Hello, everyone! Welcome back to The Absolite Chronicles.

Amber: It's been a while.

Me: It has indeed. I got a bit carried away with writing, and so got this chapter and a New Age chapter (and a half) done by today. That said, I intended to make this chapter much shorter, making this story and New Age get back to 8k to 10k words per chapter. As you can tell, I got carried away. Again. This time, I used time skips and still got to 13k words! I am bad at making short chapters!

Jango: Yep!

Amber: Shut up, Jango. Hyper, you're doing fine.

Me: *sighs* thank you, Amber. Anyways, let's get to reviews and then start the chapter.

Amber: Westernfail: two chapters... As this chapter happened.

Jango: Oh, they had some spectacular attempts to get him a girlfriend. I used some of those later to mess with people. Y'know, when I was alive.

Me: Spoilers!

Jango: It's not like you were going to show all of my shenanigans... Anyways, Yes. Truly earth shattering Raven. You have stunned us all.

Me: Yes, it is designed for the audience, AKA you lot, to have a choice: Sympathize with Caleb, or sit back and watch the show. We all know Jango's choice.

Jango *in the background, rereading last chapter* Yes! Ruin his life! Make him suffer!

Amber: *sweatdrops*

Me: Glad to see you're back, Nopemanor. Glad you enjoyed the chapter. Rocketiermaster, I want to withhold the rest of the information in that regard for the purpose of discovery.

Amber: It did happen, Phillip. That helping hand thing works really well to boost things, and since they both used it, and their power combined and expanded, their earth power was incredibly powerful. And the legendaries in this world have very impressive powers, just like the rest of the pokemon in our universe.

Jango: Remember to make the distinction between Queen, the nidoqueen, and Ninetails, who is called a queen rather than a guildmaster. It'll let you keep your head later, ZLAXE

Me: Thank you, Nerdy Retard, for reviewing. It's great to have you on board.

Jango: You and me both, Nerdy Retard. Hehehe...

Amber: Uh... I think that's it.

Me: Right then. Before I accidentally give this chapter another thousand words... Chapter start!


Chapter 11: Final Preparations

Erza's POV

"Food!" I cheered, tossing an cherI berry up and catching it in my mouth, letting the slightly spicy taste wash over me before grabbing the next one in the bunch in the bowl in front of me. The others gave me varying degrees of confirmation as they ate lunch as well.

Caleb was taking his time at the moment, and Sarah was careful to pace herself with him. Perfect. I casually ate and spoke with them while Caleb only joined in occasionally. The guy had been through so much. The quiet absol simply had not lived the life that makes everyone else so talkative and friendly with each other.

Sometimes, Jake would go quiet as well. I had not known him much before Caleb had shown up, but he occasionally went quiet as if remembering something. Like he was doing now. He was occasionally speaking with Swampert, but both of them were now reserved. I could not let that go by.

"Oi, you two." I called across our table "One sullen bloke is plenty. What's gotten into you?"

Jake jumped at my words, waving his arms about as he tipped his chair back and fell over. "Nicely done." one of us deadpanned, but I was now focused on the raichu. He climbed back up, and shook his head at me.

"I'll be fine. I was just remembering Grovyle." he responded. Daemyn and I looked at him in confusion, as did Caleb.

"Grovyle… I do not remember you mentioning the name." Caleb informed him. Jake rubbed the back of his head, though the look on his face was not sheepish. Just sort of… Unreadable.

"Apparently, before I came to the past, Grovyle had been my partner when I was a human." he began "I was forced to separate from him on my way to Dialga to prevent time from stopping. He was… He was apparently my partner as we were trying to prevent that future from happening. We got separated in the timestream, and I lost my memories and became a pikachu. But when we beat the primal Dialga, and set the time gears in place, that future disappeared. Grovyle would have disappeared. I should have too, but Dialga saved me as thanks for stopping the planet's paralysis."

Caleb was silent for a while. "This Grovyle… Did you come to understand him when you met him again?" he inquired. Jake looked down.

"Not really… That's what bothers me sometimes. He was really difficult to understand, and showed little emotion about things towards us until a few times, when we learned that we used to be partners, and when he shoved Dusknoir into the dimensional hole with him… Otherwise, he was mostly focused on the mission. Not much talking, but he told me that we had been friends, as did Celebi." Jake replied.

"Then I will not press the matter." Caleb nodded "If it pains you to recall it so."

"You're so considerate." Sarah complimented, going to give him a nuzzle and getting her face slammed rather casually into the table by Caleb, who had acquired a smirk on his face. I started to wonder if Sarah did have a chance with him. If she wasn't so overbearing, she could probably capture his attention, instincts or not. Problem was, she was that way.

While Caleb had Sarah in the quadruped equivalent of a headlock, which consisted of one (or two) paws holding the other's face down on a surface, Daemyn locked eyes with me and motioned to the corner, and gestured to the others.

We had been talking for quite a while, and had mostly eaten our fill for lunch, except for those two. "Well, this has been fun…" I started "but there are some things that the rest of us need to discuss, and you two are to keep on eating."

My order got Caleb to raise his head from where he had been taking a bite out of his pecha berry. "I will make an effort not to be involved in your silly pairing scheme." he replied before going back to his food as if he wasn't going to stop us. I got up, followed by most except for Shedinja and Amber and her team.

We reached the corner of the room and began to speak in hushed whispers. "Alright. Caleb's recovery. We need to find him somebody he might actually like. Ninetails and him are similar, and I thought Ninetails might like him if they got to know each other." I began in a hushed tone.

Jake nodded, and then whispered back: "Sarah would actually be a good fit for him if we could get her to be a lot less overbearing." We all nodded.

"Who else is there for that?" Daemyn inquired. I frowned. There were very few other options. Those two did fit with Caleb well.

"Let's stick with those two. Give Caleb equal opportunity to understand them, and let him pick which one." I offered "We will have to be extremely sneaky about setting him and Sarah together, nothing obvious, but we can more openly arrange meetings between him and Ninetails, as the two wish to talk again anyways."

"So we're not actually trying to get anybody together, just trying to get Caleb to get to know them really well and let him decide?" Riolu input from Swampert's shoulder. The larger pokemon was silent.

"That is what Caleb would prefer" I said, and Daemyn decided to finish the thought for me.

"And he deserves our full cooperation after what has happened to him since coming here." Daemyn finished for me. I nodded to him, and Jake got a somewhat guilty look about him.

"...What happened?" Riolu asked, dropping down to be on our level. Daemyn sighed and gestured to the spot between and a little ways away from us. The pokemon obediently walked to the right spot and we began to tell the story.

"Alright, you know that Caleb was human before, right?" I began "And that he did not lose his memory?"

"Yeah! It's pretty cool that he got to keep his memories. He's really smart, too." Riolu complimented.

"He woke up in crystal community. Apparently, absolutely nothing happened that should have put him there. He fell asleep at home and woke up there. Not only that, Sarah found him immediately. While she helped him get started, she fell for him extremely quickly and stayed close to him." Daemyn continued.

"He had a drive to get home, probably because his memory was still there and could remember his old friends and family." I informed him.

We alternated like that for quite a while as we told the story. "He traveled with Sarah and then Nincada to find the guild. At Sarah's urging, he formed a rescue team with her and Nincada, in the hopes that travelling to new places could tell him how he could get home."

"The guy was a genius. I met him during one of his first days, and from that day he started setting me straight. he did this for Erza as well. Not long after he met us, we were friends, despite me being horrid towards Sarah in front of him and Erza being…"

"I wasn't the best leader." I supplied. "Anyways, Caleb got through the weirdly changed waterfall cavern, and we found the three orbs, a lustrous orb for Palkia, and two more, possibly for Dialga and one other. Caleb later gave this item to Palkia, only asking that Palkia find a way to get him home, and Palkia, impressed with his selflessness, agreed easily."

