Smokey followed Joey's finger to a computer by the window. Though he never saw one, he recognized it from Joey's description. The Pikachu was already climbing into the chair by the time Smokey joined him. He climbed onto the desk and Joey took a seat by the keyboard.

"Okay, we found the computer. Now what?" Smokey asked, realizing that it was Joey who would be doing most of the work.

"First, we need to turn it on," he said. He pressed a button on the monitor and the screen instantly came to life. Joey jumped back from the sudden light and fell off the table.

"You okay?" Smokey asked, looking over the edge.

"Yeah, I'm good," Joey groaned as he pulled himself back onto the table. "I just wasn't expecting that to turn on so fast."

"What did you expect to happen when you pushed the 'on' button?"

"Of course I expected it to turn on, dumbass," Joey snapped, rubbing his bandaged head. "The last one took a minute to power up after I pushed the button."

Smokey glanced around the room nervously, hoping that they were still alone. Joey was pressing some keys behind him, filling the room with clicks. He looked back at the Pikachu when he swore. "What's wrong now?"

"I don't know the password," Joey grumbled, glaring at the screen.

"How did you get in last time?"

"I guessed."

"So why not guess again?"

"I did!" he slammed the keyboard in frustration. "I tried the same one, but it wasn't right. There's literally millions of possibilities it could be."

"We'll just find a different computer if you can't figure out the password to this one," Smokey suggested.

Joey let out a humourless laugh. "Just find another one? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, why not?" Smokey shot back.

"It was hard enough to find this one, and we had to fall down a giant hole to get to it," he pointed to the elevator as if to remind him of the fall. "The only way out is climbing up that giant hole, a feat that will take a long time to do. In case you've forgotten, we don't have much time. We probably only got ten minutes left before the next pulse, maybe fifteen if we're lucky, which we never are. This computer is literally our last hope of stopping this thing from going off."

"Well, sorry for trying to help," Smokey said, a trail of smoke coming from his nose. "At least I'm trying to think of something, unlike you who's just whining."

"I am trying to think," Joey said through gritted teeth. "I got it by luck last time. The password to the other computer was password."

"If it was that simple the first time then why don't you try another easy one?" Smokey said. "The password for this one could be one through five."

"Passwords are usually six letters," Joey mumbled.

"Then how about one through six?"

Joey stared at the keyboard, then at the Charmander then back at the keyboard. "Why not?" he sighed. "It's worth a try."

He typed in the numbers and pressed enter. He honestly didn't expect it to work, so it was a very pleasant surprise when it logged in. The screen changed to the same snowy background.

"You're a genius, Smokey," Joey laughed.

"I know I am," Smokey said. "But you're the computer expert. You have to figure out what to do now."

The smile soon faded from Joey's face as he scanned the icons. There were a lot more of them than on the last computer. He opened a few of the newer one in hopes that they would contain useful information. All he found was technical reports that might have been helpful if he could understand what he was reading.

He saw the Extremely Important icon again and skipped over it. If that one was there, maybe this computer had some of the other folders he saw on the previous one. After a few seconds of searching, he found the folder he was looking for. He clicked on the icon labelled News, opening a new window.

Immediately, he was greeted with hundreds of headlines. The news it was talking about must be from around the world. He stared at the dates and the same sense of unease came back. The most recent one was from 2076, and the computer still said that it was over a hundred years old. Something must be wrong with the system's data. There was no way it could have been that long. He started scrolling through the contents of the folder, trying to find some proof, some sort of reassurance that the computer was wrong.

Smokey was unaware that Joey was searching through old news records. He could feel the atmosphere become tenser, but his unease came from a different source. He knew they weren't alone in the facility. The same presence from three nights ago was still here. He watched the elevator shaft carefully, waiting for the shadow creature to pop out at any second.

"No..."

Smokey's attention switched to Joey, who gawked at the screen. The Charmander had no idea what the words meant. Joey recognized the words instantly. The date of the headline would be burned into the back of his mind for the rest of his life.

August 28, 2061. It was a week before his first day of high school. It was also the last day he was alive as a human. He clicked the link. The headline didn't surprise him, since he'd already feared what it would say.

