The first thing he felt was water dropping on his nose.
He mourned and slowly opened his eyes seeing some roots above his face. It seemed like he was lying in some kind of cave under a giant tree. He could hear the rain outside and some water drops ran down the tree till it collected in the roots. He was forced to close his eyes as another drop of water dripped onto his nose.
"Oh you are awake! Good!"
He mourned and opened his eyes again looking around slowly. All his muscled felt sore like if he had run a marathon some hours ago. It seemed he was in some kind of den like Pokémon built them as house. Then he saw a Pikachu. He could tell by the tail that it was a male Pikachu since it was missing the heart shaped end the females had. He looked to the Pikachu confused. The Pikachu looked very strange. It seemed to be much bigger than normal Pikachu for some reasons and it had heterochromia with a green and a red eye.
"You OK?"
He widely opened his eyes in shock. "Y-You speak?!"
The Pikachu looked at him with one eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Yeah of course I can. Why shouldn't I?"
He looked o the Pikachu in shock. "B-But you are a Pikachu!"
The Pikachu tilted his head. "And you are a Riolu."
"N-No I am a human!" He looked to the Pikachu.
The Pikachu looked to him worried. "Maybe you hit your head a bit too hard as you fell from the sky? You are a perfectly fine Riolu to me..."
He looked to the Pikachu in disbelieve. He slowly lifted his hands looking to them but he had no hands. He only had paws covered in blue fur. He slowly looked down his body. His whole body was covered in a thin layer of either black or blue fur. From the sides of his head were hanging the for Riolu typical black furred aura pendents. He looked around and found a puddle of water. He looked into the puddle to see the reflection of his face. He gasped as a Riolu with sapphire blue eyes looked back. "By Arceus... I-I am a Riolu..."

He stared at the Oran Berry in his paws. "How... How is this even possible."
The Pikachu looked at him with curiosity but relaxed while he ate his Oran Berry. He was sitting leaning on a root totally relaxed. "So you are a human that turned into a Riolu?"
"You really want to go through this a third time?" The human in the body of a Riolu sighed.
The Pikachu chuckled. "I am just thinking loud." He smiled. "So you are a human... Without any memory..." He looked to the human. "I heard stories that there were some humans turned into Pokémon... But I never thought them to meet one..."
The Riolu looked to the Pikachu confused. "There were others?"
The Pikachu nodded. "Yeah. In the old legends were many humans turned into Pokémon... always in times of great need... They always count as savior to the world of Pokémon even though there are some stories that also tell about humans that were cursed and forced to dwell their lives as ghosts like Gengar or Shuppet. One of these stories even tell about a human not so long ago... He was a Riolu as well... His name was Craw. How about we call you Craw?"
Craw grit his teeth nervously. "Yeah... I need a name..."
The Pikachu looked to him. "My name is Brighton by the way."
Craw looked to him. "Brighton huh?..."
"Is something wrong with my name?" He looked to the false Riolu.
He shook his head slowly. "No... It just sounds familiar..."
They sat there for some more minutes without saying a word lost in their thoughts. The rain slowly started to cease down and Brighton stood up. "Ok... I know it may sound a bit like pushing you but you should come with me. I am about to go to a guild in a nearby city to enter them and become a defender. How about you come with me and join too? I mean you don't know where to go and you have no hint what you should do so that would probably the best idea. The guilds have wide spread information networks and may be able to help you with the problem. Also you would have a roof and food till you know what to do."
The Riolu looked to him. "You have some good arguments... Sounds nearly like you thought of that some time."
Brighton grinned widely. "Well... To be honest I started to think about how to get you with me since you fell out of the blue. You have to know... They only accept teams of at least two in the guilds."
Craw rubbed his head still having a little headache even though not slightly as bad as when he woke up. "Well I don't have a better idea so yeah... I will come with you..."
The Pikachu widely grinned and helped him up. "Great. Then let's go before that grumpy old lion gets onto my tracks again..."
Craw looked to him. "What does that mean now again?"
Brighton grinned nervously. "Well... Let's say my father doesn't want me to enter the guilds and he hired someone to get me back home... But as soon as I am signed in law tells that he can't do shit to get me out if I don't want to."
Craw sighed. "Well... Then we should hurry..."

