Chapter 14

Into the Future

In the future, just as Dusknoir himself described it, time was at a standstill completely. Nearly everything was a grayish color. Trees and plants were wilted, landscapes were almost barren, and perhaps even more unusual, rocks could be floating up in the air. Even a tower that was floating high in the sky was almost completely demolished. It was where Dusknoir was at, talking to an unknown pokémon covered in a pitch black area…

"I am sorry to have kept you waiting, Master Dialga..." Dusknoir began. "While I encountered more difficulty than I anticipated myself, I finally succeeded in the capture."

Dialga's eyes glowed red. His outlines on his body were not glowing in their usual color, instead orange lines took their place instead of blue. Most of his body was also visible, albeit barely. He could only growl to Dusknoir monotonously.

"I fully understand what must be done," the gripper pokémon continued. "I will erase those who seek to alter the course of history."

Dialga growled again in agreement.

"I understand. As you wish. I will now take my leave."

The temporal pokémon stopped glowing, as Dusknoir left him…

Meanwhile, Team Poképals woke up in a room covered with gray rocks that had a door made of steel bars. They turned to each other to wonder where they were...

"What is this place?" questioned Piplup.

"I think it's a jail..." answered Chimchar.

"J-jail?!"

"I'm afraid so… Even though both of us woke up now, we're still not sure about what in the world is going on right now..."

"Well, we gotta get out of here! We need to find answers!"

They turned and went towards the door to try and open it several times, but to no avail.

"Blast it!" cursed Piplup. "The door won't open!"

He and Chimchar stepped away from the door and turned to each other.

"How exactly did we end up this way?" questioned Chimchar.

"I think Dusknoir grabbed us...and took us into the dimensional hole!" answered Piplup.

"What?! So this means...we're in the future?!"

"Unfortunately, yes..."

"Unbelievable! Why are we even here in the first place, then?!"

Chimchar looked around the room, who was finding the surroundings of the room to be unfamiliar to him. He turned back to Piplup.

"This whole room is built in a way unlike anything I've ever seen before! Maybe this is the future after all!"

The fire monkey pokémon calmed himself down, and had a sad look on his face.

"Ugh, what should we do now? We're running out of ideas!"

"We have to somehow get back to our world," Piplup answered, "but first, we need to-"

All of a sudden, the ground shook as the jail door opened up! Piplup and Chimchar turned to see that four sableye came into the room! They all shone a light from one of their gem-like eyes.

"They're awake," one sableye said. "How convenient." He turned back to his company. "All right, let's do this quickly!"

"Do what quickly?!" demanded Piplup.

The four sableye surrounded Team Poképals and put blindfolds over their eyes! They couldn't see!

"W-what the-?!" Piplup exclaimed.

"They've blindfolded us!" Chimchar said. "I can't see anything now!"

"You will now come with us!" said a sableye.

They forced Team Poképals out of the jail cell and into an unknown place…

Moments later, the four sableye brought Piplup and Chimchar into another room…

"These stupid blindfolds make it impossible to tell where we are now..." Piplup said, obviously annoyed.

"Yeah," replied Chimchar. "I can't stand it either!"

One sableye took off the blindfolds from Chimchar, standing on a spot that had a spotlight shone on him.

"Whoa! It's pitch black in here!" He tried to move. "Great! I still can't move! I'm all tied up here! Literally!"

Chimchar was indeed stuck in place to a pillar with lots of thick ropes keeping him in place.

"Hey, Piplup!" He turned to his right to try and find his pal. "Where are y-"

Suddenly, another light shone on the penguin pokémon.

"Oh, there you are! Looks like you're all tied up, too!"

"Afraid so!"

A voice suddenly spoke up as they turned to its source…

"All of you are clueless as to what is about to happen..."

"W-who said that?!" demanded Chimchar.

The light shone on the mysterious pokémon to reveal that it was Grovyle!

"G-Grovyle?!" Piplup and Chimchar said, who were shocked by his appearance.

"Do any of you have any idea where you are now?"

"No..." answered Chimchar.

"This room is a stockade," Grovyle answered, "where they will get rid of us for good."

"What?!" Team Poképals said. "They're getting rid of us?!"

"Now wait a minute!" Piplup spoke next. "It's easy to understand why they'd want to get rid of you, Grovyle...but why us?! We haven't done anything wrong!"

"I wouldn't care less!" the wood gecko pokémon bellowed. "Both of you must have done something that they couldn't tolerate."