"A few days later, and Palkia comes back telling Caleb that he has a way to send Caleb back home, and that they must travel across the region to get there. Sarah was desperate for Caleb to stay then. I was smitten with her at the time, so she managed to convince me to help her. Even then, I planned to try and help Caleb through, but I couldn't say no to her face."

"I realized what Sarah was doing when Nincada found me, and I was not happy. I moved to chase her and Daemyn down. However, I was not fast enough, and by the time I had gotten there…"

"Everything had turned for the worse. Sarah and I made it before Caleb, but a dark energy that had been building in my body for a long time finally became too much, and I was turned into a giant, raging monster by it. I almost… I almost k… I can't talk about it like that. I hurt Sarah, and Caleb found that, and he became enraged at what had happened. The old sword he used to have burst and dark energy had formed within it because of his emotions, doing the same to him."

"I made it in time to defend Sarah from the two of them, but I didn't stand a chance. After all of that, the guild members arrived and we tried to fend them off, until Caleb drained the energy out of Daemyn and became far larger and darker than before. He was intent on taking us apart."

"But after Sarah was healed and learned heal pulse, we fought until Caleb took us all down. It went that way until we were all defeated, and Sarah woke up just before Caleb ripped somebody into several pieces. It wasn't his fault; he couldn't have known what potential that sword had."

"She apparently grabbed one of the crystal shards, and it had the opposite reaction to Caleb's dark form, neutralizing the dark power and destroying it, causing Caleb to go back to normal. He had no memory of that particular incident."

"After that, Caleb went to meet Palkia at the portal, and after a long time, realized that he couldn't do it. He had a family to return to, and friends, and he felt like it was his duty, but… he liked this world. He had friends and the world was so much nicer, with so much less crime and no wars… He could not make himself leave. That, I think, was what made him so angry with himself. He felt that he had betrayed his family and friends by staying, when they would think he had… Died."

As Daemyn said this, I had feared that Riolu would react badly to the word, and he did indeed flinch. I hurried onwards. "Everyone was in danger of that in that cave, but we pulled through. After Caleb realized that he could not make himself leave, he gained that horrible broken glass look in his eyes. He silently walked away, still crying about it, which is the first and last time any of us has seen him properly cry. Sarah, desperate to get to him, found out that he had put himself to sleep with his badge and was just… awaiting starvation."

"Sarah, with the help of a drowzee, entered Caleb's dream, and was attacked on many fronts. Not his nightmares, no, but the protectors of his dream world, and a guardian who was to keep others away from the mountain where Caleb had chosen to stay and wait everything out. He drove himself mad up on the ice, overthinking the situation so much that he drove himself into a frenzy of anger and hatred towards Sarah, the world, and himself."

"But Sarah went to find him anyways, almost being taken apart by a giant tank, whatever a tank is, called Sheila, and also nearly being beaten down by a human construct named Riley. After all of that, she made it to him, and, as enraged as he was, he attacked her. He wanted revenge for everything he had lost, and blaming Sarah was easier and less painful than blaming himself. it let him be angry instead of sad. Sadness… Is a harder emotion to deal with."

"Sarah, after nearly being destroyed by Caleb, managed to calm him, and brought him back, but he's been beating himself up over what he did to himself, Sarah, and the rest of us ever since. he is convinced it's his fault. As much as we want him to forgive himself, he was responsible, so it's really hard to get him to see sense."

"Lately, he's also been suffering because his instincts have been affecting his mind in ways they never have before, and he has to fight with all of his might to avoid falling in love with anyone. That also makes his life harder. He… Well, he suffers a lot, and today was a huge leap forward for him. We need to drive that home, and find a way to deal with his instincts. The best way… Would be getting somebody he can decide to fall in love with so it's over and done with." I finished.

Riolu looked between the two of us, clearly unsure of what to say. The normally energized riolu was quiet for a while. He had never heard of the kinds of things that Caleb had gone through. "Well…" he murmured "That's why we're trying to help him, right?"

Daemyn and I smiled, and Jake evidently could not hold back a smile either. The adorable optimistic kid. I certainly felt optimistic watching him focus on the future. Willing to help, like the rest of us. "Exactly." I agreed. "We need to start making plans…"

Daemyn got a evil looking grin. "I'm full of ideas already." he stated, and leaned in. He whispered a bunch of scenarios, where and when they could happen, and how we could… turn them into something else. I also gave an evil grin at those ideas.

"That will be perfect. We must discuss this more." I told the group. We were then interrupted by Sarah.

"Uh, hey guys." she greeted "Caleb sent me away for a moment, told me to let him think for a moment, though I think he's talking with Shedinja at the moment. Maybe instructions, I don't know."

"...Shouldn't team strategy talks involve their teammates?" Daemyn inquired, surprised that Caleb would send Sarah off somewhere to discuss something with Shedinja when he could not understand him, so Caleb must be talking about Sarah in some way.

"It's probably important." Sarah shrugged off the question, either confident in Caleb's reasoning, or saddened that he did not want her around when he was talking with Shedinja. Riolu looked at Sarah, concerned. I realized that Sarah must be feeling the latter, and trying to hide it. I had heard that riolus could feel emotions of others.

While I knew that Caleb needed his space once in a while, considering how overbearing Sarah was towards him, He likely did have a different reason for sending her away. He treated her right, even if he was trying to avoid being in a relationship. He was a good person like that.

"What is so important that he would make you leave?" Jake asked her. She sighed and looked towards where Caleb was murmuring quietly to Shedinja, who silently nodded occasionally.

"I don't know… What are you guys talking about?" she asked of us. I met everybody's eyes.

"We were just discussing Caleb, actually, but the decisions we are making do involve you. We can't make decisions based on what you want because our discussion you would have reason to be talking about, but we can talk about that later. Join us and talk with us now." I offered.

She smiled and sat. "Talking about his love life, huh?" she asked "I would love to be the focus of that, but you probably want to give him other people to talk to as well and let him make a choice, huh?"

Most of us stared at her, dumbfounded. "A-are you really Sarah?" Daemyn stammered, totally caught off his guard.

"Yeah." she replied "I learned how to figure out things by being around Caleb a lot. And for what you probably meant, I don't know. When I'm near Caleb, it is extremely difficult to focus on anything else. I can't control myself when he's around much… My emotions get in the way of reason, and I don't know how to deal with that."

We stared at her, trying to figure this lapse of what could be likened to Caleb worshipping going on.

"But you don't want to hear about that." she nodded to her own statement "Yeah. Let's talk about something else. I'll let you get back to that when I go back to Caleb." her expression changed into a more dreamy state the moment she mentioned going back to Caleb.

Daemyn looked me in the eye. His eyes said 'something's strange here.' and I silently agreed here. I quickly changed the topic, though I'm sure I did it poorly. "So… how did you feel seeing the arena being risen?" I lamely asked.

Caleb's POV

I had finally let go of Sarah and had continued eating my food when I had the idea. How long it had taken me to think of was rather disconcerting, as I should have come up with it the moment I knew we would be acting as a team in fights.

The others had been having their chat, but Sarah did not need to be here for this. "Sarah, I need to have a discussion with Shedinja." I told her. She gave me a confused look. "Yes, I know what I said." I told her "Strategy. Plans."

"...Okay." she murmured dejectedly, making me feel terrible. I stopped her quickly before she slunk away.

"I'm sorry Sarah, but this is important." I apologized. I never liked hurting her. It was just painful. She might actually be a really nice person if she would leave me alone. She nodded, somewhat pacified, and walked towards the others. My chest hurt with that. She took every rejection I openly said so harshly… Yet she seemed to find it amusing when I physically ran from her shenanigans.

I generally have difficulty understanding girls, but this one was in a league of her own in complexity, under the basic fallback she seemed to use that boiled down to 'Caleb, how much I adore thou!'. I understood a lot of people, and could learn who they were, what they were like, predict them… Not Sarah. It was not often I found something to help me predict her.

I tightened my lips as she left, feeling like I had been very, very cold. "Shedinja" Shedinja told me from my right.

"Yes… I know. At any rate, I need to discuss things with you. Do you remember what happened when Keron defeated me?"

