….and good luck.

May woke with a start, managing to roll herself right out of bed and hitting the ground with a loud thud. Picking herself off the floor, she let out a small moan of annoyance. What was that? She definitely just heard a voice in her dream, but what she actually dreamed about was beyond her. All she could remember were those three words.

She thought about texting Brendan about it. He had been the one to introduce her to lucid dreaming after all. May knew that she had only just started trying to learn how to stay lucid, but she also knew that dreams don't just vanish like that. Grabbing her phone on the nightstand, she turned the screen on.

May was greeted with a group of bold numbers, which presented her with the time. Taking a moment to process what was on the screen, her face lost its drowsiness, and she was fully awake. She began going through her morning routine, a bit quicker than usual. If she didn't hurry, she was going to be late getting to Professor Birch's Lab. Whatever had happened the night before, getting to the Lab took priority. She wasn't about to let some dream snatcher thing keep her home for another year. Shelving the strange words in her mind for another time, she sighed and got dressed for the day.

She went into the bathroom to wash up and get the things she needed, before taking a look in the mirror. She blinked. Multiple times. Her face had never looked so clean before! The various blemishes that had dotted her face yesterday were gone, replaced with clean, smooth skin.

Another thing to add to her strange morning. She mentally associated it with the words she heard, and continued getting ready. Once she finished in the bathroom, she went to her room and made the decision to pack her stuff now. She wanted to be ready to go as quickly as possible, mainly because she was excited, but also because she didn't want to do it later.

She went to her laptop first, checking to see if she had any mail from Brendan. There was none, but she had received a message from, well, someone. There was no sender actually labelled on the email. She hesitated for a moment, and then opened the letter. Instead of a phishing attempt, which she entirely expected, she instead had a short message with an attachment.

"Good luck."

Once again, she paused a moment. Hesitantly, she clicked on the attachment and pulled out the laptop's built in receiver. Waiting a moment, May watched as five Pokeballs came through the receiver and bounced onto the floor.

To her credit, she didn't visibly react at first. She was trying to find some sort of connection between the things that had happened thus far. Obviously, her dream and the message were connected in some way. She didn't have an answer for her appearance change but after thinking a moment, she decided that it must've been linked as well.

She started moving again, slowly, expecting something to just pop out at her at any second with another surprise. Nothing of the sort came. Deciding to not waste anymore time, she gathered the Pokeballs up quickly, and continued packing. She threw in some warm clothes, towels, her bathroom supplies, and then her mini tent that Brendan had gotten her as a gift for finally starting her own journey. May moved quickly, still waiting for something else to pop up and shock her.

She headed down the stairs to the kitchen, lost in thought. Her mother greeted her there, breakfast already made. The kitchen was a mess, as per usual. They had only moved in very recently, so boxes were still scattered around the place, waiting to be unpacked.

She gave her mom a quick hug, before taking a slice of toast with her on the short walk to Professor Birch's lab. She was still trying to find connections on what had happened earlier, like who had sent it, and why.

Wait a second. Whoever had sent her that message had to have been responsible for her dream, because how else would it know about what she had heard right before she woke up. That meant that it had to have been someone proficient in its mental capabilities. And that meant that it was a psychic.

The only human psychic she could think of off the top of her head was Sabrina, the gym leader from Kanto. But the culprit being her was impossible. Sabrina is one of her favorite actors, and she knew that the Gym Leader was in Unova, filming a sequel to one of her favorite movies. Obviously she was way too far off for it to be her. Was it another psychic that she didn't know about? Then what was their reason for it….

Wait. Not only did the culprit have some sort of psychic capability, they knew that the only thing she would remember from that dream was those three words. Otherwise, they wouldn't have known to send the words in the first place. That meant that whoever it was, they had enough control over their power to erase her memory of the dream so precisely that it knew she would only remember those words.

That meant that it had a level of control that was impossible for a human psychic to even achieve. It had to be a psychic type Pokemon powerful enough to do all of that, and have access to a computer. What the hell was messing with her mind? Thoughts of a possible culprit swam through her mind, and it only served to worry her more.

"What the hell is going on?"