Local boy fatally stabbed in alley was shown in bold letters. Below the headline was a picture of four boys, all smiling widely at the camera. He couldn't bring himself to read the article. There was already too much pain from seeing his old friends. He couldn't bear to read the details of his own death, not when he remembered it so vividly. A message at the top of the screen caught his eye again.

File is approximately 134 years old.

He closed the window before he could it could reveal anymore horrible truths. He had been avoiding the reality of his situation since he saw the first message. He tried to tell himself that it was just a malfunction, but deep down inside he knew it was the truth. The despair had been growing inside of him all day, and it reached its max when he knew he couldn't lie to himself any longer.

A claw rested on his shoulder as the tears started to flow. "Joey, what's wrong?"

Joey looked over at the concerned face of Smokey. The question filled him with bitter humour. He couldn't tell Smokey what was actually wrong. The truth would either sound ridiculous or make his best friend hate his guts.

"You wouldn't understand," Joey mumbled, choking back a sob.

"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure you'll be alright," Smokey said, trying badly to reassure his friend. How could he say that everything would be alright? Nothing could possibly bring Joey's life back to even being sort of normal.

The truth, as unbelievable as it was, hit Joey hard. Nearly a century and half had managed to pass during the few seconds Joey thought he was dead for. It didn't make a shred of sense to him, but he just knew it was true.

"Joey, I know you're upset, but you've got to keep working," Smokey said. Joey felt angered by the Charmander's persistence at first. The feeling faded quickly when he noticed his tone of voice. It sounded more like a plea, and there was no mistaking the panic his voice carried. He looked over and saw the fear in Smokey's eyes.

"What's wrong?" Joey asked carefully, his voice hoarse.

Smokey glanced to the elevator. "It's nothing, just... please get back to work."

"What's wrong?" Joey said, adding more force to his voice.

The Charmander's breathing increased. He locked eyes with Joey and he felt an unspoken message pass between them. It was one of absolute terror.

"I didn't want to tell you this before," Smokey's voice was shaky. "There were two reasons why I climbed down after you. The first was because you couldn't see down there and something important might've been hidden, so you'd need my flame to see..."

"... And the other?" Joey asked fearfully.

"When you were at the bottom of the shaft, I... I wasn't alone at the top. The... the thing I saw the other night was watching me from the shadows. I panicked and jumped into the darkness to get away. I thought I lost it, but..."

Smokey trailed off again, staring at the elevator fearfully. His eyes were like saucers and his body was shaking.

"But what?"

Smokey swallowed the lump in his throat "... but I think it followed us."

Joey slowly turned his head to the elevator. His blood turned to ice.

Behind the doors he could see two burning red eyes. It was too dark to make out any shape of a body, but if Smokey was right, it didn't have one. Joey let out a pathetic whimper. His whole body went rigid with fear.

"We need to get out of here," Smokey whispered. His voice was deathly quiet.

"No," Joey said.

Smokey looked at him as if he was crazy. Maybe Joey was crazy, but after just finding out that there was no chance of returning to his old life, something just clicked in his mind. He had left his family and friends with a huge burden, and he wasn't going to let that happen again.

"No, we got a job to do," he said in a louder voice. "We're not gonna let some shadow creature stop us from doing it."

"Joey, we don't know what that thing can do," Smokey said. "It could be some super powerful Pokémon that could kill us! Let's get out of here."

"Keep it away from us and I'll work on the computer," Joey ordered.

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Smokey demanded.

"It hides in the shadows," Joey grinned slightly, "so get rid of them."

Smokey's eyes widened as he understood what Joey was talking about. He was still scared out of his mind, but he steeled his nerves and jumped off the table. A jet of flame burst from his mouth and into the elevator. When they cleared, the carriage was empty. The being was gone for now. Smokey knew it would be back soon. A more permanent solution was needed for keeping the room bright. He started to scrounge for anything flammable.

While Smokey was keeping the shadow creature at bay, Joey was searching frantically through files. The folders on the desktop proved to contain nothing useful so he had moved onto the entire documents section. He thought it would be easier to navigate, and boy, was he wrong.