"Shedinja."

"The important thing is that Sarah's attacks increase monstrously in power when I am defeated in front of her." I continued. He nodded. "Which is why I need to take hits for her in combat. Her extensive power could crush most opponents when angry, and nothing makes her angrier than me being defeated. Basically, we must make sure that if anybody is to fall in battle first, it must be me."

"Shedinja."

"Sarah would not allow me to put myself in the way of harm for her. For that reason, she cannot know that part of the plan. I should be able to calculate how I can make my shielding of her believable. If it is believable, she will buy into the act and take the pokemon down, and any collateral damage would be nice."

Shedinja seemed to understand. He nodded again and looked to the others, who were speaking with Sarah. I watched for a while as they started to talk about how impressive bringing the arena up had been, and it really had. I agreed wholeheartedly. I was actually amazed by it, and I don't gawk at things often.

Granted, whatever hand holding trick they had done clearly supercharged their power. Even so… Two pokemon built an arena for thousands of pokemon in mere minutes, without the apparently impossibly versatile magic that I would imagine things depended on around here.

Still, my mind was addled just after watching it. Having my mind addled wasn't fun. I could accept that manner of screwing with my head because it was normal, natural. My instincts may technically be natural, but I would not have my emotions controlled by something that is not supposed to be a part of me as a human.

Even as I vowed to act human like I have been claiming since I have gotten here, I blinked as I found myself licking up the scraps in my bowl like I have been doing it all my life. I almost stopped, but the residual liquid in the bowl was delicious. That aside, it seemed to be working out for me. Some of my instincts helped me. Some of them tortured me. Picking and choosing which to allow would be quite the mental workout.

Eventually, I got to the point where I felt like I had done that long enough, and I moved to join the others again. Sarah immediately lunged for me, and went to do… something. Could have been a kiss or a lick or a nuzzle, nobody ever found out because I had casually put her face into the dirt again with one paw. "What have I missed?" I inquired. Sarah's muffled answer came from the dirt under her face.

"Just sharing what we thought of the arena." Erza replied with a shrug "What were you thinking when it happened?"

"I was astonished, and impressed." I responded "and I had not expected it to be brought about without the magic that people seem so dependant on thus far. Furthermore, the arena was highly detailed, suggesting that Queen and King have been practicing with the technique for a long period of time."

Jake now nudged Riolu. "I did say that he could turn the words 'it was cool' into a fifty word paragraph." he whispered, plenty loud enough to be heard, while Riolu gave a childish giggle at the revelation.

"You counted?" I questioned, my head tilted in confusion. The others burst out laughing at me, and even Sarah had a look in her eyes and face that suggested humor. "What is it now?"

"You tilting your head. Just let instincts handle it, silly." Erza chuckled "you looked plain ridiculous with your head tilted so far."

I blinked. "My head was at approximately thirty degrees west of north" I protested "That distance is not much at all."

"That did look pretty funny." Daemyn remarked, "please, ignore Erza, and keep providing us with something to laugh at." I frowned at this now, and they started laughing more.

I envisioned myself, how I must have looked on the outside doing that, and realized that thirty degrees was a rather noticeable change from the barest tilt. I would have looked ridiculous. I found myself chuckling as well, until all of us had had a good laugh at myself.

"Well, it's time we get going to do whatever today." Erza finally took charge and set us to thinking what we could do.

"Idea!" Jake exclaimed, waving his left paw around. The last time he did that, I got dragged several hundred feet by an excited human turned raichu. I leapt away as fast as I could, which set all of us laughing again at my unwillingness to be dragged anywhere. I myself found it funny.

It is interesting, the effect on my mind that these people have. Amber, Jake, Erza, Daemyn, Sarah, and Shedinja are who I am closest to. I can laugh with them… could I even play? be a child again? It is certainly a possibility nowadays.

"W-What did you have in mind?" Amber hesitantly inquired from where she now stood next to me. I had barely seen her coming, which was impressive. She managed to be so quiet, so safeguarded. Jake gave us all a grin.

"How about we all take on a dungeon? They get tougher when groups more than four enter, you know. it could be a challenge for us. I say we head to amp plains and all walk in at the same time. It should work." he suggested.

"One moment." I distracted the raichu "what of the time Erza, Daemyn, and I travelled to the waterfall cave? The difficulty fluctuated constantly, and considering what I saw, having more people did not make the enemies much tougher on that first floor."

"To be fair" Daemyn spoke up "Something was seriously wrong with that dungeon when we went to deal with it as a group searching for treasure. I'm sure you can agree."

"...Fair point. If there are no other ideas, some last minute practice should do perfectly. Where are the amp plains?" I decided.

"North a ways." Jake shrugged "We just head in that direction and it's big enough that we'll get there. It's one of those dungeons you enter just by being in the area."

"Right then." Erza decided, looking towards the tangela twins who had been silently hanging out behind her. "You two want to come?"

They looked at each other, and back to Erza. "We found friends in the crowd from another place." they informed her. Erza chuckled, amused.

"Then go play. Have fun." she told them, and turned back to us.

I looked over to see Machoke and Bastiodon talking with Daemyn, looking rather bored. "If I have to take a wild guess, I would say that they don't feel like going anywhere either." I guessed "They likely wish to get the extra resting time prior to the tournament."

"Well, I'm going with." Sarah proclaimed, standing as close as she could to me without being slammed into the ground again. I nodded, and we gathered our things.

We were off to Amp Plains.

LINE BREAK

Jake's POV ⌁

Lightning flashed. Low grass, dirt, and random boulders dominated the area. I led the way, having the most experience with this place, while Amber had the back, trying to be as invisible as possible. I did not know what to make of her, really. She was human like me, and had lost her memory, but she was… different. The girl was very strange, and I could not figure her out.

I wanted to know more about her; she was so confusing. The girl was abnormally powerful, like I was. However, Amber seemed to be in a league of her own. The weird thing was that she still feared people. I couldn't make heads or tails of why she, possibly the most powerful of all of us, shied away from unknown pokemon.

I finally could not stand it as we were about to walk into the dungeon. "Amber, are you all right?" I inquired, turning. The others halted with me. Caleb had been giving Amber concerned looks as well, but he tended to fully analyze the situation before getting involved. I was not like that.

"W-well…" she stammered, now that everybody's attention was on her. Caleb met my eyes and understood the situation.

"Let's not all stare at Amber now." he instructed "We shall wait over here while Jake speaks with her." He padded off, most of the others obediently following his lead. Swampert, after a nod from me, left as well. This seemed to be important.

"I… Well, I'm a bit scared… is all." Amber admitted "I've never been in this dungeon before, and we're going in with more people than is suggested for a dungeon, which I also have never done before... It's scary."

"Ah." I nodded "Well, I know this place pretty well, and you seem to be stronger than all of us from what i've seen. What's so scary about it?"

"..." Amber said nothing for a bit. "I-I don't know why. I'm sorry…"

"Don't be." Charizard and I reassured her at the same time. "you'll do fine. I'm certain of it." I told her confidently. She hesitated before giving me a weak smile, and looked towards the others and back.

"S-shall we continue?"

"...Sure."

I waved the others over and we continued moving. I instructed the others to stay close as we neared the dungeon. Places like this one had a really startling effect when you entered, and I knew Caleb had not seen it before. Amber might be afraid, so I decided to say something. "For those who don't know, don't be alarmed. This dungeon has walls, making a maze. You notice that the walls don't exist right now. Try not to panic, but they're going to rise out of the ground from the distance towards us. Don't worry is all I'm saying, because it won't hit us."

Most of us nodded, though Amber hid behind Charizard. I stepped forward, and everybody moved with me. In the distance, we saw the ground shift. Rectangular chunks of earth rose in the distance, and suddenly a wave of rising earth with lapses in the change was racing towards us at intense speeds.

