Scythe walked over to the pond where a large bunch of ferns growing out of one of the huge rocks stood. He pushed apart the green fronds, revealing a dark tunnel entrance. The Vulpix went in first, igniting the tips of her tails as she entered. The Houndour followed, closely tailed by Otto. Scythe beckoned for Squirt and Leon to go in before him. Squirt thought it was probably because he didn't want the two of them to run away.

"What is this?" asked Leon, looking around.

"A tunnel," replied the Houndour simply.

Leon rolled his eyes angrily but said nothing in return.

"Listen up if you two want explanations," said Scythe.

Squirt was already listening for Scythe to say something, but it was obvious Leon wasn't until he started to talk.

"Three years ago, a Charizard gathered a following of other Pokemon, all sorts of types. Pikachus, Houndours, Arons, Onix, Geodudes, almost ever type of Pokemon there is. A few types of us, however, stayed completely clean, not losing a single one to this new group.

"It started off with a small group of them stealing some necessities from Pokemon's homes. We thought it was nothing, just some mischievous Pokemon trying to terrorize locals. Those of us who were worried about the well-being of the land didn't think anything of it.

"But then the bad stuff began to happen," continued Scythe gravely. "Every week or two, clusters of Pokemon families living together started to get raided. In the middle of the night, probably a dozen members of this new group would attack these settlements. Very few would survive, and it was those survivors that started to spread the word."

"Just a few short weeks after the first raid, families living with other families would move in with groups just like theirs to reinforce and protect themselves. The raids started to occur more often, and they grew worse and worse. They were publicized and violent. Fear and panic started to spread and Pokemon started to talk about fleeing or moving together with hundreds of others."

Scythe paused to catch his breath. Squirtle's mind was racing. This story was awful. Hundreds of Pokemon had died because of this one Charizard and his allies. Why was it doing this to other Pokemon?

"So a lot of us gathered together to discuss it. Over one thousand Pokemon gathered by one of the large lakes to talk about it. I was there, and so was Otto and a few others we know. After waiting for a few hours, some of the more influential Pokemon began to present ideas to us all.

"Everything went wrong once the Charizard showed up, his army of nearly five hundred other Pokemon in tow. Over the past six months since the first attack, all sorts of Pokemon flocked to him, whether they were people looking for mischief way in over their heads or criminals and wrongdoers.

"They slaughtered the six Pokemon speaking to us and then the Charizard stood on a rock and proclaimed himself leader of the land. He explained that anyone who tried to resist him would be killed alongside their families, but people who just went on with their lives would be able to stay safe.

"After a few minutes of silence, nearly a dozen Pokemon tried to attack him, all at once. That's what set him off. He ordered his army forward and they stampeded into the crowd, being to cut down anyone in their path. Otto and I were both next to each other when it happened. We fought back for a bit, but once we noticed that it was not going our way, we fled. Of the thousand that were there, I'd say about a hundred and fifty of us escaped.

"Otto and I stuck together, hiding in the wild, spreading word to any Pokemon we saw. It was after our fourth month of traveling that we heard about the Resistance.

"Following the genocide, a small gaggle of Pokemon banded together and found a hiding place where they began to secretly resist the Charizard and his army. By helping others out of tight spaces and sabotaging small bits of the army's movement, they made themselves known to the world. Pokemon began to trickle in to join. At the beginning of the genocide, there were nine Pokemon. By the time we arrived after four months, it was numbering up to three hundred. But unfortunately, Charizard's army has also swelled to nearly two thousand. He commands every one of the psychic Pokemon and he uses them to control other people to become part of the army.

"So that's who we are," concluded Scythe. "We're part of the one resistance that is trying to fight against Charizard and his wicked Pokemon. We were in the forest tracking that small band of his army to see what they were doing, and once we spotted them chasing you, we decided to stepped in. But that was a very bad representation of what Charizard's army is like. Those four Pokemon are probably new recruits, barely knowing what they are doing. It's a crazy world out there, and you were lucky it was that Mightyena and his friends that found you, not some of the others."

"I heard there was a Primeape that wiped out fifteen Pokemon all on his own," said Otto. "But then the next day, he gathered a couple of his 'friends' and raided a large group and killed them all, too."

"It's terrible out there," Vulp muttered. "Pokemon die everyday, and we are fighting against a growing and much stronger opponent. It's a losing battle."

Otto shook his head. "Don't say that, Vulp. We can still win this."

"Thank you," Squirt said suddenly. "You saved our lives. Without you, I wouldn't be here."

"What were you even doing out in the forest?" asked Hounder.

Squirt shrugged. "I have no idea. I woke up with no memory whatsoever."

"That's strange," said Scythe. "Very strange."

"It might have something to do with you being a Squirtle," said Vulp.

"Why?" asked Squirt quietly.

"Once the rebellion was formed, there were a few types of Pokemon in which every single one fought against the Charizard," Vulp explained. "Not one went over to his side. And so to get rid of this threat, he ordered all of these types to be eliminated. It was chaos. Pokemon of those types were forced to go into hiding, but they were found within months. The Charizard set all his forces against them."

"Squirtles were one of those species," Hounder contributed. "We believed them all to be gone. You, Squirt, are the first of your kind seen in nearly two years."

Squirt blinked, his heart racing. He was alone. There were no more Squirtles left in the world. There weren't even memories of these other Squirtles to comfort him. He literally had nothing. At all.

"I'm sorry," Vulp whispered as she looked back and saw Squirt hanging his head.

Squirt didn't reply. Instead he tried to block out all the despairing thoughts from his head and focused intensely on the dark floor in front of him. He counted his steps in his head and he quickly found out it was a good way to keep other thoughts from getting into his mind.

The rest of the journey, everyone was quiet. Vulp kept glancing back at Squirt, but he just ignored her and kept counting his steps.

7,894...7,895...7,896... he counted after well over an hour of traveling. Although it was keeping other images out of his brain, Squirt couldn't help but start to feel very weary from counting nearly 8,000 steps.

"We're almost here," Scythe muttered once two hours had passed.

Squirt looked up and saw a shaft of light poking through a hole at the end of the tunnel. Scythe pushed past the others and walked up to the stone, tapping on it three times with his blades.

"Tauros venom," he whispered through the crack in the tunnel.

There was silence, and then a rumble as the rock blocking the exit began to roll away. "Welcome to the Ikono Resistance."