Hey there, Everyone. Been a while. Sorry about that, a combination of family stuff and the motivation fairy being a lazy ***** has left me kinda dejected. Still, I was able to put this together for you guys.

So...Enjoy.

(Copyright): I don't own shit.

Okay, so, we're going to be doing a bit of a time jump here.

For some reason, which I will explain later, at this point in time, there is a total blank spot in my memory. I cannot tell you what happened in between me hearing someone shout "run", and when I woke up some time later. All I can tell you is that when I did, I had a splitting headache that would put even your worst hangovers to shame.

As I opened my eyes, laying on that cold, rocky floor, the first thing I saw was the glowing beam of my flashlight bouncing off the wall to my left. The light was flickering slowly, growing dimmer and brighter with each passing second, like it was struggling to hold a charge. I reached out and grabbed my disconnected flashlight, noticing that the charging cable was attached to the bottom, and start to get up. I crawled a few feet to my side and sat up against the wall, a sudden burst of pain shooting through my head as I lean on it for support. Clutching my head, my vision gets blurry around the edges for a few seconds as the pain kept going, but it began to fade after a few seconds. When the pain finally subsided, I pulled my hand away from my face and recoiled slightly at the small splotch of red on my palm.

Fearing the worst, I immediately pull up my status and saw that I was sitting at half health. As I recoiled even further in shock, I began to realize that my arms were covered in little scrapes and cuts, all the way from my shoulders down to the tips of my fingers. While they weren't bleeding profusely, they were still bright red and stung like a bitch. Taking another look at my status also revealed that I was suffering from the [Mild Concussion] effect.

"That explains the headache...", I groaned out, rubbing my temples to try and sooth it a bit. It didn't work.

Closing the status window, I quickly opened up the skills section and eyed the [First Aid] skill. This was the best time to use it, no question, but...

There was a moment of hesitation as I looked at it. I had no idea how the skill worked. I had no idea how skills worked, period. What would it do when I activated it? Would I glow and just be magically healed, or would it take over my body and just do it automatically? I didn't know. And even then, I wasn't sure if it would even work at all, as I was above 10% health. Would it activate and just, in essence, tell me to fuck off? Again, I don't know, but I really didn't have a better option.

"Well, here goes nothing.", I muttered with a sigh as I reached out and tapped on its box on the screen.

In an instant, the menu vanished and was replaced by a new screen.

[Please Select A Target]

Just then, I noticed a small, faint, green outline wrap around itself around my hand and spread all over my body. I turn my hand over and back in front of my face, examining it closely and making sure that the green film didn't harm me at all. When I concluded that it hadn't, I turned back to the screen and wondered what it meant. Select how?

Taking a shot in the dark, I replied, "Uhh... Myself?"

And just like that, the screen vanished again, but this time was replaced with something rather curious...a 3-D rendering of me.

Floating in the air in front of me was a small, holographic copy of myself in a transparent orb the size of a volleyball. Just off to the sides of the orb, three more panels popped into existence, each of varying size. The panel above the orb displayed my name and current HP, the panel on the left was a drop-down list currently showing my injuries, and the one on the right had four separate boxes contained within it, listing the materials needed, materials available, tools needed, and tools available, respectively.

"W-Wha?", I stuttered, the sudden influx of information overwhelming me. Even though I was stunned by the reveal, I almost reflexively reached out and grabbed the orb, clutching it between my palms and letting my curiosity get the better of me. As soon as it was in my hands, several portions of the "me" inside the orb started glowing red, mostly around the arms and head. I stared at it for a moment before one of my fingers shifted and rubbed against a section of the orb closest to my right arm. The image suddenly zoomed in and focused on my arm, the red glowing aura around my arm receded, now only highlighting the individual cuts on my arm instead of the whole thing.

With a sudden flash of clarity, I realized what it was doing. It was highlighting my injuries so that I can identify and treat them accordingly. That's also what the tool and material boxes were for: It's telling me what I need to use to treat it.

The injuries list stated that I had about 27 cuts all across my arm, with about 2/3 of those just being on my forearm. It recommended that I clean them with antiseptic and wrap it in bandages. Well, that clearly wasn't going to happen, so I had to think of something else or risk getting an infection or something worse.

