Chapter 30: Chapter 30: Shock in the Dark

"Uh, Anyways… the point is that Grovyle was one of the few friends that I had growing up, and he was still Treecko when I met him."

"Really? He was still a treecko?" Paula asked in surprise. "Then… when did he evolve?"

"Hey, hey! Yeah! And how did you two meet?" Corphish added.

Laura thought for a moment before smiling and sitting down, drawing her knees up to her chest.

"Well," she began, "I was just four years old at the time…"

In the dark future…

The trees were grey and lifeless. There was no wind, and an eerie silence pervaded the air. But the treecko who was shuffling along the floor of the petrified forest didn't seem to notice. The only attention he paid to the surroundings was a brief sweep for dangers every now and again. He seemed preoccupied with something, and he was mumbling angrily under his breath.

"Grumble… grumble… I still can't believe they wouldn't let me come!" he muttered. "I could've handled myself! They didn't have to abandon me like that…! Grumble… grumble…"

He paused when his stomach growled, and he sighed, "I'm starving… I'd better find some food…"

The treecko continued on and eventually made it to an Apple tree. The round, red fruits were one of the few colorful things in the area. The treecko stood up on two legs and surveyed the tree, looking for a good bushel of Apples to knock down. When he found one, he grinned and attacked.

"Leaf Storm!" he cried out.

The attack hit the tree and caused a few Apples to fall, but the treecko frowned when he saw that his aim had been a little off and had gouged a huge hole in the branch. Then he shrugged. At least he had gotten some food… and as long as there was nothing else weighing down the branch, there was no danger of it breaking.

Unfortunately for the him, there was something else on the branch. Just when he had crawled beneath the tree to collect the Apples, he heard a loud "CRACK!" and looked up in alarm, just in time to see the branch, along with something else, begin to fall directly on top of him.

He yelped loudly in alarm and confusion, but, for some reason, he thought he heard an echo… as if someone else were yelping at the same time…

But he didn't have a lot of time to ponder that, as the falling things landed on him and knocked him to the ground.

"Ow…!" he groaned as he untangled himself from the heap. "What the heck?"

He shook himself off before looking to see what had landed on him. He was shocked to see that, along with the branch, there was some sort of strange… gangly creature on the ground. He couldn't really see much of its skin, as it seemed to be covered in ripped cloth (which he thought had once been white, but was now too dirty to really tell) and… were those blue bandages? That part was weird… as was its fur. It was brown, which wasn't too strange, except… it only seemed to grow on the creature's head… and part of it was tied back with crooked, white ribbons.

The creature was face down, but soon enough it stirred, moaning as it sat up. It rubbed its eyes, and when the treecko caught sight of its wrist he was startled by the bracelet it wore. It was a miniature gear of blue-green color, held on its wrist by a ribbon that was embroidered with more gears. When the creature stood up, the treecko jumped back in alarm and got into a defensive position. But all thoughts of defense were shoved from his mind when the creature opened its eyes and he saw how beautiful and… colorful, they were.

He had never seen anything like that before… but he remembered hearing about something similar that would probably describe them. "A rainbow…" he thought in awe. "That must be what a rainbow looks like…"

The creature seemed just as surprised as the treecko was, but when it suddenly moved forward, the treecko immediately jumped back into his defensive stance. But it turned out to be an overreaction; all that the creature did was clasp its hands together and blurt out, in a voice that was very young and feminine, "I'm sorry!"

The treecko's widened in shock and he staggered back. "I… what?" he asked, seeming to have trouble finding his words. "You… I just knocked you out of a tree… and you're the one apologizing?!"

The girl blinked, her brows furrowing in confusion. "Yeah…?" she said slowly, as if the answer was obvious.

The treecko's jaw dropped. "I… who—no, what—the heck are you?" he demanded once he found his voice.

The girl smiled, which further surprised the treecko, and obliged by introducing herself. "I'm Laura! A human girl!"

The treecko staggered back further with even wider eyes. "A h-human?! You're a human?! B-but what's a human doing in this forest?! And why were you in a tree?!"

The girl's smile fell and she looked away. Finally she quietly replied, "…Sleeping."

Treecko frowned, partly because she had ignored his first question, but mainly because of the answer she had given. "'Sleeping?'" he repeated. When she nodded, he asked, "Don't you have a home?"

Laura paused again before hesitantly shaking her head. The hesitation confused the treecko, but before he could ask anything else, the duo was startled by a crashing noise resounding a few feet away.

