Author's Notes and Warnings

Thank you for your interest in this story!

If you haven't read "Blue Tint," You need to read that first. This story is a sequel to it! You can find Blue Tint on the author's profile. You can also search for it. If you want to search for it, it's a Pokemon and Sonic the Hedgehog cross, rated K, just shy of 1500 words in English, and Complete. Characters are Sonic and N. Search in "Friendship/Angst."

This story is a crossover between the Sonic games continuity, especially the Storybook games and the Colors/Generations Arc, and the Pokemon games continuity, especially the Kanto and Unova games. It spoils Pokemon Black & White and their direct sequels most heavily.

This story also contains some content that may shock, disturb, or annoy readers. That includes:

* Light Shipping (straight and yaoi)
* Frank discussions of topics like racism, prejudice, homophobia, and slavery
* Frank discussions of Pokemon abuse and control, including the notion of Pokeballs as a mind control device
* Verbal and emotional abuse of Pokemon
* Verbal and emotional abuse of human beings
* Major character death

Thank you for your patience. Enjoy the show!

"You really aren't from this world. Sonic, the kind of being for which I mistook you here is frequently enslaved. Your uniqueness would mark you as valuable. If people see you with me… they should leave you alone. Otherwise, I fear for your freedom, and your safety." The man with green hair shook his head, closing his eyes like he was trying to block something out. "If you aren't a Pokemon, who knows what effect a Pokeball might have. A sample size of one is no sample at all…"

I leaned back, grinning. "Sounds like I wound up here for a reason then!" Then I scratched under my nose. I wondered if I did that as much as he shook his head. "I'll just set all the animals free like I've been doing for years."

N chuckled, sighing. "What do you think I have been trying to do? The formula for liberation has too many variables for one man to change alone."

As the world crept back in around me, I expected to feel a warm bed under my side, the pages of a book on my nose.

Instead, I felt cold, hard rock, and hair on my face.

I opened my eyes as fast as I could. Yup, hair. Pale green hair, attached to a long,s noring human body, which was curled up next to a big white fluffy dragon.

Right. So that dream about winding up in a world full of slaves actually happened. Not waking up with a book this time. It wasn't summer, I wasn't in Station Square, and this wasn't Kansas, or even the United Federation.

I sat up, slowly, looking at them. The weird little man and his big old dragon buddy, N and Reshiram. The guys who were gonna change the world and save all the Pokemon, whatever the heck a Pokemon is.

And I was gonna help them, if I didn't do more harm than good, anyway.

I started looking for a way out, and some shallow water to wash my face in. Maybe someone else to talk to. N sold me on his plans pretty easily, and I wanted an outside perspective.

Outside, I found a little stream, and a lady washing her kids in it. Looking back, nothing about the way she looked said "lady" to me. It might have been the attention she was giving the kids. I'm not even sure why I started talking to her. Maybe it's because she and the kids had two tails, just like… well, Tails. They looked more like weasels than foxes, but I it was enough to make me think of him. Enough to let my guard down.

"Mornin'," I called, nodding.

All three of 'em, mom and babies, froze in their tracks and looked at me. After a second, they sighed, relieved.

"Morning," the mother returned, guarded. I couldn't tell how, but the way she spoke was different. For some reason, I also suddenly I knew she was called a Floatzel. "Is your trainer with you?"

"I don't have one."

"Then why do you talk like a human?"

I shrugged. "My parents taught me. …Mind if I wash my face in your stream here?"

She blinked at me, cocking her head to the side. "Why would you have any less right to the stream here than we do?"

So Pokemon weren't all that territorial. I filed that away in my head. "I don't know. Might be different. I'm from far away." I decided to cut to the chase. "From a place where there are no Pokemon or trainers."

One of the children laughed. "Mommy, how does he not know about trainers?" He was a Buizel. How did I know that?

She shot the little kid a glare. "Humans capture our kind in these tiny spheres and use them to fight. Some Pokemon like fighting, and seek the humans out because they think humans make them stronger. Most of us just try to keep away from them."

I nodded. "And all humans are bad?" I knelt down by the water and splashed some on my face, hoping I wouldn't fall in.

"No. Not all of them. There's a human with green hair, the Hero of Truth. He wants to free us from humans. I hear he used to want to separate the species, but now I hear he's compromised. He wants to stop humans from capturing Pokemon." She shook her head a little, disapproving. "I hear he's nearby."

She was right. I'd just slept maybe three feet from his face, although that didn't explain how his hair got all the way over to me. Still, I kept that to myself. I wanted to learn as much as I could from someone who wasn't a fanatic, and I don't think she liked him.

"Sounds like you aren't too fond of the guy."

"He's a fool. Humans can't be stopped. Something about them brings out the strongest in Pokemon. Some even follow certain humans without those little balls." She looked at children, frowning. "The only way to be free of humans is to stay places where few humans travel, and stay just weak enough not to catch their eye."

Yikes.

"Sonic?"

I turned and looked behind me. "Yeah, N?"

He was there, his hair going every which way out from under his hat, smiling. "I thought I dreamed you."

