A/N - New chapter, and it's a bit longer than I thought it'd be. Not saying much, that, but there it is. Some stuff goes down in this one, and we get a new PoV to boot. But again, you just want to read the chapter. So I'll shut up now.

"Shit - No, no no!" I cursed, seeing the one thing every Pokémon player dreads: Critical Hit! It's Super Effective! and, in my case, It hit 5 times. Kairi took an unlucky hit from the latest Roselia - Pin Missile, the most potentially devastating move for a Psychic type, I've learned. My Gardevoir's HP dropped like a rock, coming to a stop a single pixel away from 0. I let out a sigh of relief, and switched her out for Juggernaut so that he could stomp all over it.

After the Aggron completely tore through the weakened Roselia, the message I'd been waiting for finally came up with its distinctive jingle: Kairi grew to Lv. 46! "Yes!" I brought up the menu, gave Kairi the last Potion I had - I seriously need to stock up more before power-leveling... - and had her teleport the team back to Victory Road's Pokemon Center. As I did often, I healed up my team and went to save. The usual Saving the game... Please do not turn off your DS. message popped up.

A bright flash of light from outside reminded me of the storm pouring rain down on the house - the clap of thunder seemed unnecessary. Like it was saying Don't you even TRY to ignore me. … I have way too much free time, if I'm giving voices to a storm. But that wasn't what scared me, shocked me, and above all got me pissed.

That flash of light... was a lightning bolt, unsurprisingly. More surprising was that it must have hit the power line right next to my house, because everything went dark. Including the DS I was holding in my hands. So I did what any reasonable Pokémon gamer would do - I flipped out. I must have blanked out for a minute there, because the next thing I knew my room was trashed. I overreact sometimes, alright? You would too.

When I finally calmed down, I checked the charger port on my DS. It was... well, I guess melted. The charger plug itself was in the same condition. And it was almost entirely dark in the house - though the fading daylight, or dusk-light, or whatever you want to call it gave my room a faint bluish light to it. "Well... that's just fucking amazing." I muttered, letting out a more-than irritated sigh. "Now, where's that damn flashlight..."

I stood up out of my 'gaming chair' - a beanbag chair with a GBA-print design, as fitting to a gamer. Grumbling to myself the whole time, I finally managed to find the flashlight I always kept in the room - never know when the power's going to go out, or some moron's going to try something stupid at night, right? I flicked on the light, and looked around for a minute. 'Now what the hell am I going to do?'

After a few minutes of... well, doing nothing, I decided to try calling a friend of mine; maybe he still had power, who knows. I pulled out my 'cell and punched in his number, and waited... and waited... and listened to that quickly-irritating ringing. Just as I was about to give up, he answered. "Hey Dave, what's up? Call to get some sage wisdom from me, like always?" Yeah... Nick's sarcastic to a fault. And a self-titled sage/wizard combo. Go figure; he's a fantasy nut.

"Hey Nick. And yeah, actually. Power's out, and I think the surge fried my DS. Think I can drop in for a bit?" Actually, I wasn't sure what happened to that thing. Not sure a power surge should've melted... well, anything.

"Damn, that sucks man. Can't help ya much, sadly - with this storm, ain't nobody comin' over here. Power's flickered out a lot in the past few minutes alone, so not sure how reliable it'd be anyway."

Eh... figures. Damn you, Murphy's Law! "Geh. Well, alright then. Here's hoping the power comes back online soon... and that yours stays on. Later, Nick."

"Later man. Nick, out."

I sighed and flipped the 'cell shut. "Well, that's just great. Looks like I'm stuck with a whole lot of boring nothin' to do, and it's getting dark. And now I'm talking to myself... awesome." Just as I finished talking, something... changed; the hairs on the back of my neck shot up, and I knew something was off.

Using my flashlight, I found the only real means of self-defense I owned - a replica Master Sword. That thing cost me more than I probably should've paid, but hey - it's the Master Sword, made of actual metal! Picking up the blade in one hand and flashlight in the other, I headed downstairs. I don't know why... but I felt like something major was about to happen.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Pokémon World xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

'The sunlight here... feels particularly good.' I thought, laying down at the border of the large clearing. One of our trainer's many favored training spots, this one was right in the middle of a forest. The Pokémon were friendly enough, allowing us to stay as 'guests' so long as none of their own were harmed.