"What was that, May?" a voice questioned, temporarily banishing the thoughts from her head. She realized she was thinking aloud again and looked up to see the Professor holding the door for her.

May gave an effort to laugh it off. "It's nothing Professor, don't worry about it."

Birch's eyebrow went high, obviously skeptical. "Okay then. Come inside, let's get you a partner."

She took a moment to steady her breathing, before walking inside. There were some people still lingering from earlier events, where younger kids were all making friends with their Pokemon. Seeing the Pokemon that some of these kids were playing with told her about the selection that was left. It's likely that she already missed the regional starters just judging by all of the Pokemon around her, as most of them could be found around the outskirts of town.

Following the professor, she looked around at the lab. It was large, full of machines with purposes she couldn't immediately discern, and she could see some staff members running around busily on the railing above her.

She turned back to the professor, and followed him to the back part of his lab. There, she received a major surprise. There was a Treecko, huddled in the back, looking at her and the professor.

"This one didn't want to go with any other trainers that took it. It kept running away from them. The other people that showed up eventually just gave up on trying." He explained to her.

The Treecko peeked its head out from behind the machine he was hiding behind to get a closer look at May. It stopped for a moment, getting a good look, before hiding again. May waited a few moments to see if the Pokemon would peek out again, but gave up as the grass type slinked away once more. She shrugged, understanding that these things happened to everyone. Some Pokemon just aren't up to running around the region with a child and battling everything they see.

She gave the Grass-type its space, and turned towards Birch. "It's ok Professor. I won't force it. Do you have any other choices?"

The professor smiled. "Of course I do. I know how long you've been waiting to go on your own adventure. I still have another option that I got from a colleague of mine."

He led her to a room upstairs, one of many that had been put aside for the day's activities. The inside was mostly barren, except for a few chairs stacked in the corner. The floor was covered in a maroon colored rug and the windows in the back were open. She knew that this room was used for the younger kids to get acquainted with their partners. To her knowledge, most of the room was everything-proof, in the chance that a Pokemon doesn't react well to a trainer.

"I'll be right back May."

She nodded and watched as the professor left the room. She walked towards the large stack of chairs in the corner. Her inner child wanted to climb upon the throne that towered over her, but she knew that it was a terrible idea.

The professor walked back in with a ball of brown fur in his arms. Said ball of fur jumped out of his arms and onto the floor, before looking up and jumping onto May. She let out a small eep and fell over. May guessed that the Eevee was young, judging by its playful nature. She sat up and began to pet the playful 'mon before looking up towards the professor.

"I thought all the rare ones had already been given away." she said, remembering what he had said moments ago.

He shrugged. "I make exceptions sometimes, especially when some of the older trainers finally get to go off on their own." May smiled at the professor and continued to play with her rascal of a partner. The professor took this as a chance for him to talk about the other topic.

"I also heard you wanted a Pokedex, so I made sure to set one asides for you the night before. You get a discount on yours, so you can actually use your money for more useful things like Antidotes." He took it out of his coat pocket and handed it to May. She gave it a once over and gave the professor her money. He then immediately gave the money back to her.

"I changed my mind. Keep it. It's on me." He stated.

May suddenly found herself very confused. She hadn't known the professor for a while, given that they'd only moved in a few years ago. This seemed like a very generous offer from the professor she hardly knew. She looked up at him, and for a split second she swore his eyes were a different color.

The professor gave her a smile before leaving the room, saying "I'm a bit swamped in work right now, so I won't be able to give you a proper send off. We'll talk another time. Good luck."

May nodded before returning the Eevee to its Pokeball. Sliding the Pokedex in her pocket, she left the lab. She headed home first, wanting to say goodbye to mom one last time before she got underway. Stepping into the doorway, she saw her mom talking to someone. She waved for her to come closer.

"Phone call for you." She held the phone out for May to take.

Taking the call, she held the phone to her ear. "Hello?" she questioned.

"May! How are you?" Her father's voice flooded her ears. "Did you get a partner this time?"

"Oh, hi dad! Yeah, I got an Eevee!" she responded, grabbing her second piece of toast this morning.

