A/N: Sorry this is late guys :/. I didn't want to use this as an excuse but I did get sick Monday and Tuesday which are my main writing days for Wednesday-updated stories. I told myself I would finish it in time but in the end I decided for quality over quantity.

(Nobody probably cares but I just got back from playing at Homecoming with the Marching Band. I play Flute and it was so much fun :))

Turned out, he wasn't dreaming.

It had been almost an hour of pointless wandering through the streets of Onett so Ninten was pretty sure he was, in fact, awake. Good thing it was only a five minute walk (for some reason. Why didn't he know this town existed then?).

Now the only problem was finding something other than the buildings. They had walked down the same streets so many times it was starting to annoy him. There was nothing useful, nothing to actually find out where Podunk went. He usually didn't get upset easily but that obviously wasn't happening now. He wasn't just going to let the matter of something as strange as this go.

His whole life had basically been thrown away in an instant, and a confusing one at that. Whatever 'force' had caused it, he was going to find it out.

No matter what it takes.

But, obviously, he couldn't do that if he didn't find a lead soon. The same buildings that seemingly warped back around were frustrating him to no end. What kind of idea was to go to Onett, a town that he didn't even know existed?

Oh, whatever. It was the best option he had.

Or he tried to convince himself.

Not to mention he was traveling with a random strange who supposedly thought he was normal. Since when is that normal? Did the person even know what the layout of Onett was? Because he sure didn't, and he really needed to.

Enough complaining, he told himself. It will work. Probably. Somehow. Maybe.

Yeah, it was going to be a long time.

"Hey, I found... something."

Oh, what did he expect.

He looked to the... person (okay, that was even weirder to call someone by, especially when he was basically traveling with that person, he really needed to get the name Ness down) and saw in front of him was a trail.

Okay, maybe it wasn't so bad to have a new stranger to help him.

"Maybe it'll lead... somewhere," Ness continued, pointing to the dirt pathway and shrugging. "It'll have to work as some kind of lead."

"That's what I was thinking." Ninten walked forward, Ness (hopefully) following behind him.

"How sophisticated we are, walking through a deserted trail in a town like Onett," Ness added.

"Did you live here before, or...?" Ninten looked behind at Ness, who seemed to have no explanation, making Ninten second guess himself for doing this.

"Um, well," Ness laughed, "that's a long story."

"Wait, you can't just leave your family if-"

"That's another long story. Ask me later. Hey, look, something different than dirt!" Ness changed the subject, his tone changing to a lighthearted one.

And rightfully so. In front of them was a type of old shack with a gate blocking everything next to and behind it. A sign read "Keep out!" with more graffiti scrawled under those words: "especially kids that want to find out what's in here! Don't come in! You'll regret it! -Sincerely, Definitely a Random Person". Another sign said the name of the place (or probably what it was), "Giant Step".

"Someone really wants to keep us out here," Ness noted obviously.

"Does that mean that... somebody's following us?" Ninten asked, regretting for a second getting involved with this, and a second later remembering why he was even going along with this person.

Ness only shrugged to his question. "Mmmmmmaybe. Well, let's get into this place."

"What are we supposed to do, climb the fence?" Ninten asked rhetorically, but Ness actually nodded and started to climb over it. Ninten sighed internally and followed the crazy newcomer up into the "dangerous" place. So much for protection. It was just a fence, nothing special about it. There was still hope that it really was just a random person that put graffiti on the sign while trying to joke around or something.

"So now we do as much exploring as we can, mostly hoping that we find something," Ness claimed proudly, going off and already starting to search around.

Hoping was really the best they could do.

0o0o0o0

How did it come to this?

Really, it started as innocent exploring in a restricted area- yeah, innocent, they were only probably breaking the law- and then they ended up in a freaking cave.

Even weirder was the fact there was ladders already in the cave. Well, compared to what was happening right now, it really wasn't that absurd.

The strangest thing was that a giant ant was blocking their was into a part of the cave. And it had a freaking weird power that an ant probably shouldn't have. Or any living creature should for that matter.

And now Ness was using it too.

What the heck was going on?

Ninten suddenly wanted to wake up again.