Amber froze and squeezed her eyes shut, and Charizard rubbed her back comfortingly with a huge claw, not hurting her. The earthen material roared past us, and we were suddenly in a room in the dungeon. Items came out of the ground; this room had an oran berry and a helpful cherI berry in it, which we pocketed immediately.

"That was interesting." Caleb commented blandly.

"That was awesome!" Riolu exclaimed; the kid had sparkles in his eyes. I wondered how much dungeon experience he had at all.

"Well, let's get going before we get swarmed by dungeon pokemon, why don't we?" I asked, remaining cheerful. We set off then, Amber looking suspiciously and fearfully at the walls of the dungeon.

"Hostiles." Erza warned, launching a magical leaf through the air into the approaching pokemon. An electrike, it was. Most of the pokemon on the first floor of this place did seem to be electrike or voltorb. Recently, minun and plusle had been seen.

As it was an earlier floor, and because Erza was stronger than was realistic for a servine, the dungeon pokemon was one-hit KOd. "I don't understand who these pokemon are." Caleb came frowning to my side "Are they simple dungeon constructs, or are they living beings who were trapped here and became mindless as an effect of the dungeon?"

"Nobody knows." Daemyn supplied "Missing pokemon reports are few with the exception of rescue missions, and there are much more pokemon in the dungeon than there are pokemon who go missing without being found, which is like comparing a seeming infinite amount within the dungeon to the pretty much nonexistent number of unsolved missing reports."

Caleb's frown deepened. "That would suggest that the pokemon here are dungeon constructs, but if so, why would they exist? what is the purpose of the dungeon pokemon at all? It is completely nonsensical. Items appear at random as well, making what could be considered an infinite supply of supplies that will never dry out…" he muttered to himself, eyes showing his concentration.

"If anybody can figure that out, it's you." Sarah complimented him "I'm sure you'll figure out why."

"If I had time, resources, and a team to help with research, that would go far smoother." Caleb replied to her as we walked. "As it is, the work and obligations I have now are taking that time up. I must find an alternative to spending hours entertaining people on stage. I never enjoyed it much anyways."

"Aww… What's wrong with talking in front of others?" I practically whined. "What you talk about is so interesting, and everybody likes you."

"Precisely. I would prefer to remain less popular, frankly. If I am popular enough that random people start mobbing me in the open, I will feel very uncomfortable. I do not like being… Celebrated. I would prefer to not be so… Obvious."

"...Oh." I murmured. I guess he was not a fan of crowds or something. Not enjoying the attention. "...I get it. What will you do then?"

"I have an obligation, though I have been considering alternatives as of late. If Goldeneye has managed it with the magic screen, I may be able to set something up like… a movie, or episodes of a show. Movies and television shows are recordings compiled in various ways to tell stories, in a manner much like how I used the magic screen."

"They sound cool." I told him, trying to ignore his use of the word 'obligation'. "If you don't like talking in front of everyone, you could have refused."

"Not with the way some of you forced me on stage." he replied stiffly, before launching a night slash into the room we were facing, catching a dungeon pokemon off guard. "Changing topic: the pokemon in the dungeon again. Have any of them shown any sense at all?"

"There have been some rare situations where a defeated dungeon pokemon suddenly wakes up, and starts acting like a normal pokemon, but the rest remain unconscious." Erza informed him before I could. Caleb's mouth twitched into a deeper frown for a moment.

"...I shall have to look into this." he murmured "eventually."

"Can we be, you know, happy, or something?" I pleaded "We kind of are trying to have fun here."

"My apolo-"

BANG!

...

"And now we have just knocked our own ace strategizer out." Daemyn deadpanned. Erza rubbed the back of her head as Sarah rounded on her.

"What? Sarah, I told him I would do it if he said that again." Erza protested before the aforementioned absol could instantly KO her with a flamethrower. She still looked like she was contemplating it, however.

"Enough." Swampert spoke up, preventing Sarah from roasting everything in a fiery rage. "Just use a reviver seed." he grumbled "better than attacking each other. He did have fair warning."

"I got it." I called, bringing the seed out of my bag. The shenanigans of my friends never ceased, huh? I quickly fed it to Caleb, who blinked a few times and stood up slowly.

"..." he said nothing to me, and started to continue moving. "Old habits die hard, huh?" I asked him, trying to lighten the mood. He quirked a tiny smile at it, but I had the gut feeling that he had forced it.

"Just… try to enjoy yourself." I told him "You can't live out your entire life being serious and quiet like that."

He looked me in the eye. "Why can't I?" he inquired tiredly. I had no answer for a moment.

"Because you'll be unhappy. After the shit you've been through, I think you deserve to be happy." I told him, cursing for the first time in a long time. "don't you?" My argument took a while for him to respond.

"...I suppose… that the times I have felt euphoria were very enjoyable." he admitted "I simply…" he seemed to have trouble saying it. I waited patiently for him to say something. "...Being serious is how I acted back at home, and that is really all I have left of home now." he finished softly.

"If you lost that…" Sarah murmured, understanding perfectly.

"Just because you can be serious, doesn't mean you can't have fun." I refuted. He nodded silently, but I understood. He wanted something, anything to remind him of home here, and that was literally all he had. That, and he was used to being so serious that he was sorrowful inside.

"Just… Enjoy what you can, and you'll eventually find it easier." I ordered him. He acquired a pained look, not faltering in his pace.

"I will make the attempt." he promised. That was probably the best I could possibly get from him.

We continued through the dungeon. The pokemon were tougher than normal, and there were a lot more of them, but we were able to handle it with relative ease. That boded really well for our chances in the tournament.

It was the eighth floor now, and the pokemon were actually tougher to defeat now. Erza was still one shotting them, and Swampert and I were doing so as well. Amber only attacked something once or twice, when she had to, but only used an iron tail and a quick attack, both of which one shotted their targets.

"Shall we split up here and figure out which way leads to the staircase?" I offered at a T-intersection.

"It would certainly serve to see if we can handle such a venture." Caleb agreed.

"That's the spirit!" I exclaimed, patting him on the bag. He gave me an incredulous look that had Riolu and I in laughter while most of the others smirked.

"..." he said nothing and turned right. Most of the others went with him, though my team headed left. Rather lopsided for splitting up, but Amber's team was not separating.

"What do you think we'll come across here?" Riolu asked curiously. I shrugged. I never bothered to memorize what pokemon appear in what dungeons. Just zap them and ask questions later. That was how you dealt with dungeons.

After a few minutes, we came across a pikachu. Glassy eyed as with most dungeons. I felt a twinge of emotion. I had been a pikachu once, and not even Caleb really knew who these pokemon were in the dungeon.

"I'll take this." I told Swampert. He nodded to me, and I stepped forward. Riolu looked eager to know how I could do on my own in a fight. Iron tail would be less effective. My lightning attacks were boosted massively, but they would also do little damage.

Which left some other attacks of mine that I didn't bother to show to others. I waited, holding my fist back, as a powerful force began building in it, making it shine orange. I crouched low, preparing myself for a run.

The pikachu charged. She gathered an energy ball in her paws, and then she did something strange with them. The ball's energy flowed back into her paws, and the energy made them both shine yellow. She moved fast, with a quick attack.

I've never seen that kind of thing in a dungeon pokemon!

I brought my attack towards hers. She tried to hit me, but my focus punch massively overwhelmed the energy in her paw, and her other paw hit me in the face. My focus punch launched her at twice the speed she had approached, but her clenched paw had exploded in my face, sending me flying back as well. Swampert caught me and set me down on the ground.

"Thanks." I nodded at him, bolting into the smoke to figure out just what that attack was. I got out of the other side to find the wall of the corridor and a panting pikachu at the foot of a wall with a pikachu shaped hole in it. This one was really tough.

"Tough girl, huh?" I asked, as her paws began to glow yellow again. She charged me, and I jumped over her. I dove straight into the ground, digging through to where she had to have wound up. Once I felt I had gone far enough, I burst upwards and landed the super effective attack on her. The pikachu landed on her back heavily, downed.

"That…" I panted "was tougher than it should have been."