They were running through the forest. Craw was very surprised about how fast he was running. Surely it was just because he now was living in the body of a Pokémon.
Brighton sighed. "We have to go a bit in a circle. As I know that old lion he will think I went ahead so he will go towards the city... But in fact I took you and went with you back my tracks to avoid him. Now we will go a bit of a loop so when he realizes where we went he will have to follow our tracks back and maybe even lose our tracks."
Craw sighed and nodded. "So you want him to go false track?"
"Yeah pretty much.", Brighton chuckled, "But he is smart so he won't fall for it for long. We have to hurry."
Craw nodded and the two sped up.
After a while Brighton stopped so the two could take a break. "You know? The last time the other Craw was seen was here in the forest as well... Some say he vanished after he caused peace between the Twilight mountain kingdom and the Crystal Kingdom... Others said he was wounded deadly and died as he accomplished that. Some others even say the peace was only made because the human died and they were worried what would happen without a human that would prevent the worst... But the most common rumor about him is that he was the one who tricked everyone in going on war against each other by convincing Seth the Darkrai king of the black mountains to attack the crystal empire... Only the guild leaders and Seth himself know the truth but they don't tell anyone about it. Well... However... Now we have a much worse problem..."
The Riolu looked to the Pikachu nervously. "What do you mean?"
Brighton sighed. "The Aura-less... Pokémon without an Aura... Cruel... Emotionless... The only thing they do is to destroy and kill..." He shook his head. "No matter how many are killed... There are always more..."
Craw shivered a bit. "Sounds horrible."
Brighton nodded. "It is like if they are not real Pokémon... But they look exactly like normal Pokémon except that they are gray... They even use normal moves..."
Craw looked to Brighton. "You sound like you already have seen or even fought them..."
Brighton shook his head. "No but that is the reason I want to enter the guilds... I want to help fighting those monsters..."
Craw looked to him. "And you want to drag me into that? Very nice of you."
Brighton grinned. "Sorry."
Craw sighed. He couldn't believe he was doing this.
Then suddenly something just flew by him sending out a flashing light blinding him for some seconds.
Brighton gave some muffled sounds from himself and as Craw could see again he saw the mouse Pokémon lying under a shiny Luxray that kept him pinned down. "You won't get away this time Brighton!"
Brighton growled. "You gonna regret this old man!" He tried to shock the electric lion that was seemingly unfazed by the attempt.
Craw looked to him. "What the hell man! Let him go!"
The Luxray growled trying to sound dangerous. "That's non of your business now fuck off!"
Craw looked at the Luxray for some seconds. Then he started laughing uncontrolled. "By Arceus you just purred like a small pussycat!"
The Luxray hissed angrily. "Shut up and vanish or I will make you!"
Craw still laughed. "Yeah? Wanna see you tryin'!"
The Luxray opened his maw and a strange light appeared in it before a bright beam shot towards Craw.
He grinned and dodged swiftly before punching the Luxray.
The Luxray looked to the Riolu confused. "What was that supposed to be?"
Craw gulped. "Uh... dunno? Something?"
Brighton growled still trying to stem away the Luxray's foot from him. "Try to channel your Aura! Concentrate and try to find the energy inside of you!"
Craw nodded and closed his eyes trying to concentrate and immediately regretted it as he felt a massive pain in his side where he was hit by the Luxray's Iron Tail sending him flying.
Brighton face palmed. "Of course you should still keep an eye on the enemy..."
Craw opened his eyes and sighed. "And how am I supposed to concentrate then?"
Brighton bite into the Luxray's paw earning an angry hiss. "Just try it!"
Craw sighed and took a deep breath not letting his eyes of the Luxray just barely dodging another of the glowing beams. Then he felt it. It was somewhere deep inside of himself. It nearly felt to him like a glowing orb inside his chest. He tried to tap into his newfound power and was overwhelmed by the energy he felt suddenly. It was like if a lightning struck him and his fur was now crackling with energy. He jumped high not knowing how he managed to jump that high and made a back-flip rushing down on the electric lion. As his leg hit the Luxray he could swear it was burning in a strange blue fire.
Brighton looked to the Riolu amazed not even realizing that his captor was stumbling back some feet. "Whoa! That was Fire Kick! I didn't know Riolus could use that move!" He then realized he was free and quickly jumped onto his feet.