"Oh no…" the girl whimpered, her already pale face rapidly draining of any remaining color. "I have to go! It was nice meeting you… uh…" she trailed off, realizing that the treecko hadn't introduced himself.

The treecko rolled his eyes, deciding to humor her. "I'm Treecko," he said. Then he decided to go a step further and added, "And here's bit of advice: If you're going to keep sleeping in trees, make sure they don't have food in them first. Unless you like getting knocked out of them, that is," he finished with a sly grin.

The girl blushed with embarrassment, but then her face paled again when another crash resounded. She immediately pushed Treecko into a nearby bush, ignoring his obvious confusion and alarm, and urgently whispered, "Thanks! And… HIDE!"

With that, she ran off, leaving Treecko huddled in the bushes. He would have been annoyed at the creature's—the human's—actions… if it wasn't for the crashes that were getting louder and louder the closer they came to his hiding place. Finally the mystery of what was causing them was revealed when he heard voices and saw the purple feet that were distinctive to sableye. He couldn't see a lot from his perspective, but he could tell that there were four total, and they appeared to be frantically searching for something. Or, rather, someone.

"Can you see any sign of her, Un? Dos? Cuatro?"

"Wheh heh heh… No, Cinq! Dos, are you sure she went this way?"

"She had to have! I can still smell those flowers on her skin!"

"So can I! And besides, she can't have gone too far. She's just a little kid!"

"And with those injuries…"

"Eep!" They all suddenly chorused. "We'd better find her soon!"

With that, the group rushed off. Treecko waited a few moments before cautiously creeping out of his hiding place. He glanced around, and once he saw that it was all clear, he scurried off towards home.

"Well that was weird…" he decided. "Who were those sableye looking for, anyways? It couldn't have been that human girl… could it?" He paused and glanced back. "Come to think of it… she was weird too. She wasn't threatening at all… even though she had every reason to attack me! I was in the wrong… but she's the one who apologized! It was almost as if she felt… guilty, or something."

At that thought Treecko's eyes widened and he froze. "But that… that's absurd! This is a poochyena eat poochyena world! No one ever feels guilty about stuff, even if it is their fault! Especially not my parents…" He shook off that sad thought before continuing, "I don't know why I'm even thinking about this. It's not as though I'll ever see that kid again…"

The next "day"…

Treecko was out training hard as usual, following his normal routine. As he made his way to his favorite training grounds he worked on endurance and attacking while in motion, so his training consisted of him running around and punching trees. Or at least… attempting to punch trees. It was times like these where he really longed for evolution. Grovyles could run on two legs and leave their hands free for attacks, but treeckos were confined to four legs, which meant that his punching attempts often tripped him up. This was why he didn't dare try out this new technique when he was faced with the inhabitants of Mystery Dungeons. Unlike in the past, where their only goal was to make you faint, the inhabitants of the Mystery Dungeons in the dark world were out for blood.

Just when he had almost reached his training grounds, he heard a voice belonging to one of his least favorite pokémon in the world.

"Chaw-haw-haw! Well, well! Look who we have here!"

Treecko internally groaned, "Oh, great… it's the Stunky siblings!"

Sure enough, when he glanced over, there they were: a trio of stunkies consisting of an older sister and the younger, fraternal twins.

"Oh, Brother! It looks like the little green chicken here is going off to train some more!" the female twin said to her brother, acting as though Treecko couldn't hear her.

"I think you're right!" the male twin concurred, playing along. "Gee, why do you think he trains so hard every day?"

"Well, I don't have a clue! Do you know, Big Sister?" the girl replied, turning towards her older sister.

"Chaw-haw-haw! Why of course!" the eldest replied smugly. "It's because his parents abandoned him and now he has to fend for himself!"

Up to that point Treecko had been ignoring the trio, but that comment made him see red and he whipped around to confront them. "Take that back!" he demanded.

"Now why would I do that?" the eldest asked, feigning confusion. "It's the truth!"

"I said take it BACK!" Treecko yelled. "I MEAN it!"

When the Stunky siblings just laughed, Treecko growled and shot an Energy Ball attack at them. Unfortunately, his anger had rendered him unable to focus, and the shot missed them by a wide margin.

"That's the result of all your training?" the male snickered. "You're even weaker than that human girl!"

"I'll say!" his twin agreed. "And she didn't even fight back!"

With that the trio scampered away, still laughing at Treecko's failed attack.