For a moment, I wasn't sure what to do. I had nothing to work with, no supplies. Literally all I had was the clothes on my back...then it hit me! I'd seen it done in movies and TV all the time, and while it was probably just Hollywood logic, I didn't have anything better. I immediately pulled my vest and top off and got to work tearing strips of fabric out of it. After a bit,, I didn't get the most clean of strips, but I got enough length for what I needed to do. By the end, I had two really long strips of fabric that I began wrapping around my arm.

Gripping one end of the strip in my hand, I started wrapping the fabric in a spiral pattern around and up my arm, doubling back around when I hit my shoulder to try and get as much as I missed. Once I reached my hand again, I did my best to tie both ends of the makeshift bandage in as tight of a knot as I could get. With one final pull, having to use my teeth on the other end of the knot, the bandage tightens around my arm and I feel the pain in my arm subside a bit. As I take a minute to admire my handiwork, a panel popped up in my vision.

[Injury mended improperly - Minimum healing applied]

"Well...shit, that is not what I was hoping for."

Yeah, as it turns out, the quality of the materials and tools used, as well as the use of proper medical techniques, affects the quality of the healing. Who knew? ...Not me, apparently. No, of course not, it's only a magical power based on video games, why would anything be easy?

Anyway, after swallowing that bitter pill, I got to work wrapping my other arm, with just barely enough fabric left over to wrap around my head. Once I was done, I got a prompt asking if I wanted to finalize my treatment. I tapped the yes button and everything vanished, leaving behind a single panel in their place.

[Treatment Finished - 3% of max Hp healed. Status Ailment cured.]

Once I read that, I opened up the menu and, sure enough, [Mild Concussion] was gone. Sadly, I only healed 3hp, but at least I didn't have a headache anymore. That's something.

With a quick flourish, I close the menu and lean back against the tunnel wall, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves.

"Alright...", I said to myself, "...no half measures. We've got a job to do." And with that, I start to stand up.

Now that I was done treating my injuries, I got to my feet and actually took a look at my surroundings. I was in a tunnel, about eight-feet tall and five-feet wide, with both ends of stretching out into the darkness far beyond the range of my flashlight. It was pretty much down to a coin toss which way I chose to go. Sadly, I didn't have a coin. But whatever, I just started walking down the tunnel in one direction until I hit something.

Now, I'm not a person who gets easily scared. Startled, maybe, but not really scared. When me and my family would watch horror movies, I'd be the one to call the characters stupid for making bad decisions and getting themselves killed. Granted, I'm not the best decision maker either, I have two ex-girlfriends as evidence of that, but I digress. Anyway, point being, I don't get scared normally... but paranoid? Oh yeah. When paranoia sets in, it latches on hard. It thankfully doesn't happen all that often now...but when you're walking down a long, seemingly endless tunnel, you're only source of light a flashlight that you have to keep cranking to keep lit, the sound of your footsteps echoing of the walls back at you...it creates a certain atmosphere that puts you on edge. And that edge sharpened like a razor when, from behind me...I heard a giggle.

I whip around and shine my flashlight back down the tunnel, only to see nothing waiting for me. I frantically look in all directions, scanning the very walls themselves looking for the source of the noise. The paranoia now officially in full swing, I slide up and put my back against one of the tunnel walls, my breathing starting to get heavy with panic. I take a deep breath, trying to keep my heart steady in my chest as I focus my senses entirely on my hearing. Sitting there was painful, just waiting in the eerie quiet, trying to pick up even the smallest of sounds.

I waited for what felt like hours, my ears open and my body shaking, poised and ready to book it at the first sign of trouble. You never realize how loud your heartbeat actually is until you try to suppress it, with each thumping beat sounding like the heavy smack of drum, ironically drowning out anything I was trying to listen for.

Eventually, after a while of waiting, no second sound came.