"What in the blazes do you mean by that?!" Piplup furiously questioned. "I'll say it again, we didn't do anything wrong! Don't think that we're like you!"

"I don't care! You're wasting your breath here! Just look at our company coming towards us!"

The three captured pokémon turned to the front as the stockade room completely lit up. Six sableye entered from the door ahead of them.

"W-who are those pokémon?!" questioned Chimchar with panic on his face.

"Those are a group of sableye," answered Grovyle. "They're the jailers who do all the dirty work around here. They also happen to be Dusknoir's henchmen."

"WHAT?!" Team Poképals exclaimed in shock.

Dusknoir entered the room!

"I-it's him!" Chimchar said.

"Lord Dusknoir," one of the sableye said, "the three have been tied to the stakes."

"Good," the gripper pokémon said.

He floated a couple of feet forward.

"My fellow henchmen, we need to be rid of those three."

"WHAT?!" Piplup and Chimchar said.

"Prepare to show them no mercy!" Dusknoir ordered to the sableye.

They laughed in approval, and turned to the three pokémon. They approached them...

"Dusknoir, sir," Chimchar said, "please stop! Why are you even doing this to us?!"

"Keep quiet and listen very carefully to me!" Grovyle demanded. Team Poképals reluctantly listened and turned to him.

"If both of you want to get away," he whispered, "I'll need your full cooperation."

"We have to help you?!" yelled Piplup quietly.

"Unless you want to stick around here, there's no other choice! Now what should we do?"

"We'll attack our way out!"

"That's it! Even if it's just a regular attack, that will do!"

The sableye were very close to the three at this point…

"They're g-getting closer!" Chimchar nervously said.

"Now, although it sounds scary," Grovyle insisted, "when the sableye use their claws for their Fury Swipes to slash the rope up, we'll have to attack at just the right moment so we can escape! In other words, wait for the ropes to get loose!"

Piplup and Chimchar nodded in agreement.

Just then, the sableye used their Fury Swipes move to tear the ropes apart! After a few moments, the ropes on all three captors got loose enough for them to attack the sableye without any hesitation! They sent them back a few feet, stunning Dusknoir from afar.

"What is this?!" he exclaimed.

Grovyle took out something from his bag and threw it to the ground to blind the sableye and Dusknoir!

"We can't see!" one sableye said.

"That blasted Grovyle used a Luminous Orb to blind us!" Dusknoir replied. "Don't worry, it'll wear off quickly!"

The blinding light wore off after a few seconds. All of a sudden, the captors vanished from sight!

"Curses!" Dusknoir bellowed. "They got away from us! Follow me, now!"

He turned to the door and ran out from it. The sableye followed him.

What they did not notice, is that the captors themselves burrowed deep underground. They emerged and shook off the gray dirt.

"Gross!" Chimchar said. "I got dirt in my mouth..."

"It looks like we're safe though," insisted Piplup, as he turned to Grovyle. "Grovyle, you never told us you can use Dig! You sure know many moves!"

"Although we got out of that scrape," he said, deciding to ignore Piplup's claim, "we're not out of the woods yet. We need to get out of here, fast!"

Team Poképals followed Grovyle out of the stockade…

They continued to be on the run for a while, as Grovyle urged Piplup and Chimchar to keep on pace with him.

"Come on, keep up!" the wood gecko pokémon said. "We must keep running until we get to the exit!" He looked back at them and saw them slowing down. "Run faster!"

"This is the fastest we can go!" yelled Chimchar. "Quit ordering us around!"

"Is this really the future, Grovyle?" questioned Piplup.

"That's correct. You catch on fast."

"I knew it..." Chimchar replied. "Are we...going to be able to get back to our world somehow?"

"Who knows? We just need to get away for now! If we get caught, returning home will be the least of your concerns. Now run faster!"

"We still can't! We're getting exhausted..."

Grovyle heard Piplup and Chimchar panting heavily.

"Lucky for the both of you, because the exit's right over there! Look!"

They looked at the door to the outside and ran through it.

"We're finally outside!" exclaimed Piplup.

They arrived out of the building of the stockade and Team Poképals took more notice of the environment outside…

"Wh-what is this?!" Chimchar said.

They looked on to the scenery of dead trees, floating rocks, and a gray landscape. The sky was a gloomy dark blue.

"Is this our world...in the future?" Piplup questioned.