It seemed like every shred of data in the entire facility had been saved on this one computer. Thousands of folders, with even more inside, were shown on screen. It would be impossible to search each one to find what he was looking for. He would need a faster way and more efficient way to search. His eyes shifted to the search bar.

He typed in the word experiments and hit enter. A loading bar came up and after a few seconds, pulled the results. There were over a thousand. He tried the phrase lab experiments and received a hundred and thirty results. That was still too general apparently. There had to be a more specific phrase. He remembered what the countdown was called and typed in M.D. pulse experiment. One result came up, a folder marked pulse experiments and he instantly clicked it.

The computer gave him fifty or so documents. They weren't given any particular order, so Joey had to read every title to see if it was the item he was looking for. He made it to the end on the window without finding any document that was listed as M.D. Pulse.

No, it couldn't be a dead end. He scanned through the contents again and got the same results. There simply was no entry under that name. That name... maybe it stood for something. He began to search again, finally finding a file with the same initials. It was simply called Mystery Dungeon and he clicked on it after a moment of hesitation. He just had time to wonder what that was when it loaded, filling the screen with a bunch of scientific data.

At first he thought it was another thing he couldn't understand, that maybe he chose the wrong file. Those notions were soon proven false by something he found in the corner. It was a digital readout, with a message saying that the pulse was going to fire in the specified amount of time.

"Uh-oh," Joey said when he noticed how much time was left.

"Uh-oh? What's 'uh-oh?'" Smokey asked.

Joey turned around so he faced Smokey. He noticed that his friend had lined up debris in a semi-circle around the computer. He couldn't tell what it was in the darkness. The circle encased a small part of the room, including the exit.

"I just found the countdown," Joey said.

"How's that bad?" Smokey questioned. "Wait, how much time is left?"

Joey glanced back at the monitor. "About a hundred."

"A hundred what? Minutes? Hours?"

"Seconds."

"WHAT?" Smokey exclaimed, climbing onto the desk. In the corner of the screen, he noticed the countdown. While human letters were different, they shared the same set of numbers. Just as Joey said, the clock was ticking down. "How do we stop it?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Joey said. His eyes flicked back and forth across the screen. "All I'm seeing is random stuff that I don't understand!"

"Don't skip over it," Smokey said. "It could be important."

"None of it relates to shutting it down! It only describes what the pulse does, not how to stop it."

A shiver ran down Smokey's spine, and he had a feeling it wasn't due to the countdown. Slowly, he switched his gaze to the elevator.

"Joey," he croaked, "it's back."

The fur stood up on Joeys back. He turned around and saw the red eyes watching them from the confines of the carriage. "I thought you said you got rid of it."

"I did," Smokey said, "and I'm going to get rid of it again."

He launched a fireball. This time, it didn't hit the door, but was aimed at the debris on the floor. As soon as the fire came into contact, the waste burst into flames. A line of fire soon separated the Pokémon from the shadow creature.

Smokey cheered triumphantly. "Hah! That should hold him off."

"Smokey," Joey said quietly, "you do realize we're underground, right?"

The Charmander's grin faded. "Yeah, so?"

"Fire feeds off oxygen," Joey groaned, face-palming.

"Oh... I didn't know that," Smokey said quietly.

"How could you not know that?" Joey exclaimed. "Now we're gonna suffocate." He looked back at the clock. "Aw crap! Less than a minute left!"

"Quick, do something!"

"I'm trying, I'm trying!"

Joey quickly began to scan the file, muttering under his breath. "... Cognitive decay... loss of reasoning... distortion of time and space... something I can't pronounce... blah blah blah..."

Smokey risked another glance at the fire. He could still see a pair of eyes glowing from behind the flames. He was about to turn away when he noticed another pair from the elevator. And another next to it. He scanned the entire room, realizing that it was full of glowing red eyes and disembodied figures, all of which were watching the two friends from behind the flames.

"Joey," his voice was hardly a whisper. "There's more of them."

The Pikachu whipped around, crying out in fright at the scene. "Oh, you got to be shitting me!"

"Don't focus on them," Smokey said, his eyes wild. He was close to breaking down from panic and he couldn't let that happen to Joey. "Focus on stopping this thing. There's only thirty seconds left!"