I watched David directing the others through a series of combination moves, and sighed. I remembered back when he first started his adventure, and picked me out of all other options; it surprised everyone. Nobody wanted a soft, useless plant Pokémon like me, right? That's what I always thought. Charmander had agility and power, Squirtle had characteristic defensive strength... I was always just there.

But he'd looked at them, and shook his head at each one. He'd chosen me - and I didn't make him regret it. Throughout our adventure, I always did my best; once, I ignored his orders because they would've spelled defeat for us against a... Gym Leader, he'd called him. After the fight - which my decision did make us win, barely - I had waited for whatever punishment or harsh words were coming. Instead, he smiled faintly and said simply "Good job." Since then, he always let me do what I thought best in battle. It was a sign of trust, of believing in your partners, that I saw in few trainers.

"Thinking back, Veteran?" Jagged's rough, grating voice brought me back to the present - he must've taken a break from training for the moment. I chuckled at his use of my combination title and nickname - a human word, meaning something along the lines of experienced.

"Yes, I suppose I was. Remembering the 'good old days', as humans put it." I replied, nodding. The Aggron laughed, a rumbling sound not unlike rocks rolling around. "What are you laughing about?"

"You saying these days aren't so good, Verden?" he asked, his laugh boiling down to a chuckle. "You wish you could always be back in the action, get some more scratches and scrapes?"

I imitated a shrug, the large planet on my back shaking. "It would be nice once in a while, I suppose... hm?" I looked past Jagged, at... "What is that?" He turned around, confused - and saw exactly what I was talking about. A crack in the ground, just longer perhaps than a Charizard was tall, on the other side of the clearing. The... eerie part was the glow from within the crack, a strange purple light.

Stranger still, everything around it seemed to lean slightly towards it... wait, that was not an illusion! The crack was widening - already Jagged could easily fit inside it with room to spare - and everything it touched was... vanishing. And nobody else had noticed. "Look out!" I shouted, coming out as a loud rumbling growl. Immediately everyone stopped and looked around, noticing the still-widening crack - there must be another word for it... rift? That was when things went... very badly.

The rift started actively drawing things towards it, ripping branches and small, unlucky Pokémon from the trees and floor around it. I wrapped a vine around everyone I could, grabbing our trainer, my teammates, and a few other Pokémon nearby - but apparently, Arceus had... other plans. The rift began drawing in everything, and started 'attacking' - that is the only way I can describe it - with bolts of energy in all directions, each utterly destroying the first thing they hit; living or otherwise.

I did my best to haul everyone away from that thing... I really did. But a bolt hit one of my vines, the one holding Aurora. The vine snapped straight through, and she started hurtling towards the rift. However, quick-thinking as always, David nearly ripped his backpack off of his shoulders and swung it towards the Lucario who quickly grabbed the closest strap - all while keeping his usual silent calmness.

Straining against the rift's pull - Jagged had to help me, ultimately - I managed to pull them all away from the 'danger zone'. We could still see the rift drawing everything closer, but it was not affecting us anymore. David turned to me and cracked a small smile, saying simply "Good job." Then after a moment, he added "Thanks, Verden; Juggernaut." That surprised us all - he normally only spoke during battle, and only to direct us. We always knew what went unsaid, that he was proud of us, but this was different.

I drew back my vines, positively beaming - not only did he verbally thank us, but I got to do something important for the first time in... far too long. We all looked back to where the rift seemed to have stopped, a barren patch of stripped dirt surrounding it up to where we were - farther than my vines could reach. Sadly, it seemed that this thing was not yet done with us.

Almost as if annoyed about losing a fight, the rift launched a final bolt - it arced up, and slammed into the ground near us. The shockwave - and there was one indeed, enough to push me back - threw Aurora, still clutching our trainer's backpack, into the air... and towards the rift. I immediately shot out a vine to catch her, but I wasn't fast enough. She reached the rift before my vine could reach her... and vanished into it.

For several seconds, everything was silent save for the rift's own strange droning sound - how I had never noticed that until now, I do not know. Then, Kairi - who had been quiet the entire time, surprisingly - closed her eyes, and just as quickly opened them; this time, they were wide with fear. "We need to leave!" she telepathically shouted, pointing the opposite direction of the rift. I looked where she was indicating - and officially decided that she was right. Another one was breaking open not far from us.

David, though more than shaken as evident from the tears running down his face, silently nodded to the Gardevoir. She glowed with a faint blue outline, and then we were gone - but this time, we were missing one of our team... of our family.