"It's hard to imagine it with those boulders floating in place!" replied Chimchar. "Not to mention that it's horribly dark, too… The wind's not even blowing..."

"It's as if...all movement...and everything...has stopped."

"Exactly," Grovyle said, turning to them.

"What?!" exclaimed Piplup and Chimchar.

All of a sudden, a sound of sableye laughing could be heard behind them!

"Ahh! Those sableye are catching up to us!" Chimchar shrieked.

"Let's get a move on, then!" Grovyle ordered.

The three runaway pokémon turned around and ran again, having caught their breath for not much time.

Piplup and Chimchar were getting exhausted again.

"I know both of you are exhausted," Grovyle said, as he noticed, "but there's no time to rest! If they catch us, we're done for! Tough it out and run!"

"That's...easy for you to say..." Chimchar said in between pants. "We just can't keep up. We need to rest."

"Fine, then."

It was at that moment that they arrived to an entrance of a dungeon.

Grovyle and Team Poképals stopped near the cave's entrance and turned to each other as Piplup and Chimchar attempted to catch their breath. The wood gecko pokémon looked at the structure of the cave and realized that they were safe from view.

"This structure forms a natural alcove," Grovyle said, turning to Team Poképals, "so it should shield us from view. After a quick rest, we'll need to get moving again."

"Wait a minute!" Chimchar said. "When we escaped from the stockade, we cooperated with you because we had no other choice… But we didn't promise we'd go with you afterward! A bad pokémon like you...isn't worthy of being trusted!"

Chimchar...we have no choice but to trust him for now… Piplup thought.

"So you're saying that I'm the bad guy...and that Dusknoir is the good guy?" questioned Grovyle. "If so, I'll have to remind you his actions from earlier! It wasn't just me that he and his minions wanted to be rid of...they wanted both of you gone too!"

"That still doesn't mean I should put my faith in you, Grovyle..." Chimchar insisted.

"Earning your trust doesn't seem to be an easy task for you," Grovyle replied. "I though that having allies would help, but there will be no point in continuing together without trust. We'll just go our separate ways, because I'm staying on the move. Both of you should think it over quickly, then when the time comes, get going immediately."

He turned to the cave's entrance.

"Good luck."

The wood gecko started making his way, but Chimchar stopped him.

"W-wait! You're telling us to leave soon, but it's too dark out now! It'll be hard for us to see where we're going! Instead of setting off again right away, shouldn't we wait for morning? Wouldn't it be better to leave when it gets bright out here?"

"That sadly isn't possible. I hate to say it, but morning never comes."

Piplup and Chimchar gasped, as one of their worst fears about the future were confirmed. Grovyle turned back to them.

"This world of yours in the future," he said, "is a world of perpetual darkness. Morning never comes because the sun never rises here. Darkness persists forever."

"Wh-why?" questioned Chimchar.

"Because...the planet has been paralyzed."

"It's...paralyzed?" The fire monkey pokémon gave it a thought, then he realized something. "Wait! I remember about the planet's paralysis now!" He turned to Piplup, who in turn turned to his best friend. "Dusknoir described it before… He said that if a planet becomes paralyzed, all movement upon it ceases. When one Time Gear's removed, the flow of time slows within its region. As many others are taken, time slows in an ever-larger area. Eventually, the planet's flow slows down so much that it stops entirely. It ultimately reaches a state of complete paralysis where no winds blow, day never comes, and neither season is rotated at all in a world of unrelenting darkness. Dusknoir also described it as the total ruin of the world. This place that we're at right now completely resembles his description!"

Chimchar examined the area around him.

"But even then...it's still hard to understand how exactly the planet's been paralyzed in the future."

"You're free to believe," Grovyle responded, as Team Poképals turned to him, "or reject, what I'm telling you. Either way, I suggest you leave here as soon as you can. I'm leaving now. Don't let those sableye catch you."

He turned to the cave's entrance and went in. Chimchar, meanwhile, turned to Piplup.

"Piplup, I just don't know what to think anymore. Wasn't the planet's paralysis supposed to be caused by all those Time Gears going missing?"

"Yeah! That's why we all tried to stop Grovyle from stealing the Time Gears! But, for some strange reason, I have a feeling we didn't do the right thing now, considering what's happened so far..."

"But Uxie and the others said they would return the recaptured Time Gears to their rightful places. That should've prevented the planet's paralysis!"

"Despite all our efforts, though...we still have to wonder why it's still paralyzed...in our future."