I peel myself off the wall and let out a deep breath, nervous sweat dripping off my brow. Wiping off my forehead with a bit of my vest and turning to my right, I start walking back down the tunnel at a very steady pace. I only got a few steps away before I felt a sudden shiver run down my spine. Immediately freezing in place, I don't even get a chance to look behind me, another giggle suddenly rang out...right in my left ear.

There was no hesitation in my steps, as I immediately booked it down the tunnel as fast as my legs could carry me. With each panicked step, I hurried farther away from... whatever it was. I never looked back to check, too focused on the expanse of darkness in front of me and running for my life.

During my frantic sprint, just for a second, I let my curiosity get the better of me. I took a quick glance over my shoulder, hoping to see if anything was actually chasing me. In that moment, just as I look over, I run straight into a sudden right-turn in the tunnel, rebounding off and landing on my ass. Despite my sudden dizziness from pancake-ing against a wall, I quickly shuffle to my feet and start sprinting down the new corridor.

As panicked footfalls echo throughout the narrow tunnel, unseen to anyone, a spectral form phased through the rock and stone, floating and coming to a rest in the middle of the path. It shifts its head to face in the direction that the footsteps trailed off in. Its ethereal and translucent form shudders slightly, gradually becoming solid, with its pink skin being subtly lost amidst the vast darkness.

'Interesting...', it thought, 'this human is...interesting. I wonder... Oh, this will be so much fun, I can just tell. I can't wait!', it finished, beaming with anticipation and joy.

Without another thought, the creature's form became spectral again and began floating down the corridor at a quickened pace, hoping to catch up to the new human that had interested it so.

So, I'm sprinting down this tunnel at top speed, my heart jackhammering in my chest, and after a while, I start getting really tired. Like, "my legs are steadily becoming jelly" tired. I start slowing down and stumbling over myself, nearly tripping over my own feet a few times. Coming to a stop and taking a seat against one of the walls, the best I could do to calm myself was to take deep and steady breaths. In and out, in and out, I breathed my shaky breaths. For several minutes, all I could do was sit there, my nerves practically stretched as far as they could go.

'What the fuck was that?', I thought. 'There was something right behind me- right next to me!'. I unconsciously brought a hand up and rubbed my ear, stroking it in worry as the realization sunk in. I let out another shuddering breath, turning to face the direction that I'd just come from. The flashlight on my vest was pointed straight ahead from me, so the cone of light only hit the opposite wall and lit up a very small area. I stared into the darkness for a moment, seemingly waiting for something to jump out and get me.

But...nothing ever did. It was quiet, still, empty. Waiting for another minute or two, nothing happened but my flashlight dying. I was abruptly shunted into total darkness. Taking no time to charge it with the hand crank, the flickering beam came back to life and granted me a small sanctuary in the dark of the underground.

[Due to your vigorous exercise, your Vitality has increased by 1]

...was the first thing I saw when the light came back. I just heaved out a sigh and swiped it away, the panel disappearing without a sound.

Taking a look at my status showed that, as expected, my Stamina was pretty much empty, along with my Hydration being dangerously low. While my Hunger was lower than before, it wasn't in the danger zone like Hydration was. Taking out and downing the rest of the spare water bottle I brought got me back to safe levels again, though it did give me kind of a sobering reminder: I now had no reserves left. If I didn't find a way out soon, or if I didn't find wherever Riley went to... Well, you can fill in the blank there.

I close the menu and attempt to stand up, but just then, I start to hear a sound. I can't really describe the sound I heard, aside from vague rustling, but It was coming from directly in front of me. As there was nothing but a wall in front of me, I started freaking out a bit. Reflexively backing up against the wall as far as I could go, the rustling kept getting louder, closer and closer. Sweat started to form on my brow as the sound kept getting louder, almost becoming deafening with my nerves focusing on nothing else. Just as the sound reached its loudest, the center of the wall starts to shudder.

The rock started to rumble, a few miscellaneous stones falling to the floor from a crack forming in the wall's surface. The crack gradually got bigger and bigger until whole chunks of rock were falling off. The crack itself seemed to stop at around the size of a basketball, maybe a bit bigger, but more rocks seemed to push themselves from the forming hole, landing in a pile just below. Just then, in between the stones, I noticed the smallest glint of something shiny reflecting my flashlight. Just as I focus on it, it seemed to grow in size as more stones fell. When the last bits of rubble fell away, my heart sank as I got a good look at it.