"But you still did it!" Riolu bounded up. He prodded the pikachu with a paw "That was cool!"

I munched on an oran berry to recover. I began to turn away, when I heard a groan. I froze, my sensitive ears pricking at the noise. I whirled to see the pikachu sitting up slowly, her paw on her hand. I frowned. What was happening?

Dungeon pokemon don't groan. They don't make noise with their voice.

I rushed forward and checked her eyes, really close to her face. She slowly opened her eyes, and they were no longer glassy and distant. "...Uh?" she asked. Her voice was cute, and she was about my age, I noticed.

"Hi." I greeted, catching her as she nearly fell over. We were quite close to one another… "Hey, are you alright? Why were you acting like a dungeon pokemon?"

She stared at me uncomprehendingly. "...Dungeon pokemon?" she asked, standing shakily to her feet "This is a dungeon? I don't know… I only remember wandering… for a long time."

Her murmurs concerned me. "You lost your memory?" I asked, keeping a paw on her shoulder. She shook her head.

"No… I just remember walking about this place all my life…. I feel a pain in my belly. What is that? I've never felt it before…" she murmured. I reached back and pulled out an apple.

"Eat this. You must be hungry." I offered.

She hesitantly took it in her little paws. "What is hunger?" she asked me cluelessly "I just… I don't know why, but I just attacked things. I never got... hungry... or anything… Where am i?"

"You are in a mystery dungeon called the amp plains. Mystery dungeons are strange warps in space and time that cover areas of the world, and act like mazes. We're part of an explorer team; we traverse these places to help people." I explained.

"Oh."

"Say… Do you need help getting out of here?" I asked, holding out my paw to her in a gesture that said 'come with me'. She looked at me blankly, as if trying to figure out what was going on. I was confused as well. She knew how to speak, how to do things, and according to her, had been in the dungeon all of her life, just mindlessly doing things. It probably felt weird to her to be thinking, feeling.

And now she's blushing at me a bit. What?

More dungeon pokemon came around the corner. I grabbed her paw. "Run." I told her, and dragged her behind swampert, who took the three enemies out with one mud shot. "Thanks, Swampert." I thanked him.

he nodded to me, a smile on his large face. our new pikachu friend was looking up at him, unsure of what to do. Her stomach rumbled. She then looked uncertainly at the apple she had in her paws. I took another apple out of my bag and made an example by chomping into it, taking out two more with the other paw and tossing them to Swampert and the riolu perched on his shoulder.

She slowly put it to her mouth and bit into it as well. She paused, but she clearly enjoyed the taste of the apple. I watched her suddenly start devouring the fruit. it was gone in barely thirty seconds. I decided to give her the rest of mine. I wasn't that hungry yet.

"Hey" I distracted her once she had filled her stomach more. "Will you come with us?"

She jolted back a bit "W-where?" she asked.

"Back home. I don't think you will be safe here any longer. the other pokemon here are probably going to attack you. They are still like how you were." I informed her "You need to escape, so why not come with us?"

"..Yes." she answered, grabbing my paw again "I'll stay with you." She smiled at me, before we saw another group of dull eyed pokemon coming around the corner. She met my eyes, and said "Run."

LINE BREAK

"Alrighty then…" I muttered, having found the staircase "Didn't think we'd make it here before the others."

"Others?"

I turned to my new friend. I realized that we were still holding paws, but I did not take my paw away from her. "Hey, I don't know how the dungeon will work if you are not a part of the team." I said, before giving myself a mental smack to the face because she wouldn't know what that meant.

"The team… You, the big guy, and the energetic one?" she asked me. I nodded, and rummaged deep within my bag. I was forced to let go of her paw so that I could drag out a recruitment badge that I kept. I had given one to Riolu, and now, this pikachu.

"If you take this, Pikachu, you are officially part of our team." I told her "Rescue teams like us have a responsibility to help people in need in regards to mystery dungeons whenever possible. We will travel a lot, have adventures, and battle our way through different dungeons to the best of our ability." I offered the badge to her "Will you join us?"

I got that adorable smile. "Yes, I think so." she answered, picking the item up and looking at it "I would be happy to stay with you… all."

"Great!" I exclaimed, helping her put the badge on, where it somehow stayed on her fur. I never bothered to learn how those badges stuck around. "Welcome to the team… Uh… I don't know what to call you."

"...What do you mean?" she asked, confused.

"I mean I can't think of a nickname for you." I responded helplessly. She looked at me incomprehensibly. "It would be easier if I found a name for you other than Pikachu, so if you were around other pikachu I could call your name. It would make it much easier." I explained.

"Oh. Well, if you find something, sure." she replied somewhat carelessly. I nodded to her, and we decided to wait on the others.

I had not noticed that my paw was still in Pikachu's paw when the other's walked through, seemingly involved in an intense conversation.

"I'm just saying that you need somebody." I heard.

"Yes, yes." Caleb retorted, now in earshot "Look at those two. Go play matchmaking with them." he said, pointing a paw at me. The two of us released each other's paws instantly.

"Jake? You got yourself a new teammate?" Daemyn asked, nearing the girl "Huh. A bit quick to be holding paws, and… Hang on, was she a dungeon pokemon? Isn't having dungeon pokemon wake up after being defeated like that really rare?"

"I'm pretty sure." I replied.

"Well then. Lucky you." Daemyn shrugged "And Caleb, that's a bit less surprise than I would expect."

"I am beginning to near the point in which, as a resident in the world, random circumstantial occurrences are becoming less shocking to me." He explained, walking towards the staircase "I am coming to accept that rare occurrences will just happen around you lot, as if they were not rare or improbable."

I blinked. "How did you know that it was a possible occurrence, but it was rare?" I asked him.

"I took a shot in the dark, and you confirmed it." Was his reply, making me sweatdrop.

"...is he always like that?" My new teammate whispered to me.

"He usually takes educated guesses rather than doing that, but occasionally, he does turn questions into statements, yes." I whispered back.

"Swampert and Riolu don't act like that." She observed.

"Everyone is different." I informed her. "Each of us have our own personalities, including you. We are all unique like that."

"Really? Cool" she responded shortly. I guess the emotion thing was not quite her norm yet.

"Well well!" Erza interrupted us "Caleb's not the only one we have to set with somebody, eh?"

I blushed hard. What the heck was she talking about? the pikachu copied my blush, despite not fully being used to emotions, she clearly still felt them. What was going on?

This was not how I had intended to have this conversation, with me spluttering questions like I was now doing. I wasn't even sure what I was asking.

I finally pulled myself together. "What is up with you, Erza!?" I exclaimed in utter confusion "sometimes you are calm and collected, sometimes you're attacking Caleb, sometimes you act just plain weird or are breaking fights up between Sarah and Daemyn…. And now this?!"

"To be fair, when it was directed at Caleb, you didn't notice so much." Daemyn reminded me "personally, I just came to accept the shenanigans of this group."

"Now he sounds like the armored one…" My new pikachu friend murmured.

"He does, doesn't he?" I replied "Caleb has that effect on people. All of us have acted like him occasionally."

"That's strange."

I looked at her. "What's strange about it?" I inquired.

"Well… All of it. Everything since you knocked me out has been… Strange." Was her answer.

"..." I said nothing for a bit. "Well… I'm sure you can get used to it, right?"

"Probably."

She seemed to be trying to figure herself out at the moment. I wondered what she would be doing if we were not there to help her. Would she have fallen back into this trap?

Oh, right!

"Caleb!" I called, rushing away from the people that were plotting, to get to somebody who might sympathize, and also help me with the issue I had.

"Yes?" He asked as my new teammate bounded to catch up with me.

"I can't think of a nickname for her. I'm drawing a huge blank." I admitted to him, now shifting from foot to foot.

He blinked. "You are asking for suggestions? If I might remind you, I am not well learned in the typical names used in this world."

"Well," Pikachu interrupted before I could respond "I think he wants you to give it a try. You seem to be the smart one here."