"Gr… I hate those three!" Treecko growled. Then he paused as something they had said finally registered. "Wait a minute… did they say 'human?' Did they meet that human girl too?" He pondered that for a moment before shaking his head. "Oh… what does it even matter?" he sighed.

Treecko continued on his way and soon ended up in a relatively tree-free area. There were tons of boulders there, though. Treecko surveyed them before picking one and heading over, deciding that it would be a perfect target for Iron Tail practice.

Treecko ran forward and screamed, "Iron—" just before falling into a Pitfall Trap.

"Augh!" he yelped as he landed on his stomach.

Treecko groaned as he looked up. The hole he had fallen into was really deep… he tried to jump and climb out, but it was no use. He was far too little.

"Oh no… what am I gonna do…?" he moaned in despair.

Treecko was stuck down there for what felt like hours, but what could have—in reality—been mere minutes. It was hard to tell, considering the fact that time was all but frozen in the dark world. Either way, Treecko was down there long enough to begin feeling hungry again. He groaned as he pulled his knees to his stomach in an attempt to ease the pain. But his thoughts of misery and self-pity were interrupted when he heard a childish voice.

"Wow! That's a big hole!"

Treecko's eyes widened as he recognized it. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" he exclaimed.

"Huh? Treecko? Is that you?" the voice asked in confusion. When a face suddenly peered over the edge of the pit, Treecko's suspicions were confirmed: it was the little human girl again. What was her name…? Oh, right: Laura.

"What are you doin' down there?" she asked.

Treecko glared. "What does it look like I'm doing?" he demanded. "I fell in this hole, and now I'm stuck!"

"Do you need help?"

Treecko's eyes widened. Once again, the girl had shocked him. "H-help?" he repeated, the word feeling foreign on his tongue.

The girl got a thoughtful look on her face before it lit up, as if she'd gotten an idea. She disappeared for a moment, but when she came back, she cheerily ordered, "Use this!" and threw something down the hole.

When Treecko caught the object and inspected it, he gasped. "This… this is a TM for the move Dig!" he exclaimed in disbelief. Then he looked up at Laura with wide eyes. "Why are you giving it to me?" he demanded.

Laura just grinned at him and giggled, and Treecko's emotions were caught between annoyance and… a strange… pleasant feeling… Either way, he quickly booted up the TM, used it, and then he dug himself out of the hole and up to where Laura was waiting for him expectantly.

"…Thank you," Treecko said awkwardly.

Laura beamed at him, giggling again when she heard Treecko's stomach growl. She dug into a small, tattered bag that Treecko hadn't noticed the last time he saw her and offered him an Apple.

Treecko stared at it in awe. "Why… why are you giving this to me?" he asked, stuttering a bit.

Laura frowned. "Aren't you hungry?" she asked.

Treecko gulped. "W-well yeah, but…"

Laura's smile returned and she happily said, "That's why!" Then she stood up and dusted off her legs. "It was nice to see you again, but I have to go now. Bye-bye!" she told him with a little wave before she walked away. As she retreated, Treecko frowned when he noticed that she was limping… but then he shrugged and took a bite of his Apple.

"Why does she keep helping me out like this?" he wondered as he munched on the fruit. "This is only the second time that I've met her!"

Meanwhile, Laura was still limping slowly along, looking for a safe place to sleep.

"Chaw-haw-haw! Well looky here! It's that little human again!" a voice suddenly interrupted from her right. Laura glanced over, and, sure enough, it was the Stunky siblings again.

"I'm surprised that you can still walk after the beating we gave you…" the eldest continued.

Laura cocked her head and studied them for a moment before looking away and trudging onwards.

The eldest spluttered indignantly for a moment before regaining her composure. "Ooh… The silent treatment, huh? Perhaps we should arrange a punishment for that!" she said maliciously.

"I concur!" her brother chimed in. "Why don't we dig a pitfall trap for her, just like the one we made for that chicken Treecko?"

Laura froze in place and slowly turned around. "…You made that trap?" she asked quietly.

"Chaw-haw-haw! Guilty as charged!" the eldest snickered.

Laura glared at them before suddenly lunging, attacking them with a flurry of fists and kicks. Granted, since she was barely past the toddler stage and she was already injured, her attacks were too weak to actually do much… but since they were so unexpected she managed to get in a few hits before the trio shook off their surprise and began to fight back.

As this was going on, Treecko, who had finished his Apple, was wandering around the area as well, looking for a new place to train, as the possibility of finding more traps made the last one unsafe. But when he heard the sounds of a fight, he immediately ducked behind a bush to hide.