It was one of the purple gremlin-pokemon with the gem-eyes and razor smile. It's eyes seem to fall on me as it hops out of its newly made tunnel, landing with a soft thud. A moment passed in complete silence, the pokemon shallowly breathing and staring at me, and me doing my best not to make a single sound, holding in my breath to appear least threatening as possible. After another moment, it turned its head to the side, in what I think was a confused or curious gesture, and started taking steps towards me. As it stepped forward, every single hair on my arms stood at attention... Well, whatever hairs that weren't covered by my makeshift bandages, that is. I stay perfectly still as it steps right up to me, only about a foot away from my chest. Then, it did something that I really wasn't expecting...

It reached up, put one of its hands on my chest...and just left it there. Then it looked up at me, back to its hand, back to me, turned back around and just walked away.

I'll admit, I did a double take when I walked away. The deep breath I was holding hitched in my throat and I ended up having a coughing fit. Thankfully, the gremlin didn't take that as a sign of aggression and start clawing my face off. No, it simply turned back and kept watching me. After a moment, it started...waving at me. It waved its purple limb back and forth, emulating a "follow" gesture, before pointing back to the hole in the wall that it came through with its other hand.

'Is it telling me to follow it?', I thought in slight disbelief. 'Why? Why would it want me to follow? Could...could it be leading me into a trap? I don't know what its motives are, and with that creepy smile, I don't imagine that they'd be anything good...'

With a quick glance between the hole and the gremlin's expectant gaze, another train of thought entered my mind.

'Then again, what other options do I have? I have no idea where I am in this mine and I'm not even sure how I got here. This thing is a tunnel-er, so it probably knows its way around. I could be trying to lead me back to the surface, or at least back to one the lit common areas. Though, that is only if its trying to lead me anywhere at all...'

With one last look and the gremlin and it's gem-like eyes, I heave out a heavy sigh and begin to stand up.

'I'm definitely going to regret this.'

So, I underestimated the size of the hole. It was by no means a comfortable fit, but there was at least enough room to crawl through. Though, when we had to make any sharp turns, the gremlin had to carve out some of the corners for me to fit around them. While we were making our way through the maze of tunnels, the gremlin suddenly perked up and started sniffing the air. I didn't understand why, not until it started digging in one of the side walls. A few minutes later, it pulled out vibrant gemstone, still in it's unrefined base form, but it was dazzling nonetheless. Then it ate it...I'm not kidding.

It opened its jaw, revealing about two more rows of jagged teeth that unnerved me, stuck the gem in, and started chewing. The sound was awful, like breaking glass over and over with the occasional wet slurp of saliva. The crunching and grinding alone made my teeth hurt, especially considering we were in such a confined space. It finally swallowed its "snack", and I'm not kidding, it patted its belly and burped, expelling a few tiny shards of emerald onto the tunnel floor...it was both cute and disturbing.

I let out a bit of an awkward chuckle, the sight of its...content, I think, expression led me to voice out-loud a comment I didn't really mean to.

"Was it tasty?", I ask, putting a little more sarcasm into the question than I would have liked.

To my surprise, it turned to me and gave an emphatic nod, crying out "Sa-ble" with what I think was glee.

"W-wait, can you understand me?", I asked in even more surprise.

It tilted its head in confusion when I asked, letting out another "Sable", though this one was slightly elongated and had a questioning tone to it.

"Then, where are you taking me? The exit, hopefully?"

"Sab-le", it replied, nodding it's head again.

"Oh, thank you!", I sighed with relief. "I thought I was going to be stuck down here."

The gremlin took a few steps closer and patted me on the shoulder, in a gesture I think was supposed to be comforting, though its toothy grin made it seem a bit sinister. It took a few steps back down the tunnel and stopped at the T-junction it came to, looking back and forth between each direction. It seemed to think for a moment, tapping its foot on the ground as it did so, before turning to a motioning for me to follow. I start to, but a single thought shoots through my mind and forces me to stop...the reason why I'm here.