"An Eevee? Those are pretty rare. We didn't give any of those away over here in Petalburg. Did the professor save it for you?"

"Yeah, he did. He offered me the Treecko that was still there, but it didn't want to go with anyone, so now I have an Eevee."

She heard him call to someone else over the speaker, before his voice came back through. "That's great. I gotta get back to work, some more people just showed up. But feel free to drop in once you're in Petalburg. Bye!"

"Bye dad!" She hung up and handed the phone back to mom. She took out her Pokeball and released the Eevee.

"How cute! It's been a while since I've seen an Eevee." The 'mon in question preened and jumped towards her. She reached out and caught her and gave it a pet behind the ears.

May went upstairs to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything. She didn't think that she was, but she wanted to be sure. She took a quick look around her room.

Her room was still a mess, due to her bizarre morning. Stuff was spread out across the floor, and for a moment she felt guilty leaving her room like this. Surveying her room, she spotted her map out of the corner of her eyes. She grabbed it and went back downstairs sliding it in her bag. Her house had received a new visitor in those few minutes and she recognized one of the assistants from the lab talking to her mother. The man turned towards her.

"Have any of you seen a Treecko? It seems to have run away from the lab, and we can't find it." he spoke, obviously concerned.

"We haven't seen any Treecko here." Her mother responded.

May put in her own two cents. "That Treecko seemed so shy, what would cause it to run away?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out. Let us know if you see it, ok?"

She nodded. "Absolutely."

The assistant walked away, presumably to spread the word about the missing starter. May closed the door and looked at her mom, who was still entertaining the Eevee.

"Ready to go sweetie?" she asked, letting the 'mon down so it could walk on its own. The Eevee walked over to May so she could give it a pat. May grabbed her cooking kit, grateful that she hadn't forgotten it. She unzipped her pack and shoved it inside, before closing it and tossing it onto her back.

"Yeah. Love you mom!" She gave her mother a big hug before turning and walking out the door, saying "I'll call when I get the chance."

After leaving her house, she started walking down the first part of her journey, Route 101. She decided to leave her partner out to walk alongside her. She felt safer that way. And with all that's happened this morning, she definitely wasn't feeling very enthusiastic about her journey.

Remembering this morning, she took out her phone and snapped a quick picture of herself to send to Brendan, asking about her dreams, and another question about the project he was working on. Her thoughts drifted to the strange events from earlier, and what it meant for her journey down the line. Would she still be plagued with strange dreams from an all powerful psychic pokemon? Would she keep forgetting said dreams?

Would her face continue to look as fabulous as it did today?

Whatever the case, she eventually dropped the thought process. Nothing else would happen by staying in Littleroot.. That was something she was sure of. And with that, she pressed onward towards Oldale Town.

~0~

A man paced back and forth repeatedly, looking down in deep contemplation.

"Scott, we can't put this off any longer. We're due to open in two weeks." His partner spoke from the side. His voice was gruff as usual, but this time it had a bit more of an edge to it.

Scott stopped walking and turned towards who spoke. His coworker, The Pyramid King Brandon, looked at him with crossed arms.

He looked down again. "I know we can't, Brandon. I know. It's just...so...strange."

The explorer nodded solemnly. We're all in the same situation Scott. We're all just as upset as you."

"How long has it been now?"

"Three weeks. She said she was going to investigate something, and we haven't seen her since." He chuckled quietly. "It's definitely in character for her to just run off though."

Scott nodded absentmindedly.

"Who are you going to contact first?" Brandon questioned.

Scott ignored the question. He sat down and pulled out his phone, dialing a number. After two rings the other side answered the call, and Scott spoke. "This is Interpol Headquarters, correct?" He heard a positive response on the other side. "Yeah, it's Scott. I have an issue I need you to look into"

A pause. Then another voice entirely. "What's the issue, Scott?"

"I need your help. I need you to start an investigation on a missing person. "

"What's the name?"

"Anabel."

~0~

AN: I don't have a set schedule for uploading these chapters, as I am mainly writing them in my free time. Next chapter should be up fairly soon though. Feel free to leave a like/fav/review if you are enjoying the story. See you next chapter!