"Arrgh!" Chimchar grunted in frustration. "I don't know who or what to believe anymore!"

Suddenly, a sound of sableye laughing in the distance interrupted Team Poképals' discussion!

"Ahhh!" shrieked Chimchar. "The sableye are catching up to us!"

"Then we can't stay here, pal!" Piplup insisted. "Let's get into that cave and force our way through!"

They turned to the entrance of the cave and went in as quick as they could!

The cave's dungeon known as Chasm Cave was filled with rooms and floors that had no walls around them. Team Poképals would need to be extra careful not to take a wrong step on the paths or they would fall to their certain doom.

After carefully going up eight floors, Piplup and Chimchar made it out alive and well. They arrived to a wide path that was surrounded by rocky mountains left and right, and of course, falling boulders frozen in time. They tried to catch their breath again for a few moments as they turned back to Chasm Cave's exit.

"I hope we...were able to...put some distance between us...and those sableye..." Chimchar said.

"Yeah…me too..." replied Piplup. "Let's rest for now, though. We need to catch our breath."

His partner browsed around in place to look at their surroundings. Chimchar looked at one particular area.

"Hey, there's a frozen waterfall over there!"

He and Piplup made their way to the waterfall. They noticed that the gushing water had been completely suspended in space.

"Grovyle could be right after all…" Chimchar began, sighing in defeat. He turned to the penguin pokémon. "Time has stopped in the future. But there's still something that I want to know...why did Dusknoir bring us here in the first place? He was so kind to us before...but now he does that?! I don't know what to believe anymore..." The fire monkey turned back to the waterfall. "If only there was some way of finding the truth..."

Piplup had a light go on in his head.

"Wait! I got it!" he exclaimed. Chimchar turned back to him. "There is a way of getting the truth, Chimchar! I can try to use my Dimensional Scream by touching that frozen water here!"

"Yeah! Who knows if you could see something! Give it a go!"

Piplup approached the waterfall to touch the frozen spray of water. He waited for a few moments to see if a vision could come to him.

"...Well, Piplup?" Chimchar said. "Are you getting a vision?"

A few more seconds passed, but Piplup's dizzying sensation never came to his head.

"It's no good." He turned back to Chimchar. "I'm not sensing anything."

"Well, that's disappointing. That could've been real helpful in a desperate situation like this..."

"No time to dwell on it, though. We've gotta get going before those sableye get to us!"

They turned to the right of the path and saw not only a narrow path leading to the entrance of another dungeon, but also a Kangaskhan Rock. They desperately needed to sort out their inventory after what seemed like forever since the last time they used the storage at Treasure Town in the past. They hoped the Kangaskhan Rock would still work in the future, and somehow, thankfully, it did. They managed to get out their items stored in their past and put them in their bag to use later. Team Poképals was fully stocked and thus, went into the dungeon.

Piplup and Chimchar were now in the Dark Hill dungeon. This time, it had walls on every floor, so there was no worry of falling. It did, however, contain many ghost-type pokémon. Since Team Poképals had some of their moves that were a normal type, they did very little damage, so they had to rely on their respective water and fire type moves to defeat their foes.

Piplup and Chimchar got to the end of Dark Hill's dungeon, and were on top of a hillside. They looked to the left a saw a slew of lights below them. One group of lights caught their attention and went near the edge of the cliff to get a closer look.

"That cluster of lights looks beautiful," Piplup said, "but when we looked closer, it's really just the stockade..."

He and Chimchar backed away from the cliff and turned to each other for a conversation.

"Hey, Piplup," began the fire monkey pokémon. "I want to go back to discussing about Dusknoir. You know, the great Dusknoir saved us more than once, and taught us many things too. That's why I really respected him, but has he been...deceiving us all this time?"

"Yeah," Piplup answered, "I find it hard to believe that he'd betray us like that..."

"I've said it many times before, but I just don't know what to believe anymore… I'm feeling all jumbled up. What should… What should we do now? How far do we have to run? How do we go back to our own world?"

Chimchar thought about the pokémon back at Wigglytuff's guild.

"I wonder...how everyone's at the guild doing… Are they worried about us? Are Wigglytuff, Chatot, Bidoof, and everybody else doing well?" He had tears in his eyes from all the worry. "I m-m-miss them...I want to see them again!"