"Hey...", I call out to get it's attention.

"Sab?", it asks as it pokes its head around the corner.

"Do you...", I start, "...Have you seen any other humans around? Like me, but with really bright blue hair and...a yellow symbol on their chest?", I ask, gesturing with my hands to point out where I'm talking about. "They're why I'm here. They've been causing trouble and taking pokemon from all over the place. I'm not sure why, but if they're here, it can't be for any good reasons. I need to find them and put a stop to whatever they're doing. Can you...can you help me?"

The gremlin's expressions shifted and changed as I talked, from confusion to, concern, to interest, and finally settling on anger. It gripped its little hands tightly, quaking in rage as I finished speaking. Its toothy smile morphed into a grimace as it lowered its head, staring at the floor for a moment. After a tension filled silence, one where I was wondering if I seriously fucked up by saying anything, it suddenly snapped its head up to me. The way it was looking at me was different, its gem-like eyes seemingly radiating a willful determination and its returned smile slightly malicious. If not for its curt nod and affirmative "sab", I would have thought that it was about to eat me.

I breathed out a sigh of relief and returned its grin with one of my own.

"Alright then...lead the way, little buddy."

After about...ten minutes, I think, we crawl out of hole in the wall at about floor level into what appears to be a storage room of some kind. There were large palettes of wood stacked against the east wall, a trio of drum barrels next to a large generator, that was letting out a low hum as it ran, against the west wall. Directly in front of me was a wooden door that was slightly ajar, beams of artificial light peeking through the cracks into the dark room. Just to the left of the door was another metal cabinet like I saw in the house outside, though this one looked much more rusted.

I gently sneak up to the door and just barely peer out into the room beyond. From what I could see, the room was rather cavernous with a high ceiling, covered with stalagmites much like the rooms before. Here, however, there were several stone pillars connecting the floor to the ceiling, as if a stalagmite and a stalactite met in the middle, in various places around the room. The room itself was lit up by a series of hanging bulbs attached along the rim of the domed ceiling, though there were a few old-fashioned miners lamps hanging here and there that no one seemed necessary to remove. At the far end of the room, there was a singular tunnel that was flanked on both sides by a pair of Galactic grunts, both wielding rifles of some kind. They didn't look like normal firearms, they had a shiny, plastic feel to them, giving off the air of a nerf gun more than anything.

My observations were interrupted, however, as an unseen voice suddenly called out from an unknown part of the room.

"How much longer do we have to down here?", it asked in a slightly gruff voice, though it did have a bit of whininess to it.

I hear an exasperated sigh come from one of the two tunnel guards before he replies.

"For the third time, Barry, not until the egghead is done looking for what he's looking for. If you ask again...I'm going to shove my boot up your ass."

The grunt next to him recoiled a bit at the declaration.

"Eww...I'd listen to him, Barry. You know what happened to Jenkins." He then says something under his breath that I didn't catch, even with the echo of the room.

"Oh shut up, Frank!", the third voice abruptly yells, "You know this assignment is bullshit! Why do you think they only sent a handful of us with Egghead? They don't expect us to find anything...this all just a massive waste of time."

The second grunt shook his head back and forth in thought a few times before turning to the grunt on his left.

"He does kinda have a point, Dave. I mean, of all the mines to send us to to find this shit, they send us to the one in the middle of the ocean...does kinda feel like they're just trying to get us out of the way."

The first grunt, the now newly named Dave, had an unamused expression plastered on his face.

"No, I think it's because they didn't want to draw too much attention, so they sent a small squad to carry out the mission. If anything, you should be proud that they have so much faith in us.", Dave replied.

Barry responded with a disbelieving scoff, "They sent us on a mission...with Gary.", he deadpanned, as if that's all that needed to be said. And apparently, it was.

Dave opened his mouth to respond, but immediately closed it as his argument died in his throat. "Fair point.", he replied.

I mentally giggled at the fact that that weirdo was actually named Gary.

"Thank god that primadonna is on the second floor.", Frank chimed in, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand. "I swear, if I hear him spout his 'glory for team Galactic' shtick again, I'm gonna shoot him in the ass and leave him handcuffed to a rabid zigzagoon."