"Ow! Man, this chick is crazy!"

"Yeah, but this should put her in her place!"

The familiar voices caught Treecko's interest, and he cautiously peeked out from his hiding spot to observe.

"Looks like the Stunky siblings have found someone else to beat up on," he noted. But when he registered just who said victim was, he frowned. "Wait a minute…! It's that kid again!"

It was, indeed, Laura… and she was losing. She was wobbling on her feet, and Treecko winced as another blow to her thigh sent out a spray of blood and added volume to the already sizeable stream of it flowing down her legs.

Treecko palmed his face before debating something, sighing in annoyance, and, with a final thought of, "I can't believe I'm actually going to do this…" stepped out of the bushes.

"Hey!" he called out, causing a momentary pause in the fight. "Isn't three against one a little unfair?"

The eldest stunky quickly recovered from her surprise and went back to pounding on Laura. "'Unfair?'" she repeated. "Hey, she's the little psycho who started it! But if you're so keen on her safety… then by all means, join in!"

With that she turned around and set her sights on Treecko. "After all, you're the reason she's fighting in the first place, chaw-haw-haw!" she taunted before rearing up and releasing a Smog attack.

Treecko swiftly avoided the attack and joined in the fight on Laura's side. The duo became a mess of flying kicks and punches, with the occasional Iron Tail and Leaf Storm thrown in. Very quickly the stunky siblings began to tire… and the youngest sister fainted.

Everyone stopped and stared at her unconscious form in shock before the oldest recovered enough to growl, "You're gonna regret this!" before scooping her sister up by the nape of her neck and scurrying away with her brother.

A stunned Laura and Treecko watched their retreating forms for a moment before Treecko murmured, "I can't believe it… they… they actually lost! To me!"

A grin spread across his face and a few exultant giggles escaped before a weak cough from beside him reminded him that he wasn't alone. "What were you thinking?" he demanded as he turned to face Laura. "Why would you…" he trailed off when he caught sight of Laura. "…Kid? Hey, kid? Are you okay?"

Laura was all but covered in blood and she had fallen to her knees. Her chest was heaving, and she kept making choking noises. She lifted her face to look at Treecko, and he could see that it displayed an expression of pure terror. The skin on her face that wasn't stained red with blood was either blue from what seemed to be a lack of oxygen or purple from…

"GAH!" Treecko exclaimed when it clicked. "You've been poisoned!"

Treecko quickly whipped around and scanned the area for something that could help. To his relief, he spotted a Pecha Berry tree nearby and immediately cut some of the fruit down. He brought it back to Laura and hurriedly shoved a berry into her mouth. To his horror, it didn't seem to have any affect. In desperation he shoved even more of the berries into her mouth and forced her to swallow them. He sighed when it seemed to work and the purple stain of the poison receded from her skin.

"Th-thank you…" Laura managed to say through her gasping breaths. "You s-saved m… my l-life…"

Treecko tried to hide his blush at the praise by turning his back on her and gruffly saying, "Well if you value your life so much, then you should take better care of it!" He faced her once more and demanded, "I'll ask again: Why would a weak, human kid like you attack a trio of stunky?!" A thought occurred to him, and he added, "And what did they mean when they said that I was the reason you attacked?"

Laura finally caught her breath and looked straight into his eyes. "…They dug the traps," she explained quietly.

Treecko's gruff façade instantly evaporated and he stared at her, dumbfounded once more. "She… she did that for me?" he thought. "But I don't… I hardly even know her!"

Treecko studied Laura, trying to figure her out. He took in all her injuries and the blood covering her and sighed. "…You should really go home and get cleaned up."

Laura glanced away and shook her head, saying, "Can't. Told you: Don't have one."

Treecko frowned. "Why? Did you get kicked out?" he asked. He wouldn't have been surprised; it was a common occurrence in the dark world. In fact, that's what had happened to the Stunky siblings.

Laura shook her head again. "No. I ran away," she explained.

Treecko frowned; he wasn't sure how he felt about that statement. She had a home… but she had left it? Willingly? He didn't know what her situation had been like, but surely it couldn't have been bad enough to risk living on her own in the wild… right?

Treecko cleared his throat. He was still trying to decipher his emotions, but, in order to glean a better understanding( and since by now he had figured out that this child was not much of a conversationalist) he goaded, "Well… that was pretty stupid of you."

