I'm back! Sorry it took so long, I was busy, and I couldn't really think of anything better than this fillerish chapter... anyway, I AM NOW ACCEPTING OCS FOR POKEMON TRAINERS! If you are intrested, please put it in a message or reveiw. Don't be scared to give actual reviews, though! Anyway, enjoy chapter 10!

Chapter 10: Reminiscing revelations

-Dante-

So, what did he tell you? As soon as we had finished a meal more than large enough to make up for the fact that we had skipped lunch (the day went by pretty quickly), Max's voice eagerly sounded in my head.

"Well, I'll tell you," I said slowly, "but first, I have some bad news." They looked at me expectantly. "Team Plasma lost the machine that can turn you back."

Kevin just stared at me in disbelief, and Chris groaned. What surprised me, though, is that Max barely reacted. He just nodded and waited for me to tell my story. The last time he was serious like this was… well, a long time ago, I thought, while I said, "Anyway, after you all passed out (like you do after very battle so far)…

(-^-^)-Flashback!-(^-^-)

We were inside a house that, apparently, N had been staying in for the past week. We had come here for privacy, since, of course, anyone else would think that people talking about humans turning into Pokémon on a serious note belong in a mental asylum.

"So," N said once we had gotten settled. "if you don't mind, I must warn you that there are some parts of Team Plasma's motives that I cannot reveal. You may already know much about us from the… game you had in your world, but there is much more than what was communicated."

"First of all, I will explain something you must be curious about; how one person accurately transferred a world no one knew existed into a source of entertainment. We do understand that an individual known as Red has a special means of communicating with your world, and has used this to pass on his experience in ours. Upon further research, we discovered that all one needs to do this is powder made from a part of a legendary Pokémon. Red had the feather of a Ho-oh, while we… well, that's one of the things I can't tell you."

"At the same time as this, we were trying to figure out a way if Pokémon actually do enjoy the freedom of being wild. After many impossible ideas, someone came up with the prospect of actually turning into one themselves. This was actually a good idea, albeit one with many hazards, such as the risk of losing themselves to the primal instinct of their new form. That's why we decided to combine the testing of the two projects; to test the effects of a transformation on someone from your world. The rest, you could probably figure out by yourself; we used your father as the gateway, and you four as the targets."

"So when can we go back?" I said this trying to hold in anger at him and myself, him for have being the reason that my dad was in the hospital, and me for not even have thought about him since we 'left home'.

"I was getting to that. You see, an ingredient in the smoke that the machine dispensed was meant to remove the people to which it was exposed from their world into ours, but only mentally. The only way for someone to physically come here would be by exposing a wider area to the smoke. And that is precisely what happened; apparently, there was a leak in a capsule, and it was contained within one room."

I remembered that we had closed the door to the basement when we came in. "Okay… but where did the machine go?"

His expression changed into a slightly unsure one. "Ah yes… You see, that's the thing: We don't know."

I stared at him incredulously. They practically make a teleportation device that gets lost after one use? And on top of that, it's probably the only way to get back. "Can you make a new one or something?"

N laughed. "Give us three years, and sure. No, if you really want to get back, I would suggest looking for the original."

Somehow, I didn't like where this was going. "You want four kids to look for a machine that might not even be here, when three of them might completely forget who they are? Can't you even try to look for yourselves?"

"We could," he said, extending a hand, "if you agree to help with our research." Actually, that was better than what I expected. All we have to do is tell him stuff every so often, so I guess we have nothing to lose.

"I guess…" I accepted his handshake. I would have said more, but I didn't want to jinx myself.

"Ok, then," he said brightly, standing up, "in the meantime, you can just travel like you normally would. I'll see you in about a week." I hope that this won't end up as a bad choice…

(-^-^)-The present- (^-^-)

Everyone was silent for a while, lost in their own thoughts. Deciding to break the silence, I asked, "So, where should we look first?"

I think, Max said, that we shouldn't look for it. I just stared at him. If this is like the game…

"I already told you what I thought about that, Max."

Yeah, that was before you caught a Patrat, listened to Ghestis, and battled against N. I don't know about you, but if someone told me this is a dream now, I wouldn't believe them. Besides, it's not like we have anything better to do…

I sighed as I realized he was right. "Fine, what is it?"

I think, he said, pointing dramatically at me, you should get the Trio badge!

We all stared at him for a while. "Actually," I said, smiling, "that's not a bad Idea."