gytech's Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or its characters. This is a piece of work that it based off of mine (and Froggiecool's ) imagination. And names that appear in this story alive or dead is pure coincidence.

gytech's Author's Note: Enjoy!

Froggiecool's Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon or anything else owned by GameFreak. If anything seems to represent a real person, then I am truly sorry, but it doesn't. Coincidence is probable.

Froggiecool's Author's note: *deep thought* I've think I've been writing far too much crack recently. So, if this is a little on the odd side... Blame that. Other than that, have a great day! And enjoy the chapter! Oh, and any seemingly random footnotes are my fault. I have to call the file by a name, and they appear when I upload stuff. Sorry!

Louisa was struck by two realisations. First, her head hurt. Second, it was dark. She thought for a second - that wasn't right - her head hurt, and her eyes were shut. 'Oh,' her mind added dryly, 'and you're lying down.'

Not really wanting to get up, she raised both hands to her head, and opened her eyes. Glancing one each side, she saw her belt with her closed pokeballs, her backpack, and her folder. Her hat was on her other. She blinked at the scene for a few moments, before something sunk in. She wasn't on the boat. And it was sandy. And her toes were wet. She looked up. The sky was a beautiful shade of blue, nothing like the stormy sky she had seen earlier. A strangely blue shade, in fact. Light radiated down, and the sky glistened. Something flew across the sun, and Louisa blinked. Then blinked again.

"Is that a mantyke I see before me?"

"Yep!"

Louisa blinked, and rolled over, grabbing her bag, throwing it on her back, and pulled herself up into a squatting position, all in one swift movement.

"Hi, I'm Kitty, pleased to meet you! I'm 7 years old!" a girl squealed, clapping her hands happily.

Louisa groaned as she noted the baby-pink dress, the long, curly blonde hair, the flawless face, "Please tell me you're a guy."

"No... You're weird. Of course I'm a girl, silly! Why else would I be wearing a dress? What's your name?"

"..." 'Great. A girl,' Louisa's lips remained sealed, 'I could cope with a cross-dressing guy. But a GIRL?'

"Please?"

Louisa glared for a moment, and the girl yelped, "I am Louisa Roberts. I do not expect to repeat myself."

"Well, I'm Kitty, as I said, and I'm 11!" come on, the girl pulled up Louisa, and span her round to face the village.

The village itself was built a little way up the sandy area. The houses were built into the sand, built on stilts, and made of wood. The stilts were about a storey high, and there was one in each corner - wooden poles. The houses were small - only one room, but each family had a group of houses, joined by wooden walkways, and all around a central area. If the number of houses were to be believed, the village was tiny - maybe 10 families, of three generations, at most, amounting to around 80 people (grandma, granddad, mum, dad, aunt, uncle, boy, girl and two cousins). Each was a single storey high, and had a ladder up one side, so you could get to it. The town backed onto a forest, through which there was a walk-way.

"Well, welcome to my house!" Kitty shouted, grinning. Louisa blinked a number of times, adjusting to the lack of light, as she stepped through the door.

There was a rug on the floor, and a number of outfits hung on the walls. On the back, however, a pair of swords glistened in the watery light. A man and woman stood at the back, talking quietly.

"Mum! Dad!" Kitty shouted, "This is my new friend!"

The adults turned around. The woman was in her late twenties, and the man in his thirties. The younger's hair was blonde, just like Kitty's, and cropped just above her shoulder. She had no fringe, although the locks of hair that could have been were clipped to the left. She wore a plain, oak-leaf green, dress, which came down to about the same place as a mini-skirt, with tight-fitting leggings, obviously home-made. Her pale face smiled, green eyes turning up and freckled skin wrinkling. In contrast, the man had long, black hair tied in a pony-tail. He wore a long, black cloak, covering all other clothing. Grey eyes narrowed as he frowned slightly, "Kitty, who is this?"

"This is Louisa - she thought I was a guy!"

The parents stared at Louisa, who glanced around quickly, "Long story."

"Oh, and I found her on the beach."

Louisa took one look at the parents, before muttering, "That one's even longer."

The mother looked at her, whilst the father started ranting on about not talking to strangers. Kitty smiled happily as he did so, but Louisa could not escape the woman's stares.

After a while, said woman spoke up, "That's enough, darling."

The man gave her a quick kiss. She giggled slightly, before lightly hitting his face, "Robert! There are children here!"

He laughed, and held her hand, "And why should we not be angry?"