When Laura looked up at him and matched his frown, he continued, "Why would you run from a place of safety? I know plenty of pokémon who'd love a place like that."

Laura's frown vanished and she drew herself up confidently. "I know," she surprised Treecko (yet again) by saying. "That's why I ran away."

Treecko just stared at her, utterly dumbfounded, and once more tried to puzzle her out. He winced when he realized that she was still bleeding and sighed eternally, "I guess I have no other choice…"

Treecko held out his hand in a beckoning gesture. "Come one," he ordered, "I'm taking you back to my place."

Laura stared at him in surprise, and then she shivered when Treecko glared at her fiercely and suddenly demanded, "But you can't tell anyone. I want the location to remain a secret."

After Laura gulped nervously and nodded in the affirmative, Treecko turned on his heel and began to head in his home's direction. But when he heard a soft sound, like fabric ripping, he immediately turned back just in time to see Laura covering her eyes with a blindfold that she had made from ripping the hem out of the already ruined cloth covering her body. He staggered back a few steps when he realized that the reason she was doing it was because he had told her that he didn't want anyone to know where he lived, and she counted herself as part of that "anyone" category. His heart again got that light and pleasant feeling…

"…I didn't mean you, kid," he said gently. "Now, take that off or you won't be able to see where you're going.

Treecko suppressed a laugh as the girl sheepishly did as he asked, and the two headed out of the area.

Unfortunately for them, they had forgotten about Laura's injuries. Or, rather, they forgot the effect that her bleeding ones had on the surroundings. The blood that flowed from her body left a trail of bright crimson in her wake… one that could easily be found and followed by an enemy…

Indeed, mere moments after the duo left, a frantic sableye stumbled upon the trail. He sniffed the air, and then his eyes widened in both relief and alarm.

"Wheh heh heh! Everyone! I found something!" he called out.

"Really, Un?!" his compatriots responded as they rushed over.

"Yes! Look!" Un replied as he pointed at the ground. "Blood! And it smells like hers!"

"Wheh heh heh… I guess you were right, Dos," one of them, the apparent leader of the four, said, turning to the sableye on his left. "She really did go this way."

Dos smirked, and the remaining sableye snickered, "Wheh heh heh… You should know by now not to doubt Dos when it comes to Miss Laura, Cinq."

Cinq huffed and rolled his eyes before looking back to the blood and frowning. The sableye who had teased him looked back to it as well and dropped his smirk. "There's so much blood… was she in a fight?" he asked worriedly.

"I don't know, Cuatro," Cinq replied. "But, wheh heh heh… it doesn't bode well…"

Cinq and Cuatro were startled out of their melancholy when Dos suddenly cried out, "Look! There's more of it over there!"

The others looked to where he was pointing and, sure enough, there was more. As everyone gathered around the new puddle, Dos sniffed the air some more and his eyes zeroed in on some bushes. He left the group and pushed back some of the bushes' branches, jolting when he found even more blood.

"Wheh heh heh… It's… it's a trail…" he gulped, feeling nauseous about what that entailed for the one they were trying to find.

Un's head snapped up and he scurried to Dos' side to investigate for himself. When he found that, to his displeasure for what it signified, his assessment matched Dos', he suggested, "Let's follow it! Wheh heh heh… I bet it will lead us straight to her!"

"Yeah!" the others agreed with a cheer. But just as they were about to take their first steps into the bushes…

"Wait a moment," a voice called out, causing the sableye to pause and look back to the shadows of the tree line they had just come from.

"Wheh heh heh… But Lord Dusknoir… shouldn't we catch her before she has the chance to run away again?" Cuatro asked.

The addressed pokémon glided forward, coming out of the shadows and closer to his minions to inspect the puddles of blood with a frown. "It is true that we need to find and catch her as soon as possible," Dusknoir agreed. "However, if we simply give chase she will most definitely run again, even if we manage to catch her and bring her back. It will only be a matter of… for lack of a better term, 'time.'"

The sableye frowned and exchanged glances before Cuatro cleared his throat and asked, "Wheh heh heh… Then what do we do?"

Dusknoir rubbed his chin in thought. "We must give her a reason to want to come—and stay—with us willingly," he said with a decisive nod. Then he glanced back at the blood and added in a serious tone, "Preferably before she is further injured…"

The sableye winced before saluting and chorusing, "Wheh heh heh! Yes, Master Dusknoir!"

After carefully marking the area so that they could easily find it again, the group left in order to formulate a plan…