All three grunted in agreement before falling back into silence. The quiet held still for a few moments before lights overhead started flickering on and off.

"Damnit...that fucking generator.", Barry ground out.

A stifled giggle could be heard coming from Frank. "What's wrong, Barry? Scared of the dark?"

"Fuck you! You don't have any idea what kind of freaky shit lurks in the dark...", he paused for a moment, "...especially down here.", he shakily breathed out.

Just then, a light bulb went off in my head. I carefully close the door and turn to the purple gremlin standing just below me.

"Hey little buddy...", I start, it looked up at me with its sparkling eyes, the twisted smile conveying curiosity, "...I've got an idea."

I didn't think it was possible, but somehow...its smile got even wider, nearly splitting its face in half.

And, funnily enough, I was right there with him.

The trio of Galactic henchmen idly stood in the cavernous room, two situated on opposite sides of the entrance to the tunnel that their current escort was conducting whatever surveys that he was tasked to do, while the third patrolled the outside ring of the room. None of the crew were informed in the debriefing what exactly they were searching for, simply saying that it was a rare and valuable mineral, choosing to keep information vague in case of capture or interrogation. While the mission itself wasn't all that integral to Team Galactic's plan, it was still an avenue that could lead to many beneficial resources being collected for the organization. Though, the choice of personnel did cause some concerns for the higher ups.

Nepotism can be a potentially disastrous oversight, after all.

Still, the team was sanctioned, sent off, and up until this point, their task had gone off without a single hitch. That is, until one of them noticed a lack of communication from their teammate on the second level.

"Guys...", Frank started, "Speaking of Gary, isn't it a bit odd that we haven't heard anything from him in a while?", he asked, holding up his radio for emphasis.

Both Barry and Dave look to him and begin to think about it for a moment, the realization slowly dawning on both their faces. But, since it's Gary they're talking about, both were quick to come up with excuses.

"Well, this is a mine, after all...could be he wandered into a dead zone and just didn't realize.", Barry postulated.

"Yeah, sometimes if the stone is too thick, the signal can't reach.", Dave added.

Frank's gaze shifted between his two compatriots, a blank look on his face. Simply put, though he was less than impressed, he mentally recognized that, while logical, they were grasping at straws somewhat.

"Really? That's what you're going with?"

"Come on, man, you know how bad he is."

"Yeah, I know. I also know that he's just annoying enough to get himself killed by taunting a horde of Zubats or something."

"Would...would that be so bad?", Dave asked from off to the side.

Frank immediately fell silent, turning to look at him with incredulity. He looked back to Barry pleadingly, motioning to Dave in a disbelieving gesture. Rather than getting the support he was expecting, Barry simply shrugged his shoulders in apathy. When it was clear that he was alone on this, his expression turned sour.

"Uh huh...", Frank commented, "Well, while you guys are busy jerking each other around, I'm gonna go make sure our teammate didn't get fucking eaten.", he proclaimed before walking over to a tunnel with a sign depicting a staircase and an arrow pointing upwards.

"Jeez...", Frank began muttering under his breath as he walked, "I'm the first to admit I hate the guy but...damn."

An uneasy silence fell over the chamber, the two Galactic grunts feeling the slightest hint of guilt begin to nip at their minds. The two looked at each other for a moment, heaved out regretful sighs, and returned to their duties. With one loop around the chamber, Barry stopped in front of Dave and asked a question that had plagued his mind.

"Dave...Are we the assholes?"

He perched his lips in thought for a moment, genuinely looking like he was considering the idea. Just as he was about to reply, the chamber was suddenly shrouded in pitch darkness, the overhead lights having gone out.

"Son of a bitch!", shouted Barry. "I knew that generator was a piece of shit."

He quickly fumbled with the flashlight at the end of his rifle, and after a tense moment, the beam suddenly cut through the darkness and partially blinded Dave, who happened to be standing where he was pointing.

"Ah- Dammit, Barry! Warn a guy first!", he cried out, hastily rubbing his eyes and blinking.

