"W-Who are you?" Eljiah stared at the beautiful Pokémon standing in front of him. It was bright white, with a scythe-shaped horn on top of its head. Everywhere he looked was just plain white, nothing else. This place, it just couldn't be real. Eljiah looked down, but there was nothing there either, not even his own legs. He tried moving, and realized that he was completely immobile. He had no body to move. He was merely able to look at this Pokémon, whose horn started emitting a golden light. It got brighter and brighter, until he couldn't see the Pokémon anymore. Suddenly, he saw scenes flashing in front of his eyes. A giant tower, a cave, some other things he couldn't quite make out. Then, he heard a gunshot, and everything went black.

Elijah opened his eyes, and was immediately greeted by a blinding white light. He blinked a few times before he was able to properly look around, although it didn't take him long to realize what had happened. He dropped his head back onto the pillow. "Viper and Brute knocked me right into the hospital. That's not how I planned our encounter to go at all. And they got away with that Pokémon too, I think they called it a Mawile. I wonder what happened to-" he quickly jumped up from his bed, causing a blinding headache. "Serena..." He tried to get out of his bed, but he lost his balance and fell on the floor. A Pokémon ran up to him and helped him back on his feet. Slowly, Eljiah turned his head and looked at his formerly broken right arm, and with a huge shock, he realized that it wasn't broken anymore. In fact, his right arm was entirely gone.

Nurse Joy came running in through the door. "Oh my, I'm so so sorry! Are you all right?" Eljiah's headache hadn't lifted yet, and Joy's loud voice didn't help that. "You really have to lay back down again, you can't go out yet!" She grabbed his shoulder and pushed him back into the bed, but Eljiah slapped her arm away and stood back up. "I don't care what I can and can't do, just tell me what you did to my arm!" Nurse Joy was clearly shocked by his angry reaction, as she hastily took a step backwards. "L-Look, I tried everything I could, really! It's just that, when you were carried inside, I sincerely thought you had already died. It took an entire day and night of nonstop working to get you back in the state you are now. Your arm was crushed so badly, I really couldn't do anything about it anymore. I'm so sorry..." Tears appeared in her eyes, and Eljiah realized his reaction had been much too harsh. If what she said was true, then she hadn't slept all night, just to keep him alive. Getting angry at her for not being able to save his arm wasn't justified.

"Thank you for saving my life. Without all of your effort, I most likely wouldn't have made it out alive. Tell me, who brought me here in the first place?" He figured that it had to be the doctor who they were searching in the cave, but he couldn't be sure. Nurse Joy smiled, happy that her patient wasn't angry anymore. "I was really surprised with what I saw too, but the one who carried you all the way over here is this little one here." She pointed at the Pokémon that helped him get up earlier. It was a Mienfoo, Eljiah recognized. Apparently, Lysandre used to have one of these, before it evolved of course. While he was also very confused about how a Pokémon not taller as one meter could carry him all the way to the hospital, he was more worried about Serena. The Mienfoo jumped on the bed, and pointed at a piece of paper that had been laying there all the time. Eljiah grabbed it and started reading. Each word he read hit him deeply with anger and rage.

What's up Zero? How does it feel to be left behind with nothing but a note when you wake up? Doesn't feel good, eh? In fact, I doubt if you'll even survive your injuries, but I couldn't care any less. The world is better off without you anyway, so do us all a favor and die. Anyway, we took that Mawile, and we got your girlfriend too. She's really nice, isn't she? I'm sure she'll have a great time with us! I'm glad we got rid of you, now we will surely get our promotion from the big boss. Well, we'll be off now. See ya.

Eljiah threw the piece of paper aside, got up, and walked away, leaving Nurse Joy behind. He walked outside, but something pulled him back. It was the Mienfoo, who had followed behind to stop him. The look in its eyes calmed Eljiah down. He realized that randomly raging wouldn't help anyone, and it wasn't worth the time. The Mienfoo pointed up a hill, where he could see a statue that marked a Pokémon Gym. Beating the Gym was currently their only chance of moving forward, so he didn't have much of a choice. He started walking the long road that lead up the hill. By the time he reached the entrance to the Gym, he was already quite tired, even though the challenge hadn't even begun yet.

The room inside was nothing like what he expected. There were waterfalls on each side of the cave-like area, and a huge stone pillar in the center. A man was descending from the wall closest to him, presumably the Gym Leader. Eljiah walked near the wall, and waited for the man to come all the way down. Once he hit the ground with his feet, Grant unbuckled his safety belt dropped it on the ground. "So, you must be the Eljiah that Viola told me so much about. I have to say, I'm glad to finally be able to meet you! She got me curious about you." He reached out to shake his hand, before realizing that one of Eljiah's arms was missing. "I... I'm sorry, Viola told me nothing about that-" Before he could finish his sentence, Eljiah interrupted him. "It's a recent accident. Let's just say I met up with some old friends, and this was their welcoming present." Grant's mouth fell open. "You've got to be kidding me... You know what, Viola told me to not go easy on you, but this is ridiculous. I'll help you get up the pillar, we'll have the battle there." He pointed at a path that looked visibly easier to ascend as the path Grant took to get down. As they walked, Eljiah could hear him mumble a few words. "...Only at the second Gym, and already gone through so much... Some people just get all the bad luck..."