Piplup also had a somber look on his face. He turned aside from his friend and thought to himself…

Poor Chimchar…he's feeling quite down… It's only natural that it happens now, with everything that's transpired so far. It's all so hard to believe that it DID happen. To be honest, pal...I'm scared too. He had a serious look. But we can't give up now! If we don't keep moving, those sableye will get us! I need to do something to cheer Chimchar up! But using words of support will seem like false comfort right now… If there was only something I could say...that would offer a glimmer of hope...which we could work towards to… It could be anything! I just need to think of something!

Piplup turned back to Chimchar.

"Hey, Chimchar!"

"W-what is it, Piplup?" the fire monkey pokémon said, as he wiped away his tears.

"Let's go and find Grovyle!"

"What?! You want to go after him? Wh-why?!"

"I want to know something!"

"You wanted to know something? Oh…I see… Grovyle went to our world from here the first time, so he should know how to travel there. But...isn't he a bad pokémon? Didn't he come to our world to steal the Time Gears? How could I trust anything that he would say? W-what about you, Piplup? Do you trust Grovyle?"

"We have to trust him!"

"But," Chimchar began to reply with anger on his face. "I can't trust him! You know that I can never trust a bad pokémon like that! There's just no way I can trust him! But..." He calmed down and sighed in defeat. "...I understand you, Piplup. I still have no idea why Dusknoir wants to get rid of us. That means the only other pokémon we know here in the future that we can trust…is Grovyle. We have no other choice but to pin our hopes on him."

"Well, I guess that's settled, then!" Piplup said with renewed hope in his eyes. "Come on, Chimchar! Let's go find Groyvle! We'll meet up with him and we'll ask him how we can return to our world!"

"I'm right behind you!" Chimchar had a smile on his face, being reassured for their new plan.

Piplup started to make his way down the hill, but realized that his best friend Chimchar stayed still.

"Piplup, I just want to say thanks..."

The penguin pokémon turned back to Chimchar.

"Thanks? Thanks for what?"

The fire monkey had tears beginning to form in his eyes. He still wore a smile on his face, however.

"For trying to pick me up because I was feeling down. Even though you should be just as scared as I am, pal...I'm sorry.

"I'm sorry, too. I should've told you that I was scared too."

"And even though I have my closest and most precious friend with me…I worried all alone...and almost gave up alone. I should've realized that I wasn't alone."

The floodgates had opened up. Chimchar now had tears streaming down his face from his eyes.

"There, there..." Piplup said smiling, as he and Chimchar approached each other for a hug.

Still bearing a smile on his face, the fire monkey began crying happily onto one of Piplup's shoulders. The penguin pokémon softly patted his best friend's back with one of his other flippers for comfort to try and relieve the pain from the harsh journey in the future that hurt Chimchar greatly. After a few moments, they separated from each other.

"I won't give up anymore!" Chimchar said as he wiped his tears away. "I'll be brave because you're at my side, Piplup! I'm gonna be just fine now!"

"That's great to hear, Chimchar! Now, let's go and get back to our world...together!"

Team Poképals turned back down the hill and made their way off of it.

Piplup and Chimchar had arrived at an entrance to yet another dungeon. Another Kangaskhan Rock was nearby, so they used it first to stock up on their items once more before they headed into the Sealed Ruin, and to get back to Grovyle.

Meanwhile, at the pit of the dungeon, Grovyle was nearing his destination of where he and Team Poképals were to go to in order to find a portal to get to the past. He arrived at a dark gray rocky room that had a mysterious rock situated in the middle of the room…

"If I get through here," Grovyle began, "I should be at the forest area. The sableye are still following me, so there's no time to waste." He turned back. "That reminds me… I wonder how those two are doing? Have they eluded the sableye?" He shook his head. "Oh, forget it! This isn't the time! I have to give priority to my own mission no matter what! I vowed to complete it, even if it means making sacrifices!"

He turned around to make his way, but then…

"You there!" a voice bellowed. "STOP!"

Grovyle began turning around the room to find out where the voice was coming from.

"Who's there?!" he exclaimed.

"You are INVADING this place without warning!" the voice bellowed again. "You are DISTURBING our slumber! Are you leaving, without APOLOGY?!"

"W-who are you?!"

"You DARE anger us?! We will expect you to PAY for those insults!"

"Then quit hiding and show yourself!"

"You ACCUSE us of hiding? We do NOT hide. We are...HERE!"

The room suddenly went completely dark!

"We are SPIRITOMB! There is NO MERCY for those who transgress against us!"

Spiritomb began attacking Grovyle without warning, as the wood gecko pokémon cried out in pain…!