"Sorry. It's just-"

"Yeah, I know, I know, 'the dark freaks you out'.", he replies, taking a moment to turn his own flashlight on. He waves it around the chamber, scanning the area for any signs of movement in a precautionary manner. When he's sure that the area's clear, he turns his attention back to Barry.

He starts with a sigh, "Someone's got to go check the generator."

"Yeah, well, have fun with that.", Barry quickly responded.

"Barry-"

"Don't you 'Barry' me!", he snapped back. "When you say 'someone', you mean me, and I ain't doing it. Fuck that."

Dave rolled his eyes and held up a clenched fist, a gesture that anyone can instantly recognize.

"...God Dammit.", he spat out, raising his own fist to meet the challenge.

Nine rounds of rock-paper-scissors later, all of which ended with Dave winning, a grumbling and quietly cursing Barry was walking towards the generator room.

"That bastard cheated, I know he did...somehow."

Within moments, he was standing in front of the rickety and worn wooden door. He gently pushed it open, the eerie creaking only adding to his nervous worries. He stepped into the cluttered room, a large and ancient generator resting neatly against the back wall. Wanting to be in the room and in the dark as little as possible, he quickly went for the generator, not looking at his surroundings very closely.

He examined the generator as best as he could, but he couldn't exactly figure out what was wrong with it. He checked the gas level, the wiring, everything, but he couldn't tell what was wrong. Just as he was about to give up, he noticed something, something so simple that he should have noticed immediately, but somehow fell under his radar. The key to start it up was missing.

Before he could think too hard about this revelation, there was a sudden clattering noise behind him. In an instant, he whipped around and had his rifle trained on where he heard the noise. Within the beam of his flashlight, he saw the purple-skinned form of a Sableye crawling on the top of the cabinet in the rightmost corner. It shielded its eyes from the sudden brightness, and with a quick hiss of air, Barry let loose a tranq round from his rifle. Sadly for him, in his trigger-happy haste, he neglected to properly aim his shot, so the flying dart went wide and bounced off the wall just above the pokemon.

A shadowy figure suddenly emerges from behind the stack of barrels in the room and rushes him. Before he can properly react, the figure reels back and swings what he's able to identify as a shovel at his rifle, wrenching it from his hands and sending it clattering against the wall. The figure twists and tries to swing at him, the heavy shovel just barely missing its overhead swing when he ducks to the side, crashing into the generator instead.

Just barely able to make out the form of his attacker, Barry kicks out from his crouched position and trips the figure up, sending him to the floor with a heavy thud. He quickly shuffled to his feet and scrambled to get on top of his attacker, holding him down with a knee to his chest. He let loose a few punches at the figure's face, but just as the fourth was to be thrown, the Sableye from before suddenly leapt and latched to Barry's face. He started to shriek in pain as the pokemon scratched his face with it's claws over and over, though specifically avoiding his eyes.

"Little Buddy, now!", the figure yelled. The Sableye immediately let go of Barry's face and leapt away. The last thing Barry saw was the reflective glint off the shovel's base before it smacked him upside the head, sending him flying into the pile of wooden pallets and into unconsciousness.

As his body fell to the ground, the figure heaved out a deep breath, doing his best not to shake as his knuckles turned white on his grip of the shovel. He only had a moment to breathe before the voice of Dave and rapid footsteps reached his ears. Acting on instinct, he ran to where the rifle had landed and quickly switched the light off, leaning up against the wall next to the doorway and readying himself. He didn't have to wait very long, as only a few seconds later, a furious kick from Dave shattered the door off its hinges, sending splinters of wood flying into the room. Just as Dave crossed the threshold of the door, he was immediately struck in the side of the head by a tranq Dart. He only had a second of non-hazy thought to process it before, he too, fell into unconsciousness.

My Heart was pounding like a jackhammer, my hands were shaking violently, and I couldn't get a decent breath. My eye stung and started to swell from where the guy punched me in the face, making the vision on the right side slightly blurrier than the other.

Remembering that there were three grunts, I leaned up closer to the wall and waited. For a painfully long time, I waited. After so very long of silence, the only sounds being the clatters of the gremlin's claws and my own heartbeat, I started to get suspicious.