"I already reached the end of the file!" Joey yelled, his voice already filled with panic. "There's nothing here. It doesn't say how to stop it!"

The two friends went quiet, but it was far from silent in the underground room. The fire roared, Smokey's heart thumped against his ribcage and you could almost hear the gears clicking in Joey's brain. The machine's humming was growing louder, the soft blue glow becoming stronger.

"Well, we're screwed then," Smokey muttered, watching as the countdown passed fifteen.

'No, we're not screwed,' Joey thought. 'There's always a solution, you just have to figure it out for yourself. Even if it takes a long time, you can find it. But you don't have much time, so you may have to use a shortcut. All you need is... is a...'

"A shortcut!" Joey suddenly exclaimed.

"What're you talking about?" Smokey asked, his voice filling with fear as more shadow creatures filled the room.

"Computers have shortcuts where you press a series of keys to perform a task," Joey explained excitedly. "That's what we need to do."

"Do you know it? Smokey asked, his hope returning.

Joey's heart fell. "No..."

Smokey swore loudly. "Stop getting my hopes up like that!"

Joey stared at the screen. Ten seconds remained, and he needed to find a way to cancel the countdown. He looked at the buttons. A quick way to log out was ctrl-alt -delete. He tried ctrl-alt-'C' in hopes of it cancelling the program. Nothing happened. He needed a different word to use. He tried the same combination, but with 'T' for terminate and 'S' for stop. None of them worked. His hope for stopping it was almost gone as the countdown passed five.

He needed another word for cancel.

Four seconds left.

Destroy? No, that didn't seem right.

Three seconds.

Prevent? Still wasn't the right term.

Two seconds were left on the clock when the answer clicked in his head. Abort. He smashed down on ctrl-alt-A as the readout struck one.

The whole screen became paler. Joey was frozen, staring wide-eyed at the screen. Slowly, a grin started to form on his face.

"Did it work?" Smokey asked quietly, cringing as if he was expecting the worse.

"I think so," Joey laughed. "I think I stopped it!"

He looked at Smokey. It took a few seconds for the message to sink in. A smile appeared on the Charmander's face and he looked directly at the Pikachu. They suddenly burst into cheers, Smokey wrapping his smaller friend a huge hug. Despite the fire blazing behind them and smoke slowly filling the room, the two Pokémon were happier than ever.

Joey pulled away from his friend and looked back at the screen. His shoulders slumped.

"It requires a password," Joey whimpered, staring at the new window that popped up.

"Another one?" Smokey could hardly believe it. They could not catch a break today. "Can't we just leave it paused so it won't fire again?"

"No," Joey said. "If you don't enter a password in five minutes it starts the program again anyways. We'll have to guess it again."

"Oh, man, I have a bad feeling about this," Smokey muttered. "There's no way it can be as simple as 'Password' again."

"That's what I was thinking," Joey groaned, burying his face in his hands. A thought sprung to mind and he turned to his friend. "Smokey... do you trust me?"

Smokey was taken by surprise by this question. "Of course I trust you. You're my best friend."

"No, I meant, do you trust me with your life?"

Joey looked extremely pained when he asked this. Smokey was going to instantly say yes, but he hesitated. Did he really trust Joey with his life? They had been friends for a little over a week now. During that time he had saved his life on countless occasions and helped him through many tough situations. Now he looked like he was planning something bad, something that could get them both killed.

He looked his friend dead in the eye. "Yes, I trust you with my life. You've always gotten us out of tough spots before. I have no reason to believe it'll be different this time."

"Thanks," Joey smiled weakly, "I'll try not to get us killed."

"Yeah, you better," Smokey said.

Joey quickly typed something into the bar. It came up as a row of dots. He glanced at his friend before taking a deep breath and pressing enter. The screen paled for the second time. Joey held his breath, not wanting to get his hopes up. As more time went by, the more he began to believe. A new window popped up and the screen returned to normal.

Password rejected.

"NO!" Joey shouted, slamming his fist on the keyboard. "It didn't work."

"We can just try again, can't we?" Smokey asked. He realized that the look on Joey's face was becoming one of fear.

Password rejected. Program resuming in ten seconds.

"Smokey..."

"Yeah?"

