Fire.

The first thing she saw was fire.

Eating up all in its path, sending billows of choking smoke into the air...devouring everything, threatening everyone...

"Syro!" a voice shouted. The Eevee looked around for the one who had called her name.

"Syro! Help!" the voice was getting desperate. But who was it? It wasn't the voice of anyone in her Society...

"Who are you? Where are you? I'm coming!" Syro shouted, launching for the direction in which the voice had come from.

"You know me! You always have!" the voice said. But it was growing weaker...fainter...

"I'll save you!" Syro shouted as her paws carried her to the flames.

"Syro! Remember! You have to remember!" the voice shouted at her. Syro was growing desperate as she peered anxiously through the dancing fire.

"Remember!"

Commotion outside of her room woke the Syro from her slumber. Rubbing her face with a paw, she stood up and stretched, making her way towards the door to her room.

She didn't remember her dream.

"What's all the hubbub, Daniel?" she asked as she entered the main room of the Base.

"Air Squad's back, Syro, my lead. But they have brought some lost souls to thee!" the Riolu told her.

"Really? Now that's interesting..." Syro murmured. The two friends continued towards the center of the room, where a crowd of Society members blocked off the newcomers from view.

The crowd parted at their arrival and Syro looked down at a trio of young, possibly very young, Pokemon.

The new arrivals looked around, terrified at being surrounded like this. There was an Electrike, a Buizel, and a Scraggy, all looking to be in bad shape.

"Hello," Syro said as the commotion ceased, "welcome to the Explorers Society. My name is Syro, I'm the leader here. What are your names?"

The Electrike was the first to recover and he stood up over his friends, his fur sticking up and crackling with electricity.

"What's the big idea, dragging us here? We were fine until that Pidgey and her friends came along and kidnapped us!" he growled.

The aforementioned Pidgey, Dusty the leader of the Air Squad, fluttered down to stand beside Syro and explain.

"We didn't tie 'em up or anything, Syro. They were half-conscious out in the desert heat, so we took 'em here quick-like to get 'em fixed up." she said.

"We were fine!" the Electrike protested.

"Actually, you weren't." one of the Air Squad members, Speedy the Starly, said. He flapped down next to Dusty and glared severely at the Electrike.

"You were near dead, bucko. Now I believe Syro asked you a question. Who in the blue skies are you?"

"I'm Russell." the Electrike said.

"I'm Lucky." his friend the Buizel told them.

Pointing to the Scraggy, he added "And this little guy is Shaney."

"Well Russell, Lucky, and Shaney, where did you come from? We don't see many Pokemon like you around here." Syro said.

"Whaddaya mean 'Pokemon like us'?" Russell asked suspiciously.

"She means Electrikes, Buizels, and Scraggies are not common out here in Mirage Desert." Watt said.

"We're from a forest a long ways away from here. We left to start our own exploration team." Lucky said peaceably, silencing any arguments Russell might conjure up.

"Really now?" Syro asked, "That's quite a venture for Pokemon as young as you."

"We may be young, but we're tough as tough can be!" Russell said proudly.

"And, as luck would have it, here we are! At the very center of the most renowned exploration company in this area! Explorers Society members, the pleasure is all ours." Lucky said, ducking his head.

"Well, you're welcome here. All explorers are." Speedy said.

"Absolutely." Daniel said. There was a collective sound of welcome from the others, and Lucky rubbed his head nervously.

"Well, we'd hate to be a bother..." he started.

"So teach us how to be the best exploration team in the world!" Russell said, cutting right across him.

Syro held back a laugh as she stood up and eyed the hopefuls. She decided she would play along.

"So, you want to be a great exploration team, eh?" she asked them as she started to pace.

"The just great. The greatest!" Russell said.

"The greatest, hm? Big dreams for such small Pokemon." Syro warned.

"We can take it!" Russell told her.

"Well, I don't doubt you can. But...can you handle what the Society dishes out? Who agrees that the Society's training program is way too tough for these little bits to handle?" Syro asked, raising her voice so the other members could here.

"Oh yeah, way hard." Smoke of Team Water Pledge nodded.

"You don't stand a chance." Speedy added.

"Never in a million years." Marcus of Team Ingrain said.

"Well how do ya know we can't take it?" Russell challenged them.

"How do you know you can?" Syro countered.

"'Cause we're the best!" Russell boasted.

"Do you think you have what it takes?" Syro asked, whipping around and staring the Electrike down.

"We know we do!" Russell growled.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah we are!"

"Then welcome to the Society, Russell and friends!" Syro announced, lashing her tail.

"Wait, really?" Russell asked, surprised as he fell back into his friends.

"Congrats kid, you're in!" Speedy told him.

"You'll need to see our medical team before you start training, though. When you're rested, you'll meet everyone in the Society and start learning how we do things here." Syro said. "Daniel, see to it they get the attention they need."

Daniel saluted her and walked towards the new arrivals, smiling down at them.

"Welcome to the crew, young yous! I'll take you to the medical ward, and not a protest, not a word!" he said as he ushered them out of the main room.

"Why're you talking like that, guy?" Russell asked him as they left.

"This is how I speak, young tweak! I talk in riddles, I talk in rhymes! I talk as a poet, wouldn't you know it?" Daniel replied.

"...Tweak?"