She's really the take charge kind of person, isn't she? Or maybe she's just impulsive. Either way, it's-

My thoughts were interrupted when she turned to look at me, and I realized I was staring at her. "Hmm? What's wrong?" She asked me.

"N-nothing!"

"...very well." Caleb saved me "Considering your human origin, it may be easiest for you to remember a human name. That is, I admit, completely unfounded, but for the sake of simplicity, and knowing my lack of knowledge in Pokemon names… Let us call her Jessica."

"Jessica, huh?" She asked.

"Or Jess, if you would prefer it to be shorter." He clarified. I smiled. I liked Jess. The name, I mean.

"Jess. I like it." The newly named Jess acknowledged.

"...this means that you will have to do some more training today and tomorrow" Caleb suddenly reminded me.

My eyes widened in realization.

"I would be glad to help." He continued "I had promised to try and find a way for you and Riolu to control your abilities. We should get back quickly as to make the full use of our time. Escape orb?"

"You're still willing to do that?"

"Of course. Shall we escape?"

We gathered the others then, explaining the situation and introducing Jess. She was easily likable, somewhat carefree.

"Let us meet in the clearing near Spinda's Cafe." Caleb ordered, and we all nodded. We huddled together, and shattered an escape orb. The blue light sent us all away without harm.

LINE BREAK

"Our trip was surprisingly simple." Caleb noted "far easier than it apparently should have gone."

"Well, Jess did get a good punch off on me before I defeated her." I pointed out.

"Aww, does your face still hurt?" Jess asked me, patting my face with one paw. I shook my head, fazed by the odd action and remaining silent.

"Jess, please demonstrate any useful skills you know." Caleb ordered, pointing to a set of training dummies that had been there since we got here, left over from somebody else's practice.

As I watched, her paws began shining with yellow light as she built up energy in her palms. She ran towards one target, and punched it. The force unleashed by her strike was tremendous, exploding outward, destroying the target in a large explosion.

I was really impressed. Caleb, not as much. "You exhausted yourself" he told her. I looked again, and saw that my teammate was panting already. "By the end of today, you will be extremely efficient with your energy use." He promised.

"O-Okay…" Jess panted

LINE BREAK

B-B-B-BOOM!

"Again!"

B-B-B-BOOM!

"Once more, as fast as you can."

B-B-B-BOOM! BOOM! ZZZACH!

"...well done." Caleb complimented Jess, the sun nearing the horizon. "You were able to provide quick and powerful strikes for ten minutes straight, a feat manageable by only unleashing a small amount of electric energy at a time. Those small flashes do just as much of a job of launching an opponent as the large explosions from earlier. Overall, you do far more damage , though each strike is less."

Jess huffed wearily and absently caught the Oran berry I threw to her with one paw, looking at the other paw with an impressed demeanor. "And all I had to do was use less power and redirect the power a bit…" She murmured, taking a bite of the food.

"I told you he was a genius." I reminded her "he figured how to handle that energy usage problem thirty seconds after you blew up the first target!"

"You added an additional uppercut, followed by an electro ball hurled dead center… your aim is already excellent, your strength defies your apparent physique, much like Amber. Your speed is on par with Jake." Caleb analyzed her "you fight as if that is literally all you have done, as if you have been practicing all your life. Considering your story, you have been as a dungeon Pokemon. You also helped me know what kind of state dungeon Pokemon are in, and I can begin making guesses as to what the dungeons do to the Pokemon trapped inside."

"How did you say all of that without taking an extra breath?" Riolu asked curiously, suddenly right up near Caleb.

"A long history of speaking my mind in language human adults come to respect if they pay attention."

"The lack of tone too!" Jess exclaimed "I thought at least some of that would be said in anything other than monotone."

"Habit." Caleb looked at her with interest. "You have already developed an attitude and personality. considering that you have barely been alive as a dungeon Pokemon all of your life, that is also strange. I cannot make sense of that."

"Not everything makes sense." Jess told him.

"Particularly not here, in this world." Caleb agreed. He looked towards me. "Have you decided on a nickname for Riolu yet?" He asked, and I blinked. I had forgotten to put any thought in on it.

"Er…" I responded, sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head with my left paw.

"I assume you are about to request my assistance once more." He deadpanned "very well. I do wish for you to make the final decision, however I can give you a few options. Jared, Zach, Shulk. Choose one."

"Ooh!" Riolu exclaimed, paw in the air "I like Shulk! That name's cool!"

Caleb had told me to choose, but he nodded all the same. Had he been speaking to Riolu, even as he faced me? "Caleb… If I wasn't going to choose, why ask me?"

"To make a point." He informed me unhelpfully "it will come to you." He added, walking towards the guild "I shall meet you in your own home tomorrow, and attempt to decide on a tactic to remain capable of movement and action when you are being affected by this ability. Tomorrow you hopefully learn to control it."

He left then, walking away, where Sarah joined him and tried to give him a tackle hug. He leaped over her, and the red absol chased her crush towards the guild, leaving my team sweatdropping.

"Jake?"

"Yeah, Jess?"

"They're weird."

"Jess?"

"Yeah, Jake?"

"We're all weird."

"And we won't let that change!" Shulk exclaimed, paw in the air as he leaped in excitement. Swampert gave his silent smile.

"Yep." Jess agreed. "We're all weird. Now, i'm getting hungry again."

I laughed. "You've been having Oran berries this whole training session!"

"Bloody useless, them. Fill you up surprisingly little considering their size."

Now we all laughed, and I led her back home. Sharpedo bluff was a nice place to sleep after all.

LINE BREAK

I yawned heavily, stretching. Morning was always quick and easy to get through for me. Shaking Swampert awake was tougher, so I always got us breakfast first.

My paw hit something soft, and electricity connected between the object and myself. I bolted up, looking about for the foreign object… It was… Jess. That's right, Jess was a part of the team now. And… I was pretty sure I had put her bed on the other side of Swampert's bed. What was it and her doing right next to me?

I forced down the heat on my cheeks and checked my electrical stability. Nothing was wrong with my electricity levels, as can sometimes happen when electrical contact is not properly accomplished. Pokemon like me can get sick when that happens, though that is rare and with quick thinking, we electric types can fix it with some manipulation of energy.

She slept soundly, but the extremely energetic riolu, Shulk now, had been woken by the noise I was making. "Hi!" he exclaimed, appearing next to me, making me bristle and jump in the air.

"Rio- I mean… Shulk! Please!" I exclaimed in a whisper-yell. "That scared me!"

"Got you again!" he whisper-yelled right back, smiling "Hey, do you need help with breakfast?"

"It'll go faster." I smiled at the adorable riolu. He was probably about seven years younger than I was, pretty much still a kid, while I was sixteen or so. Not certain. Amnesia had that effect on people.

I shifted aside the wall of roots and vines in the side of the wall to get to our food supplies and other things. Quite the stockpile here. Team Amber and us were probably the two poorest of our group, because Caleb, Daemyn, and Erza had found the absolute jackpot when they found an item that unlocked the waterfall cave's other secret. Wish I had actually managed that when Swampert and I went to find out that the dungeon even existed.

After we had gathered a large amount of berries, we set them in bowls and went to wake the others. Today, Caleb taught Shulk and I how to handle our abilities without too much headache and maybe even control it.

Needless to say, the two of us were really excited. "Shulk, could you get Swampert awake while I get Jess? He's difficult to wake up, but I'm sure you can handle it." I requested.

"Sure thing!" he went to rouse the large water type. I moved over to Jessica, crouching by her and gently shaking her.

"Jess," I whispered "Jess, it's time to get up for the day." Nothing. I frowned. Did we have two heavy sleepers in this team now? "Come on, Jess." I whispered a bit louder, before scratching behind her ears. She still didn't wake.

Weird. That's how Swampert wakes me if he somehow wakes up first.

I finally had to call her name in a normal outside voice to get her to shift. The girl rolled onto her back, and slowly opened up her eyes. "...What is it?" she mumbled, before noticing that I was hovering right above her.