"I know, right? This lady was just telling me about how Pokemon who don't wanna get caught pull it off." I turned to her; she was glaring at me. "Thanks for clearin' things up for me." Then I walked over to him.

He smiled at her. "We'll give her more options. We're flying today. I'm going to see if I can get some information on what's happened to Kyurem in a place called Chargestone Cave."

N tried to brief me on the flight over, telling me things he hadn't gotten to the night before. Only problem was, he doesn't understand the meaning of the word brief. He tried to dump it all on me at once: The story of Team Plasma and the legendary dragons. The story of how he became the champion, and his defeat by the girl with the baseball cap who fought alongside Zekrom, Reshiram's opposite. He told me about how all of it was a scheme by his dad to take over the world and steal Pokemon. He told me about how he ran away two years ago to find himself. Now, apparently, something bad happened to Kyurem, the dragon Reshiram and Zekrom came from. He suspected his dad.

But that's about all I got out of what he told me.

I do best with stories when I can read them, or imagine that I'm in them. After a while of listening to motormouth, suddenly Reshiram's fuzz was more interesting.

After a while, N chided, "Trying to understand the current state of the world without understanding its history is like trying to solve an equation with multiple variables, knowing none."

Though he sounded just as calm as he usually did, I could feel the criticism. I looked up at him. "I didn't get where I have in life by sitting in a classroom and listening to other people's solutions. I learn by seeing."

N nodded. "But we must pass this time somehow…"

"What goes on in this Chargestone Cave?"

N glanced down at the land but I don't think he saw it "It's a scientific anomaly. Trainers come there to capture rare Pokemon, and often battle each other. Scientists experiment there. Pokemon live their lives."

"So I might get to see someone capture a pokemon. Maybe see trainers fight."

"Yes."

I ran my fingers through the down on Reshiram's back, trying not to think about what my next question meant. "And what do I do if someone sees me?"

"Act like you're with me, though I would prefer we keep my presence a secret."

I looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. "You're flying in on a giant dragon and you wanna keep your presence a secret? N, buddy, think about this. Reshiram here is not exactly stealth."

"He's right, N," the dragon chided.

"I know he's right," N snapped. Well, snapped with him is relative; his voice stayed light and calm, but he spoke faster than he usually does. "But there is no way to conceal my return. Without Reshiram, I would take a commercial boat or flight. Team Plasma could easily obtain those records. However, if I recall Reshiram into a Pokeball and travel with your assistance, so long as you are faster than the Shadow Triad, I can keep them confused as to where in the region I am."

I nodded. Still, for some reason I felt a need to press my luck. "Why hide at all? Why not come out in the open, and challenge your dad directly if he's responsible?"

N shook his head. He does that a lot. "My father can convince people to behave in ways that benefit him. He figures out what they desire and finds a way to make that suit his own goals." I thought his voice cracked a little. "The only way to beat him is to conceal your intentions, or to so carefully obscure your actions that he cannot factor you into his equation."

"So you think that if you just run around Unova and never stay in the same place, he won't realize it when you go in for the kill."

N turned back to face me, a glint of anger in his blue eyes. "No killing. That is not my way."

"It ain't mine either." I glanced off the side. "It's an expression."

I saw him look away out of the corner of my eye. "I will convince him that I'm too frightened to intervene. I'll dawdle as I did when I began to suspect I was wrong about humanity. We will ensure that people see me far away from Giant Chasm when my allies in old Team Plasma tell me he's mobilizing there… and you will carry me there with your famed speed."

"Sounds like a plan, N." I wasn't really looking forward to carrying a full size human any distance, but I was pretty sure I could do it. I'd just pretend N was a pretty girl. Still, something about the plan seemed strange to me, and I wasn't the only one. I could feel something tensing underneath me… the muscles of Reshiram's back. I gave him a firm pat on the shoulder.

"You have reservations?"

"Well, I gotta see if I can even carry you. You seem pretty skinny, but I dunno." I looked down. "And… Something about this just doesn't sit right with me."

"Keep talking."

"Well… you're the hero of truth, right? So… why all the scheming?"

N shook his head. "What a naive view of truth. Reshiram is the Dragon of Truth, but his opposite is the Dragon of Ideals, not Lies. Truth is not honesty with others, but honesty with yourself: seeing the world as it truly is. Sincerity beat Ghetsis before, but it may not suffice again. He will expect it now. The best chance of his defeat lies in giving him insufficient data to solve the equation… in telling little white lies."

I nodded. It's not like I haven't lied to stop the bad guy before. But it just bothered me, the hero of truth basing a whole campaign on deception. Like it just bothered me, a whole world where thinking, feeling creatures could be slaves.

"You remind me of that trainer…" he mused, turning back, away from me. I stared at his long, green hair, sticking up every just way. It looked familiar, but I couldn't place it…

Maybe I was over-thinking. Couldn't wait 'til I could run.

Author's Note: Thanks for making it this far! The story will be updated next weekend, probably on Friday or Saturday. :) The story has been finished, but I'll be uploading a chapter a week.