Three guys came at me, with clear intent to arrest me and take away my friends. I was frozen in shock, but luckily for me, my Pokémon had no such problems. Engelbert jumped up on one guy's face, working with Sachiel to try and trip him up- I had specifically told them before I had ever entered a town that if we got into a situation like this, to knock them out or disable them, do not kill them. The guy roared and flung Engelbert off his face, making the rat fly through the air to hit a tree trunk with a thump and crumple, motionless, on the ground. That snapped me out of my shock; I ran over and hurriedly checked his vital signs. He was alive, but badly hurt. I gave him some of those berries to make him feel better. When I turned back to the action, the first guy had been tripped and was lying unconscious on the ground, and the second looked to have been knocked out by a good old-fashioned knock on the noggin, and from the scorched hair I could smell, I had a pretty good idea of whose fault that was. The third was currently doubled over and choking from having a jet of water directed in his face as Malayeka made a flying leap into his rear, knocking him over and making him see stars. I thought I was going to make a clean getaway when another person blocked my path.

"I see I'll have to arrest you myself. I won't be gotten rid of by a few party tricks." He said, reaching out to grab me.

He yanked his arm back with a yell as Malayeka lept up and caught it with her claws, allowing gravity to help her make ten vertical slashes in his arm. Then Sachiel jumped up to ride his shoulders, paws grabbing onto hunks of hair as the man flailed about, trying to get the water otter off. Sachiel moved his paws to cover the man's eyes as best he could as Nathaniel darted towards his legs from behind.

Nathaniel collided full-force with the man's legs, which, of course, made him fall ass-first onto the ground. Sachiel jumped clear just before momentum caused the guy's head to crack into the ground, knocking him out, if only briefly.

"Woods, NOW!" I directed my friends, and they scampered into the undergrowth at an amazing pace as I sprinted to the exit to the park.

Once I had the gate closed behind me, I forced myself to proceed at a more sedate pace out of the city so as not to draw attention. Once clear, I turned to go into the forest, seeing the undergrowth rustling and flashes of brown, red, blue and purple as my Pokémon rushed back to me.

"Hi, Leigh! What're you doing?"

I jumped. "N-nothing." I said, motioning my friends back farther into the forest. "Gosh, Bianca, you startled me!"

"Hey, do you hear a sound coming from the other side of that wall? Come on! Let's go see!" she grabbed my arm and began hauling me towards whatever it was that had caught her interest.

"Bianca, I don't really have the time for this-" I protested, but before I could shake loose from her, she'd pulled me into an abandoned building. "Bianca, I don't think we should be here." I said, warningly, but it was too late and we stood staring at a small purpley-pink... I couldn't even think of what it could have mutated from.

It moved away from us, and Bianca chased after it. "Oh! Wait!" I followed her, grumbling under my breath, but then a voice cut through the semi-darkness.

"We found you, Munna!"

"Oh look, it's Team Plasdorks." I murmured.

"Come on! Come on! Make some Dream Mist!" They said, crowding around the thing which was apparently called a Munna. The Munna made a distressed noise and curled up further into a ball. I was seriously about to call my friends and absolutely decimate these Plasdorks, then Bianca spoke up.

"Huh? Who are you?! What are you doing?"

"Are you talking about us? We're Team Plasma, bitch! We battle day and night to protect Pokémon from foolish humans who want to kill them!"

"What are we doing? The Pokémon called Munna and Musharna emit a mysterious vapor called Dream Mist, which shows people's dreams. We're going to use that to make people want to treat Pokémon like friends... We'll show them dreams to manipulate their hearts."

One of them started kicking the poor thing. It let out a pitiful cry of distress. It tore at my heart, but with Bianca there, there was almost nothing I could do.

"You're kicking a Pokémon to make it give off Dream Mist? That's mean! Why? You guys advocate not hurting Pokémon, right?"

"That's right. We love Pokémon, but we're fighting for the freedom and friendship of all Pokémon. You know, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few?"

"One or two hurt Pokémon won't matter if we secure the happiness of them all! But, we can't have you two going and telling the authorities, so! We're going to use our Pokémon to silence you!"

"Whaaat! Don't hurt Leigh!" Bianca yelled.

"Bianca, I'll be fine." I muttered. Behind the Plasdork lurked a rat thing like Engelbert that, at his cry of "Patrat, go!" lunged at me, murder in its eyes. I put two fingers to my lips and let out a piercing whistle and Malayeka came pouncing out of the brush, bristling and hissing, to intercept it before it got to me. The two rolled off to the side, a flurry of purple, brown, claws, teeth, and snarls. I looked up and had to control my laughter at the Plasdork, who was staring at me, eyes wide and mouth hanging open. Then something hit my leg, biting it painfully. I yelped and looked down. The rat-thing had latched onto my leg and seemed intent on ripping part of my leg off. I looked over to where they had been fighting and saw Malayeka, still and unmoving, her throat torn out.

I almost forgot about the rat-thing as it was knocked off my leg and across the yard by a firey fist to lay unmoving and crumpled on the floor as its "owner" berated it for being useless. I was too busy running over to kneel next to the dying felinic creature, tears leaking out of my eyes and running down my cheeks.

I don't regret having chosen to come with you...

My eyes widened as I looked into the slit-pupiled eyes that were intently staring at me. Somehow, I knew it was she who was talking to me.

Go on... teach these people their mistakes... make me proud...

I broke down, face buried in my hands as I sobbed silently.

You gave me a name... A purpose...

Love you...

She was gone.