"Because she hasn't been trained." the woman giggled.

The man laughed again, "Well, have FUN girls," he walked out, pulling one sword from the wall as he did so.

"Oh, we will," the woman smirked, "My name is Catherine, and I am going to train you."

"No - really - it's fine," Louisa stammered, looking for the door.

"Oh, don't worry. It won't hurt. Much," the shadows made Catherine look slightly insane.

Kitty laughed, "Oh, don't mind Mummy! Come play in the sand!" before dragging the teen outside.

"I will have you, if it's the last thing I do..." maniacal laughter filled the room.

Kitty dragged Louisa back to the beach, where something hit her, - how could she forget! She grabbed Kitty's arm, "Wait - where's Dominic? Where am I, and what on earth is going ON?"

Dominic groaned as he was starting to finally wake up. "What the heck happened?"

A forced his sore body to sit up, he then opened his eyes.

He was in a small circular room with wood flooring, several blankets in the floor kept him from getting cold. The door was a simple fur curtain, and lanterns provided light in the room. But when he looked at the wall he was surprised.

It was dirt, he was underground!

He quickly bolted up to his feet, as he did this a new face walked into the room.

She was about his age, and was quite beautiful. She stood at the same height, she had shoulder length midnight blue hair, and a slight tan, to top it off was a pair of blue eyes. She was clad in a red sleeveless shirt with black pants, on her feet were simple leather flip-flops. She had a surprised look on her face but that quickly turned into a smile.

"Oh, you awake, that's good." She said.

"Who are y-"

His knees buckled, with surprising reflex the girl rushed forward and caught him.

"You're still not fully recovered," she said. "You need to rest some more."

Dominic shook his head gently pushed her off. "I'm fine, just was a little surprised."

That was quite an understatement actually, he was quite tired. And it felt like he was going to collapse any second.

The girl gave a sigh but gave a warm smile again, he could tell that she knew what his condition was. "Man you're stubborn."

She then extended a hand. "I'm Lara Corey."

"Dominic Brown," he replied, trying to hide his already known unwellness. "It's a pleasure to meet ya."

"Same," she nodded. She then gestured him to follow.

They then reached another circular room, though this one was much larger. It had a round wooden table with four chairs, in the middle of the table was a bowl of berries. Also two separate door ways led off to what he assumed was her and her parent's room.

"No kitchen?"

Lara shook her head "No, we get most of our goods from a nearby town, and what else we need we cook outside."

He gave a nod. "So why underground?"

"Our village relies on Agriculture," she replied. "We make our houses underground so we can use the land for farming."

They then went up a few steps from the fourth and final door way, which led them upstairs and outside.

When they got our, Dominic's first reaction was the sky.

It was day time, but the colour was different shade of blue, one much darker than the normal sky he was used to seeing, even more surprising was the ripples of light that went through every now and then. He was underwater!

"What," he barely got out. "What the heck is this?"

"Oh right," the girl said. "I didn't properly welcome you, this is the Tocal Region."

Tocal region? Dominic had never heard of that region before. Everything that had happened was so sudden, he couldn't get his thoughts straight.

His knees then buckled and he fell into the soft grass.

Dominic sighed. He felt like the oldest man in the world right now. One second he was on the way to Sinnoh for research and now, he was in a new place, where everything was a mystery to him. His Pokemon, his past two years of research, and Louisa, and while she wasn't exactly a friend, her life was still his responsibility.

Now because of one storm, all of them were gone.

He hesitantly got up, his body still weak, he wanted to rest. But if just laid in bed all day he would start to feel guilty about his former thoughts. Working would get his mind off it. "I still owe you a debt, what do you want me to do to help?"

She gave a surprised look. "You can't be serious?"

He gave a nod. "I am, how do you want me to help?"

She laughed as she got up as well. "What I want you to do is to rest and recover."

He shrugged. "Just a few bruises. Nothing more."

"Still, even if you want to work, you need to be well rested," she countered.

Dominic gave another sigh, he didn't want to admit it but she was right. He would have to rest first before helping them. Still, he wanted to get to work as soon as possible, he didn't like being a hindrance to others.

Laura read his mind and smiled. "Alright, how about this? If you really want to work, you can start working tomorrow. Until then, I'll show you around town."

He cracked a smile, and gave nod.

Kitty turned to her, "Who is Dominic? Is he your boyfriend?" she giggled, kicking up sand.

Louisa glared, "Questions."

"I don't know, Pincatta in Tocal, and we're building sandcastles," the girl smiled.

