passed in silence.

"I think it's no-!" Sayben had been forcefully tackled out of sight with the equivalent din of a small bomb almost too fast for Cy to see. With a cry of alarm, he ran out of the grotto they had been standing in towards the large gully that Sayben had fallen into. He looked out over the edge and saw her sprawled out on the ground, writhing with what seemed to be a four-foot tall hawk. The sight was made spectacular by the glorious sight of lightning leaping arcing and biting the trees and the ground, leaving red spots of heat all around the battle. Sayben was desperately throwing the electricity from her cheeks while trying to fend off the giant bird.

"Hey!" with a shout, Cy threw himself into the ditch and slammed the bird, putting all his weight into his shoulder. The bird detached itself from Sayben and fluttered a short distance away, maybe five feet. It turned it's beady eyes from the fallen pikachu to the new threat. It eyed him, fluffing it's tail feathers up above it's head and uttering a sort of a growl. The bird bristled, the very image of menace.

Cy hesitated to follow up, and took a few steps back. He spoke to Sayben without breaking eye contact with the hawk-thing.

"Are you okay?" he muttered softly.

"I'm fine." she replied just as quietly, laying just behind Cy where she had been knocked down.

"I think you should get up," he suggested. "Slowly." Sayben started to move near imperceivably easily to get up. The bird now looked back at her. It opened it's beak slightly and tensed up. She had made it to her knees when the bird had seemingly seen enough and made to lunge toward her. Cy saw this, and acted not a second too soon.

He mirrored the movement of his foe, jumping head first. But the bird couldn't have ever done what Cy did then. He exploded. I wish there was a better way to describe what happened, but it looks like that's what happened. His back suddenly ignited violently, and the flames occupied the area that a moment ago had contained the two opponents. But one split second later, they had both flown in opposite directions and landed roughly among the leaves and the twigs.

Sayben rose to her feet and looked in the direction the bird had flown in. At the end of the trail of charred leaves laid an equally charred hawk, now squawking feebly with it's feet sticking up in the air. She turned with a smile towards Cy.

"You did i-!" she had barely enough time to dodge the screaming ball of fire that now came in her direction. The ball of fire continued on it's course into the forest.

"OH MY GOD I'M ON FIRE!" he screamed as he sprinted between the trees.

"You idiot, stop! You'll start a forest fire!" and with that, Sayben gave chase to the flaming cyndaquil angrily.

Cy and Sayben sat at opposite sides of the torch-lit room. Sayben was sitting in the loft, staring vacantly out the window. Cy was sitting on his woolen blanket, where he would be sleeping. There was a strained air to the atmosphere.

"We got him back to his mother okay." Cy offered hopefully. Sayben whipped her head in his direction, and cast him a furious glare.

"With a third degree burn!" she snapped. "He's injured, he's scared, and his mother refuses to reward us! You've humiliated me, you've humiliated yourself, and you've humiliated the t- actually, I haven't asked you yet. I think I won't, though." And with that, she turned back to the window.

"What? Oh, come on, I've never been a cyndaquil before. At least let me know what I missed out on just now."

"I was going to ask if you wanted to start a rescue team with me. I mean, aside from the uncontrollable bursts of fire, you were pretty good." Cy felt his pride swell at this. "I really want to help pokemon. There have been so many earthquakes and fissures just like that one opening up everywhere. People are suffering."

"Sorry." Cy said somberly. Sayben sighed at these words.

"It's not your fault." she told him. She turned again and considered him for a long moment. "If you're going to be part of this team, you're going to prove yourself tomorrow." She rose and started to leave. "You're also getting Caterpie a rawst berry tomorrow".

"Sayben?" Cy asked tentatively. "I appreciate this. The house and stuff." She paused then, in the doorway.

"You're welcome," she responded sincerely. "But do not screw things up tomorrow!" she finished with a brief revival of her anger. Cy smiled in her absence. He layed down and thought of what tomorrow might hold. He fell asleep thinking about it.

Is this a dream…?

Good job today!

You found Caterpie!

I guess…

You're on the right track. Just remember, don't trust anyone!

There it is! I know, long chapter. Expect a shorter one next time. Please R&R. Thank you!