'Where's the last one?', I thought, 'We made a big enough of a racket to send him running...'

"Little Buddy...", I whisper-yell. A few seconds later, I look above me to see the quietly approaching form of the gremlin, climbing down the rocky wall on-all-fours like a spider. It looked at me and tilted its head.

"Can you scout out the next room, see where the third one went?", I ask, motioning to the door with my head.

"Sab!", It replied with a nod of its own. It adjusted its position on the wall and crawled over to the top of the doorway, now sans door, and peeked its head down to see in the room. After a pause, it proceeded to crawl over the lip of the frame and out of sight.

After a few more tense moments, the gremlin returned, but not before popping around the corner screaming "Sab" like a lame jumpscare. I jumped and nearly shot a tranq Dart into the little bugger. He literally fell off the wall laughing, cackling his little head off like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen.

"Oh, ha ha ha.", I groaned sarcastically, lowering the rifle. "Where is he?"

He took a minute to calm down from his fit. When he was done, he turned to me and said, "Sab-le", shrugging his shoulders.

"What do you mean you don't know?"

"Sab!", he exclaimed, pointing into the room and shaking his head back and forth.

"So he's just gone?"

"Sab!", he replied, nodding.

"...The fuck'd he go?", a exclaimed in complete confusion. The question echoed in the room for a moment, dissipating quickly enough.

I took a moment to think in the now silent room. Well, silent other than the sudden snoring coming from the unconscious grunt I hit with a shovel. The abrupt change actually reminded me of something...what is the most important thing to do in video games after a fight? (I think). Loot.

So yeah, I started rooting through their pockets for goodies.

The first thing I did was grab the rifles and any spare magazines they had on them, about 6 total, including the ones that were already in the guns. And when I said that these things remind me of nerf guns, I meant it. Well...no, that's wrong, they're more like airsoft than nerf in their functionality, using air canisters stowed in the stock to fire the darts. Still, the way the plastic was formatted felt very cheap, like from a mold. Almost homemade, actually.

The next thing I did was root through their wallets, and yes, these guys were stupid enough to carry around their actual wallets. The wallets netted me about 343 Pokèdollars, which reminded me so much of monopoly money, its weird. Aside from it being made of the stuff that real bills are made of, some kind of cloth, I think, each bill was a different bright color to denote value, though the highest bill I got was a Lime-green 50$. There also wasn't a picture on the bills of any kind, pokemon or otherwise, just an elaborate "P" symbol with two lines through it that sat in the center.

'...I wonder how big of an issue counterfeiting is in this world?', I absent-mindedly thought to myself.

Returning to the looting, I found a few other interesting things. 4 Pokeballs, a couple of handheld radios, two small spray bottles of...something, the keys to the boat outside, and, weirdly enough, a jewel-case with a grey disk. It didn't have any markings or a label on it, just the disk itself. Still took it anyway.

So, a little something that I noticed as I was putting stuff in my pockets: My pockets go directly into my inventory. Like, I can still open up the menu and put stuff in that way, that's how I put the rifles away, but It seems like whatever clothing I wear becomes..."connected", for lack of a better word. I actually tested this by putting one of the radios in my pocket while I had the menu open, and sure enough, it showed up in one of the boxes. It also seems like If I want to pull something small out, all I have to do is think of it while my hand is in my pocket and It'll appear in my hand. Sadly, this trick only works if I have actual pockets, can't pull something out of mid-air just by thinking of it. At least this will stop people from asking too many questions if I use it carefully.

Thoughts of the missing Galactic guy entered my mind, so I decided to leave further experimentation until later. No need to have someone knock me over the head while I wasn't paying attention, is there?

Anyway, after thinking about where he could have gone for a moment, I ultimately decided to check out the tunnel that they were guarding first. Odds are, he went to go check on the "Egghead" that they mentioned before. Plus, even if I don't find him that way, this "Egghead" will most likely be a valuable source of information. Namely, what the hell they're doing here.

You know what to do. Reviews and feedback are greatly appreciated.

Thanks to AsuraJZero and a certain coffee drinker for beta reading.