"That means nothing to me, and why?"

"Tocal region, and we're building sandcastles because Mummy thinks that you'd make a good slave, seeing as our last one died of over-use. Oh, and can we get ice-cream."

Louisa breathed deeply, before looking at the forest, "Tocal, sandcastles, slaves, death and ice-cream. Perfect." she swallowed, "This makes no sense, and I'm looking for Dominic."

"No - you're buying ice-cream, then I'm going to dress you like a normal person, and then we're going to see Mummy and Auntie Susie. Sound good?" Kitty smiled the entire time.

'Not in the slightest' thought Louisa, but she bit the comment back, "Only if you show me around town first." 'and preferably a way back to the surface.'

"The surface? Why do you want to go there?" the girl sounded confused. Passers by looked in shock, and edged away.

"That's where I came from..." Louisa said slowly.

Kitty laughed, and one of the eavesdroppers screamed, "And I'm a fairy princess! Let's get ice-cream from Uncle Bob! He makes all the ice-cream, and he lives with us."

A few hours later...

Dominic had learned quite a bit about the town of Machina from Lara's tour.

It wasn't very big, its population only about 300, and as Lara had said, it relied on agriculture to thrive. Only the residential homes were underground and what above ground buildings they had were few. Two buildings were for stores, one building for meetings, two were for supply sheds, one large one for storage, and finally, one for a doctor. The buildings were simple and crude looking, but they were quite efficient.

As they were on their way back to Lara's house they ran into a group of buys around their age. All of them training with bokens.

"Hey Lara, do want to spar?" One of the boys asked.

"No thanks," she replied politely. "I'm sort of busy at the moment."

"Who's your friend," another asked.

"This is Dominic," she introduced.

"It's nice to meet you," Dominic greeted,

"Where do you come from?" One of them asked.

Dominic hesitated. Not just because it was a recent event, but also because he was having a hard time thinking of how to put it into words.

"Umm, the surface I guess," he fake-laughed as he rubbed his hand behind his head.

The boys had a slight fear in their eyes, one of them opened their mouths to talk.

"He doesn't want any questions at the moment guys, alright," Lara interfered.

The three boys gave a nod and then resumed their sparring.

Dominic was surprised at their reactions, most people weren't afraid him. Even Louisa, whom he had only known him for a few minutes wasn't afraid of him. Then again, he was an alien in this new region, he guessed someone from the surface would seem intimidating.

Lara then tugged on his arm, signalling him to follow. He shrugged off the comment and continued onward with Lara.

After the tour was finished, they returned to Lara's house.

The rest of the town had given Dominic a nice welcome, but he noticed that the boys that he had met earlier weren't the only one that gave off fear in their eyes. A few others gave him the same look, which bothered him a bit.

"Is something on your mind?" Lara asked as they sat at the dining room table..

Dominic shook off his worried look and decided to not let her worry. "No, I'm just thinking of how to help you is all."

An idea struck his mind at that moment. "In fact, I think I just came up with one."

"What is it?"

"How about I can make you some clothing from where I come from," he theorized. "All I'd need is the materials and I'm sure you could help with that."

Lara laughed and looked at his clothing. "No offense but those look wiered."

"Maybe for your region," he replied. "Up on the surface everyone wears these. Trust me, it's comfortable and it's also durable as well."

"Are you sure about that?" Lara questioned, she didn't seem to like the idea, and the expression on her face read 'Don't do this'.

"Okay, how about this," he began, as the wheels in his head began to turn. "I'll make you an outfit. If you like it, we'll go with my idea. If you don't like it then I'll just stick with agriculture."

Lara gave him somewhat of a glare, then she sighed. "Red and black. Those are my favourite colours, and I don't want any skirts."

"Fair enough," Dominic agreed. He reached into one of his lower pockets of his khaki shorts and pulled out a small sewing kit.

Lara gave him another weird look.

"Good thing this didn't get lost," he said as he examined it to make sure all of the tailoring tools were still in good condition

"You keep that in your pockets."

"Yeah."

"Why exactly?"

"You never know when you need to repair your clothing while travelling," he replied smoothly. "Or make more for that matter."

"You're an odd person," she giggled.

"I take that as a compliment now," he said casually. "So what's for dinner?"

She laughed and reached into the bowl. She then tossed him a berry. "I'll get started, eat that, it'll help you with the pain."

Dominic gave a smile bit into it, his face then gave a sour look.

It had a bitter taste.