"Another day." I informed her "get up and face it."

"Joy." she grumbled, pushing herself up slowly, only to collide with me, as I had not moved away. I pulled back, realizing how close we had been to smashing our faces together. She got to her feet and dusted herself off.

"Not a morning person?" I asked cheerfully as she rubbed sleep out of her eyes.

She turned to me, and I bristled at the look she now had. "No."

"Ah." I continued weakly. She was adorable, but was also apparently dangerous if woken too early. Noted. "Well, Caleb should be over at some point, so…"

"Why wake me for that?"

"Well, the commotion would be a less pleasant way to wake up…" I tried to explain myself. She muttered something inaudible and fell back into her bed. "...Alright, you just… do that. Wake up on your own then." I finished.

I realized that Jess had not eaten breakfast, but I left the bowl out anyhow. Our training shouldn't be too explosive. Hopefully. Swampert got up to eat, although very slowly. Riolu hd finished his, and I had managed to before we did anything to wake the others. When you have a job every day, you learn to eat quickly.

Now we just had to wait for my friend. Caleb could be quiet, so I put Shulk on the more active job, tidying up, while I took to checking outside every now and then. It was crisp this morning; The cool air felt nice.

I took a moment to enjoy my fur and ears being blown about by the wind before a light voice scared the daylights out of me. "Enjoying the view?"

I whirled, bristling, to find Jess there. "Wha-... What… Why…" I gasped "weren't you asleep?"

She giggled at me. "You're easy to scare." She told me cheerfully. "I've gotten you twice today!"

"Twice?"

"You cowered at the death glare I sent you." She shrugged "you're way too powerful to be scared off by that, you know. Are all of you humans like that?"

"Well…" I thought about it "Amber gets scared easily, but Caleb only gets spooked when it's something embarrassing rather than scary. Like when Sarah went to nuzzle him the other evening."

"Does he like her?" She asked curiously.

"No." I answered immediately "but she's very attached to him. So much so that she becomes extremely… pushy. He is practically fearful of how she would charge him and nuzzle him, try to kiss him out of the blue… she's driving him nuts. It looks amusing to us, but I think he's properly afraid of her."

"...Oh."

"The poor guy tries to be patient with her" I shook my head "I personally think that if she was better about that, less annoying, the two could already be in a relationship. She is nice."

"What makes her so overbearing?"

"We don't know. She doesn't know." I murmured in reply. "She's more confused about it than we are. It's almost like she literally doesn't have a choice; like her instincts and or love for Caleb is so incredibly strong she loses all self restraint. Restraint she seems to get back when she's away from him, like last morning…"

"Last morning?"

"She seemed way more subdued, reasonable. Whenever she so much as thinks about Caleb, though… It's really weird."

"Huh."

I turned to Jess, seeing her staring at me. She turned away quickly. "What's up?" I inquired.

"Oh…" She shuffled her foot a bit "you just care so much about everyone. I think it's great."

I blinked, before grinning. "Really, a scaredy-cat like me can be great?" I attempted to lighten the mood.

She laughed at me. "Yes, silly." She said, punching my shoulder slightly "and that's 'scaredy-mouse', right?"

I frowned a bit now. "I don't even know what a mouse is, but we keep being described as that…" I murmured, before shaking my head "This is what Caleb's influence does" I finished in a mutter.

"To be fair, it is weird for a description like that to exist, yeah." Jess frowned as well. Then, she brightened. "Oh well. A lot of things go unanswered, right?"

"Where do you get all of that wisdom?" I asked her "less than half a day ago you knew nothing about the world, only remembering being in a dungeon all of your life."

"Dunno. Hey, are we going to search for Caleb, or are we just going to sit here and contemplate existence fruitlessly?" She asked, giving me a pointed look.

I grinned at her again. "What, you getting bored?" I asked her. She smiled back and shook her head.

We took a few steps forward when I tripped on a rock, which went clattering away in front of me. "You okay, Jake?" Jess asked, picking me up.

"Yeah…" I mutter, before growing dizzy "No. No, I don't think so" I corrected myself, holding my head. "Jess, I don't know how much longer-"

I blacked out.

Two Pokemon stood in my vision, over by spinda's cafe, at the crossroads. I recognized the two as Erza and Daemyn.

"Morning, Erza." Daemyn greeted Erza, stepping up to the grass type.

"Good morning" she replied. They spoke for several minutes. The volume had dropped so that I couldn't hear for a while, before… "Hang on." Erza suddenly spoke, and summoned her flail. Were they being attacked?

No, Erza spun it rapidly in her right hand, before launching it at incredibly high speeds. I watched the flail go up and away, off into the distance towards treasure town. It was still in the air when I lost track of it.

"Good arm." Daemyn complimented.

"Thank you."

"Where's that thing going?" Daemyn wanted to know, and I did as well. Erza, however, said nothing. She crossed her arms and waited, and everything went black again

My eyes opened slowly. I hated those dimensional screams. I had hoped they would disappear when I fixed time. They hadn't, and now I had to deal with this… Unless Caleb could help me.

"Jake!" Jess was screaming my name, sounding very worried. I realized she was very close to me. Actually, she was supporting me by my back, and we were face to face. "Please, Jake, wake up!" she cried out in fear. Fear for me.

"I-I'm all right." I murmured "That is what Caleb was hoping to help me deal with. I don't have any control…"

"What was that, Jake!? You really scared me!" she shouted, right in my ear. I winced in response.

"A dimensional scream… I get them sometimes when I touch things, get visions of the past or future. They usually have something to do with something important, or something to do with me." I informed her.

She relaxed. "Alright, Jake. Just… Please don't scare me like that." she whispered. I realized how very close we were. This was, what was it, the third time she was this close to my face within twelve hours? I found that my cheeks were heating a bit.

She is awfully-

I'm sure that things would have continued escalating if Caleb had not interrupted literally out of nowhere. He was so quiet! "I seem to have interrupted something." He noted, making the two of us bristle and throw off sparks. Jess was so startled she dropped me on the ground, and I was freaked out enough to fire off a bolt of lightning at the absol.

Caleb silently sidestepped the blast and nodded to me. "I am here to assist with your training. Sarah will be here soon, I suspect, as she does not go anywhere without me." he stated.

I wheezed, clutching at my chest. "Don't give me a heart attack!" I squeaked, my voice breaking. "That literally scared the lightning out of me!

Caleb gave a slight frown, and opened his mouth, which is when I saw a certain green projectile fly out of the sky towards us.

"I apologi-"

CLANG!

A particular green flail smashed Caleb's head and horn into the dirt. His forlegs splayed out a bit, kicking the stone I had tripped on back over to me, where I was careful to avoid it. He slowly pulled his face out of the dirt, leaving an absol face shaped pit in the dirt with the horn outlined and everything. He looked extremely funny with dirt caked on his face, and so we proceeded to laugh at his bad fortune.

He shook his head violently to be rid of the dirt, dusting us a bit with the cloud of earthen material that came from him as he did so. "..." he said nothing for a moment as he seemed to process what had just happened.

As the flail faded from existence, he suddenly yowled towards the sky. "Why!? Apologizing for scaring someone is a necessary gesture! Why, Erza!?"

Jess watched, impressed. She leaned towards me. "How did the plant girl do that?"

"I don't know. I haven't a freaking clue." I admitted.

"Because it's bloody impossible to do, that's why." Caleb huffed "You pokemon, breaking the laws of physics, and…" he continued to mutter as he made his own way down the staircase into my house.

I shared a look with jess before we burst out in more laughter, hearing the obligatory "Oi!" from the stairs as Caleb apparently disapproved. All that served to do was make me laugh harder. The entire situation had pretty much broken me.

Caleb poked his head out of the staircase entrance again. "Get in here. I am supposed to be trying to teach you how to control your dimensional scream, as well as Riolu's interesting version of it." he reminded me, causing me to sober up and walk down there.