Craw looked at his foot amazed before he turned to the Luxray grinning widely. "Oh now you are going down!"
The Luxray hissed at them and attacked them with the glowing beam again.
Brighton yelled. "Damn! Watch out for his Hyper Beam!"
Craw nodded and jumped over the attack and ran towards the Luxray tapping into his power again. He grinned as he felt it rushing through his body again. This time he could feel it collecting in his fist so he tried to punch the Luxray again. His paw was glowing and the Luxray jumped out of the way just barely dodging the attack. Craw hit a tree behind the lion instead and shattered a good piece of it into toothpicks. He chuckled while he looked at his fist regretting it right away to have lost his focus on the enemy as he was engulfed in a beam of light that send him flying. He hit something hard and felt like being squeezed by two boulders. As he finally managed to get his breath back he was lying on the ground and as he was trying to stand up his whole body felt sore.
The Luxray growled. "You should better stay there or you will get really hurt."
Craw growled and stood up. As he heard Brighton yelling something he looked to the Pikachu only to see a yellow berry flying his way. Craw was able to open his mouth just the moment it reached him. He nearly wanted to cough and vomit as a strong sour taste filled his mouth but instead he gulped it down in whole nearly choking on it for some seconds. Suddenly he felt like if a lightning hit him flooding him with more energy than he should have. He widely opened his eyes and saw something else flying into his direction that looked like a big seed. He caught it and looked to Brighton who had one in his hand as well biting down onto it. Craw shrugged and munched it down. What happened next made him believe that he had thrown in some kind of drug. Everything seemed to move in slow motion. The rain seemed to fall very slow and the grass seemed to stand still. Especially the Luxray was running much slower than before into Brighton's direction. Brighton himself moved normally fast hitting the Luxray with his Iron Tail move. Craw followed the lead as the Luxray seemed to be stumbling back for a moment. As he tapped into his energy again he felt the energy flowing into his fist again but this time it was different. His paw suddenly felt cold. It felt ice cold and glowed in a light blue but it didn't hurt him the slightest. As he reached the Luxray and hit him the foe hissed and was send flying while parts of his fur started to freeze. As he fell onto the ground the Luxray growled while he froze completely solid within a matter of seconds.
Brighton reacted quickly and grabbed Craw's paw. "Quick! Before he breaks free again!" He started to run off with the Riolu.
They ran fast and without any break. As they finally stopped Craw had to take some deep breaths and nearly puked onto the ground. "Damn it Brighton! What was all of this!?"
Brighton chuckled. "I will tell you that later. Now look! We are there!"
Craw panted and looked up from the ground to see what was ahead and nearly dropped a heartbeat. He stopped breathing for some seconds and looked with big eyes. They were standing at the edge of a clearing on a hill able to look far till the horizon. Behind some trees and hills that were ahead of them was a city. It was huge and different shaped buildings of which some were looking like normal buildings humans would have built too and some in sizes and shapes he would call bizarre. But the most amazing thing was the huge tower that looked like four different colored pillars twisted around each other till they fuse at the top where something was shining bright like a beacon. Between the pillars were bridges and corridors making it possible to move free between the four pillars. Even from this far away they could see the four statues of Pokémon that held the platform from where the light emerged. He couldn't really make out what Pokémon they were but surely they were some important Pokémon.
Brighton chuckled. "C'mon. The old man is still on our track..."
Craw nodded trying to get his view off of the beacon and the statues. Then the two continued their travel to the city.

Somewhere in the forest a solid frozen Luxray started to break free. He growled and shook himself as little icy shards fell from his fur. "That can't be..." He looked south and went through the forest a bit. As he found what he searched he stood right in front of a small gravestone. It was looking like an ordinary tombstone and if not by accident nobody would find it if they would not know where to search. The Luxray stroked over the surface wiping away some of the leaves that had collected on it. On the surface was an inscription: "Here lies Craw. The human that gave his life to save us all. May his actions speak louder than the rumors."
The Luxray mourned to himself. "Giratina damn it what is going on here?"

Writers commentary:
This is the first chapter and even though I planned it to be as introduction for Craw and Brighton only I ended up introducing another character too that will have an important side role later too.