"Run."

Smokey didn't ask why this time. He jumped off the desk with Joey and they sprinted straight for the exit. The machine was now like a massive blue light bulb, but they didn't pay attention to it. They barrelled past the blaze and the red eyes and burst through the door, being greeted by a staircase on the other side.

No prompting was needed. Whatever was at the top of the stairs was a better than anything underground. The friends ran up the stairs, adrenaline coursing through their veins. Even though the stairs were meant for humans, they climbed them with ease, sometimes even managing to clear two at once. After the fifth flight, an earthquake rocked the building. It was so strong, Joey fell down to the previous platform.

There was a horrible cracking noise as the whole structure shook. Joey looked down at the concrete below him and saw little fractures forming.

"Smokey, the stairwell's gonna collapse!" Joey yelled to his friend. "Run for your life!"

Despite the obvious warning, the Charmander waited for his friend to catch up. Together, they ran up the stairs, chunks of rock falling from above. Stairs crumbled beneath their feet, threatening to pitch them into the darkness below. Smoke from the fire mixed with the dust to make breathing difficult.

They landed on the last platform, the stairs behind crumbling into oblivion. Their lungs were burning but they couldn't stop for a rest. The ground beneath them was already starting to crumble. They resumed the run, made all the more harder that their path was already falling into the abyss. Smokey reached the door first, hitting it with so much force that it knocked it off the hinges partially so it hung awkwardly.

Joey ran faster, but he wasn't quite fast enough. The last few steps dissolved beneath him and he was sent into a free fall. He thought he was going to die until a claw grabbed onto his tail. He looked up and saw the Smokey had nearly jumped in to save him, holding onto the frame with one hand and Joey with the other. With a sudden burst of strength, he pulled them both up and onto solid ground.

The two of them collapsed on the ground, gulping in fresh air. Joey looked back at where they came from. The staircase was hidden in what looked like an old wooden shack, smaller than Smokey's house. Seeing it made Joey even surer that the underground room was supposed to stay hidden. He kept the thought to himself when he turned to face Smokey.

"How you doing, man?" he asked.

"We found an underground bunker with a mysterious machine, were nearly scared to death by shadow creatures, failed to stop the pulse from going off and we almost just died," Smokey said in one breath after a moment of hesitation. "After all that though, I think I'm doing just fine."

"I can't tell if that was sarcastic or sincere," Joey grinned, giving a weak chuckle.

"It was a little of both," Smokey said, pulling himself into a sitting position. "We should get home. It's not getting any lighter out, and all those things down there really makes me crave the safety of my shack."

Joey felt obligated to tell his friend that maybe their house wasn't as safe as he thought. He couldn't bring himself to do it, not because he wanted to spare his friends feelings, but because he was simply too tired. The day's events had really drained him, and it was a struggle simply not to fall asleep in the grass. Regardless of his tiredness, he sat himself upright.

"Yeah, I think I can sleep for another three days," he said. His stomach growled. "But first, we should eat something."

"Heh, I forgot about your appetite," Smokey laughed. He stood up and stretched his limbs, helping Joey up soon after. They were just about to leave when a familiar voice called out from the sky.

"Hey, guys! Wait up!"

Joey looked over at his friend. "Is that who I think it is?"

"I think so," Smokey said, turning his gaze over to the sky.

The moon was hidden behind the clouds, but enough light penetrated them to allow the duo to see the sky. Amongst the grey sky, a small silhouette grew bigger and bigger as it called out to them. It wasn't long before the shape of a Butterfree became distinguishable from the shadows.

"Jade?" Smokey shouted in disbelief. "I thought you were in the hospital."

"They let me out early," she said in her bubbly tone. "Turns out you can't keep a patient who has nothing wrong with them."

"How did you even find us?" Joey asked, the third team member landing next to them. "This place is huge. How did you even know that we were here?"

"Oh, I asked around town after seeing that the house was empty," Jade explained. "By the way, it's so good to see you awake, Joey. I was really worried about you. And Smokey, I'm kinda curious as to why the front door is busted. It looks like someone kicked it open from the inside, 'cause it's nearly split in half and hanging off one hinge."