The rest of the day was me touching things in the hopes of getting a dimensional scream so that Caleb could figure out how to handle it. He trained Riolu and I all day, while Sarah stood close to him and occasionally forced him to dodge her tokens of affection.

"It's really hard…" Riolu muttered, having made contact with Jess again because her past was very lacking in emotion or forethought, making it safe to touch her for her past. The first thing that Caleb had made us do is learn to figure out how to make the scream tell us about the past or the future. Shulk could manage it, but I could not, and we figured that out quickly.

What Riolu was trying to do now was actually trying to keep his eyes opened. I had tried, but I would only succeed in being knocked out with my eyes opened, which Caleb had balked at because it reminded him of the look Sarah had when she was dying in the cave. Cheery stuff.

Our focus had turned to Shulk now. The poor guy was struggling to keep his eyes open. Until he finally slumped, his eyes glazing over as he collapsed, trying to catch himself. It lasted around ten seconds, before he bolted back up.

"We are going to attempt something else." Caleb announced to Shulk. The riolu turned to him, hope in his eyes.

"What is it?"

"In this case, you will close one of your eyes, and try to keep yourself standing while you are experiencing the dimensional scream. Focus on keeping one eye open, and focus on standing." Caleb ordered "if you can fight while you are experiencing something like this, then you are far better off. I do not know how to deal with Jake's ailment, unfortunately."

I looked down, saddened. He had spend the entire day, testing and training us, and I hadn't made any improvement. None at all. Shulk had managed to improve, but his affliction differed from mine.

"Jake…" Jess whispered "Try to support Shulk, all right?" she requested. I flinched.

"Sorry…" I apologized "I guess I'm being a bit selfish."

"Shulk, please do as I ask." Caleb requested, looking at the color of the sky. Shulk moved to make contact with Jess again, and waited with his paw on her. He closed one eye, and waited. Eventually, his arm dropped to his side as he staggered once more.

He was sweating with exhaustion. He was doing his best to remain awake. I watched him, hoping that he could manage what I couldn't. Then, I saw his open eye go pink. He staggered a bit, and said "whoa…"

His whisper was cut off by his eye becoming normal again. He staggered, but he had done it. "...That was cool! It was like seeing two things at once, overlapping each other!" he exclaimed jubilantly.

"Were you able to differentiate the two?" Caleb inquired. Shulk gave him an excited nod "And I looked at the future as well! It wasn't so emotional of a moment, so nothing too weird happened, though… Well…" he rubbed his head "I think I probably shouldn't say anything about it."

"...Meaning some of the thoughts and emotions can be deemed unrepeatable." Caleb muttered "I think I might understand what has happened in your vision, though I don't know the specifics."

He then turned to me. "I am very sorry that I cannot learn how to help you." he apologized to me.

"...I… It's alright." I lied, and changed the topic. "Hey, you got to apologize without being smashed by Erza!"

"It is likely because I did not use the words 'I apolo-"

I jumped forward and covered his mouth with my paw. Once Caleb stopped talking, I raced to the opening of the bluff that showed me the beach and the ocean, and saw a little glowing green light way down by the beach below. "Yeah. Thought so. Has she been waiting all of today for that, or is she just coincidentally there?"

"Either way, I would not be surprised." Caleb replied, walking forward to look "I am half tempted to tempt her rather volatile throwing arm, yet at the same time, I am not certain…"

"Go for it. You need to lighten up, and doing random and amusing stuff is how you do it." I encouraged him. He looked down at Erza, and now that I looked again, I saw Daemyn hanging out with her. He seemed to hesitate.

"Hmm." Caleb hummed thoughtfully. "Well, Jake, I apologize for failing to find a way to control your dimensional scream." he apologized, and quickly sidestepped as the flail came flying towards us. It sailed right between us, and we looked after it.

That is, until it gleamed as it passed us, and our eye's widened. "Oh son of a-!" I started

BOOM!

The flail was manually detonated by Erza, most likely, and the two of us were blasted away… right outside of the bluff. I think Jess and Shulk were blasted the other way, and Swampert would not have been as affected, but now we were falling.

I looked down at the approaching water, and then to Caleb who had the most deadpan look about his face. "Figures…" he muttered as he fell headfirst towards the water.

"Sorry." I apologized, rubbing the back of my head as we fell.

"I really am not that surprised." Caleb admitted "I should have seen that coming a mile and a half away."

"You were busy trying to have fun." I defended him "and that, my friend, is a very noble cause."

He shot me a deadpan look that said he still had to decide whether this was worth it, and then we hit the water hard. I surfaced after a moment, and Caleb did the same. "At least the water's warm!" I exclaimed after the absol, who snorted as he paddled towards the shore.

I caught up to him. "So what's with the weird premonition thing Erza's got? I'm the one who can tell the future." I muttered.

"All for the sake of a running gag, I suppose." Caleb muttered, continuing to paddle away. He was annoyed, but in the way that could result in laughs later. Progress!

When I got to the shore, Caleb had a few questions for Erza. things like how she knew he was apologizing and how she straight up broke the laws of physics to launch a flail all the way across treasure town to hit him. All three of us were laughing at him. Hard.

"cruel and intolerable…" he muttered. Then he shook himself and sprayed all of us with more water "Then again…" he said, his mood doing a huge one-eighty "The water was quite warm, as I think I just showed you. Are you sure that's actually an ocean out there? Because if so, the water being so warm, especially right after entering it, was… Well, unrealistic. I really ought to get used to nonsensical things."

"Now I'm wet." Daemyn complained.

"you weren't in the water with a source of electricity. It was the equivalent of being dropped into a tub along with a toaster and miraculously not getting zapped to oblivion as the water carried the electrical current."

"Oi!" I exclaimed "I have a name!"

He turned to me, and hid a smile from the others. "Of course, Jake. I… Apologize." he told me, that smile still on his face, and sidestepped the flail aimed for his head. he immediately pelted off towards the crossroads, an angry Erza on his tail.

"Get back here!" Erza roared at him, spinning the flail over her head as she raced after the absol.

"This is way out of character for me, and completely self destructive, but I think I'm somehow having fun…" Caleb kept talking as he ran, his voice becoming harder to hear as Daemyn and I were left on the beach.

"Success." I said, pounding my chest with pride.

"How'd you get him to be as carefree as we wanted him to be?" Daemyn inquired.

"Eh, I think I was just around when he finally snapped. At least this kind of insanity is good, right? He doesn't have to be all happy, all the time… He just needed to learn when to enjoy himself." I replied, shrugging. Daemyn looked after the two of them… No wait; Three. That was Jess, Shulk, and Swampert coming towards me.

"Looks like my escort is here. You just gonna sit there on the beach with damp fur?" I waved to him as I walked by him.

"Probably. The sunset is nice."

"good show, that. We'll probably watch it from the bluff. Anyways, good night. Get some rest for the tournament." I said my goodbyes, continuing to wave until Jess slammed me asking if I was all right, and after we untangled ourselves after having fallen on the ground, we went home.

Tomorrow was going to be a very busy day.


So you guys might have some questions for me. First, the tournament WILL begin next chapter. I had some final things to get done before that began. From here on out, I intend to make the chapters shorter. I tried to make this shorter, but I'm sory of bad at that.

And you might be asking: Hyper! Other relationships are going so differently from Jake's and Jess. What's up? The answer is that I intended for the relationships in this story to vary greatly in how they operate. This relationship is sort of obvious, I reckon.

Caleb's gone mad, hasn't he? Perhaps. Perhaps he is learning how to have fun. One of the two.

I tried my luck with time skips, and the chapter was STILL long. I can't win T^T. Scratch that; I CAN win, and next chapter should be much shorter. Most likely. Unless I get carried away again.

That is it for this chapter. Stay tuned, as the New Age chapter will be out very soon. Maybe even tonight. As it stands now, good day, all of you. Don't forget to review and tell me what you thought, what I can improve on, and all of that stuff. I love reviews!

HyperJade out.

Jango: You are WAY too cheerful today. I need to fix that

Me: *flees for my life*