The Sealed Ruin dungeon consisted around 15 floors of mostly steel-type pokémon. Although Piplup had neither advantage nor disadvantage against them, Chimchar could use his fire type moves to a super effective advantage.

When Team Poképals got to the pit of the Sealed Ruin, they saw Grovyle lying down on the ground defeated. They noticed that a strange purple energy surrounded his body that might be preventing him from getting up.

"Oh no! Grovyle's down!" Piplup exclaimed.

"I'm glad that both of you are here..." Grovyle said weakly, "but be careful in here! An enemy that was responsible for my defeat lurks nearby!"

Piplup and Chimchar looked around in alarm.

"Wh-where is it?!"

"It's right..." The wood gecko pointed to the rock beside the pair. "...There!"

They turned to the rock.

"A-are you sure?" Chimchar asked nervously.

The rock suddenly moved! The pals jumped a few feet back in alarm!

"Ahhhhh!"

Spiritomb spoke from its rock…

"All those who TRESPASS upon this land...will never be FORGIVEN! Not least of all...YOU!"

"W-who...are...you?!" demanded Piplup and Chimchar in fear.

"You ask that of US? Our name is...SPIRITOMB. We are the manifestation of a FUSION of spirits..."

Spiritomb showed its true appearance from its rock! A purple round, swirling body had green circles revolving within it, with two green eyes and a mouth making up its face.

"One hundred and EIGHT of them!" it continued.

"Be careful!" Grovyle warned. "That pokémon is strong!"

"PREPARE to take your punishment!"

Piplup and Chimchar got into their battle stances and got ready to do battle with Spiritomb!

The daunting fusion ghost-type pokémon occasionally shot out waves of purple energy in an attempt to paralyze Team Poképals! It was a good thing when Piplup or Chimchar was, the other movable teammate was able to feed them a heal seed or cheri berry to cure them of paralysis. They would have to use their water and fire type projectiles respectively to bring down Spiritomb!

After a few moments, the menacing ghost-type groaned in pain, indicating its defeat. The room then suddenly began to shake!

"Wh-what's going on?!" Chimchar nervously said.

All of a sudden, Spiritomb's body went back into its rock! The room stopped shaking, and the purple energy that kept Grovyle on the ground went back into the ghost-type's rock. It turned a few directions for a while, then it bounced out of the room!

Team Poképals could only sweat-drop at this strange sight.

"Man, that was weird..." Piplup said.

"I'm not sure what that was about, either..." Chimchar replied.

"It got spooked and ran," Grovyle said, as he slowly tried to get up.

The pals turned to him and ran towards him to help him back up.

"Are you OK?" questioned Chimchar with worry.

"Yeah," Grovyle insisted, "I'll be fine… Spiritomb was certainly cunning indeed. It went up my nose and took control of my body..."

"Up your nose?!" Team Poképals exclaimed. "Ewwwww!"

"What a bad pokémon it was!" Piplup said. "Not to mention, gross, too!"

"That's not true," Grovyle insisted. "Spiritomb was probably upset over us trespassing in its space. It was frightening...because it became so angry that it lost control of itself. But you saw what happened when the situation turned sour...it fled. It's normally a timid pokémon. There are many pokémon such as that one here in your future. They are pokémon who should be good...but have become bitter and twisted because of this world's perpetual darkness."

"I see..." Chimchar replied. He quickly bore a sad look on his face. "Good pokémon going bad because of this world...makes me sad."

"Now, will both of you finally trust me?" Grovyle offered.

"Somewhat..."

"We've got no choice!" Piplup said.

"I'll still admit that I don't trust you," Chimchar said, "but I'll have to now."

"Good!" Grovyle responded. "I said it before and I'll say it again… There's no point in continuing together if there's no trust between us." He turned to the ruin's exit. "Come. We're leaving now."

Chimchar stopped him.

"OK, but just so you know, we're only doing this because we want to know as much as we can learn about this whole mess! I know I still don't trust you completely, Grovyle, but...what you said did make some sense. It just seems to be logical. So could you please tell us what you know? More specifically, tell us about this future...and why you came to our world!"

Grovyle spun back to the pair.

"So, what if everything I say is a pack of lies?"

"It's all right," insisted Chimchar. "I won't accept everything you say at face value right away. I'll listen, then decide."

The wood gecko gave it a thought.

"Well...fine. Follow me."

He turned and headed for the exit, with Team Poképals following him...