Smokey's face was a hilarious mix of confusion and surprise. He looked over at Joey for an explanation, who quickly changed the subject.

"So, Jade, who told you where to find us?" he said hastily.

"Someone told me you ran off in this direction, and I got a hunch that you were here. You know, after the countdown business I was sure you were eager to investigate," she said, fluttering her wings nervously. "I'm guessing it wasn't so successful, judging by the earthquake and the fact that a few buildings collapsed."

Smokey and Joey exchanged horrified glances. An earthquake that strong must have done some serious damage to the town. This didn't go unnoticed by Jade.

"You guys willing to tell me what happened?"

"Do we have a story for you," Joey said and jumped into the tale. It took a surprisingly short amount of time to finish. They only recounted the most important parts, like the shadow creatures, the pulse machine and that they failed to stop the earthquake. Details like Joey's fall, Smokey's blunder with fire and Joey's other fall were conveniently left out of the story.

"Whoa," was all she managed to say. She shook her head. "Now I'm really glad you're alright. You could have died in there!"

"We really don't need to be reminded," Joey mumbled, crossing his arms.

"Well, we're alive, so let's head home," Smokey finally said. "I think we all can use some well needed rest."

"Yeah, I'm exhausted from today," Jade said, adding a yawn for effect. "How about we cut through Tiny Woods?"

Smokey's face showed that he didn't like the idea. Joey wasn't too fond of it either, since the shadows of the forest could easily hide more of the shadow creatures. His tired body needed sleep though, so Jade's idea agreed with him.

"Yeah, let's just cut through," he said. "You practically live in there, we won't get lost."

"Fine, we'll skip the path," Smokey said, giving up. "What's the worst that can happen?"

Jade and Smokey made their way into the woods, oblivious to the fact that Joey hadn't moved, his jaw on the floor.

"You never say that," he groaned and quickly caught up to them.

As they entered the woods, Joey's eyesight blurred horribly. Everything went out of focus, the colours all mixing into an indistinct blob. A tingling sensation passed through him, like his whole body had fallen asleep. For a moment, Joey thought he was going to pass out from exhaustion. Then, his vision cleared, the tingling sensation stopped and he stepping into line, promptly running into Smokey's back.

His friends had stopped, staring at the sky in astonishment. Joey did so too, and was greeted by pure beauty. He could see the moon clearly, just a sliver a light in the blackness. That wasn't the sight that attracted him the most.

The sky was covered in little pinpricks of light, densely packed in clusters of light. He gazed in wonder at the stars, twinkling far above him. Someone once told him that you could see shapes in them. He didn't know any. Growing up in a thriving metropolis means that it's always bright out, even at night. The moon was the only thing that he could see at night. This was the first time he'd laid eyes on the stars.

While he was enthralled by their beauty, a thought kept nagging at the back of his mind. He realized that he shouldn't be seeing the stars. When he entered the forest, the entire sky was covered in a blanket of clouds, and the moon was bigger than the sliver it was now. Judging by looks on his friends' faces, they had noticed the oddity as well.

"I'm not just seeing things, am I?" Jade whispered. Both her teammates shook their heads. "Well, that's a relief... kinda. Not really actually, I'm still really confused,"

"Yeah, this makes no sense," Smokey said, glancing around at their surroundings. His face grew more and more worried. Before Joey could ask what else was wrong, a shriek came from behind them. They all spun in the direction they had entered, which had been replaced by forest.

"What was that?" Joey asked to no one particular. "And where did it come from?"

"It sounded like a Pidgey to me," Smokey responded. "But, it sounded like it was coming from outside the forest, yet it still sounded muffled by a lot of trees."

Soon, another shriek was heard. Several more joined it and soon the whole forest was ringing with the howls of Pokémon, all coming from where they were staring.

"Smokey, I think you just found the worst possible thing that could happen," Joey said, taking a step back. The howls were getting louder. Sounds of many things crashing through the brush were becoming all the more clearer. Whatever was making that noise was heading right for them. A sudden, terribly loud shriek split through the other howls.

"RUN!" all three members shouted at once. They whipped around and fled deeper into the forest. No plan was in place, other than not letting whatever was behind them catch up.


A/N: one chapter left...