Author's Note: I am supposed to be writing all these college essays for nine or so places I'm applying to. Except writing that stuff gets pretty boring pretty quickly. So, guess what I did to take a break from that? I decided to write this chapter! Strange way to relax, huh? Anyways, I really should be getting back to those essays, but I enjoy writing fanfiction a lot. I'm especially looking forward to the next chapter, and you'll see why when it actually comes out. Until then, I hope you enjoy this chapter.


Amy and Rory could tell that something was wrong with the Marine Resort despite never having actually seen the place. Fallen trees littered the area, and there were chunks of charred metal all over the ground, as if something very large had been blown up into a million pieces. There didn't seem to be any other Pokémon around, contradicting what Manaphy had told them about a Pokémon paradise.

"What happened to this place?" Chimchar said. "It definitely wasn't like this yesterday!"

"I don't know," Manaphy replied. "I don't like it one bit. It feels like the place is dead compared to yesterday. Something awful has happened here…but what?"

"We need to find the Doctor," Amy said. "He'll probably have the answers. Look around for anything interesting, but make sure to keep your eyes out for a big, blue box." Chances were that the Doctor popped into the TARDIS to escape…unless that emergency protocol thing continued locking him out despite his need to escape. If that had happened…no, it just didn't.

"Um, I don't think we're alone," Rory murmured, breaking her stupor. Everyone turned to see several shadows in the distance. Amy squinted and barely made out the shapes of different Pokémon hidden in a jungle. She wondered why they were observing them from afar until she realized that they were probably worried about strangers in their home.

She was about to wave to them, but Rory stopped her. "I don't think that's a good idea. They don't look very friendly."

"It's probably just because they've never seen us before. We should just go up to them and tell them we're only looking for a friend."

"And since when has that ever worked?"

"It almost worked with the Silurians!"

"Key word: almost. I died and was erased from time!"

Before Amy could retort, they both saw that their friends, if they could consider them that, were staring at them in confusion. "Um, what's a Silurian?" Bidoof asked.

"Oh, don't worry about that," Amy said, hoping that none of them had caught the last part of Rory's thought.

"Did you say, 'erased from time,'?" Piplup asked.

Great, Amy thought. How to explain that?

Rory was very blunt. "Again, don't worry about it. I basically was never born, but the Doctor fixed that. Even though it was sort of his fault to begin with, he made up for it in the end." He saw something in Piplup's eyes that made him wonder if Piplup had ever heard of such a thing. He couldn't have known that Piplup indeed had erased himself from existence when he and Chimchar had first saved the world.

It was then when they heard a strange noise coming from the ocean. They turned and spotted an unmarked helicopter approaching their location. Plants rustled and momentarily distracted them. They noticed that the shadows had vanished, as if they already knew who or what was coming. They hurried to the trees, hoping that they hadn't already been spotted and that they'd be able to spy on the strangers.

The helicopter landed on the beach shortly after. Two men jumped out of the cockpit, both dressed in a dark shade of purple. These guys are dressed in purple, just like that woman, Amy thought. Is she their boss or something? And what would they want here?

She soon got an answer as one man began talking to his partner. "According to the tracer the Boss deployed, this is the general place where Manaphy is."

Her eyes widened. So did Rory's. And Piplup's. And Chimchar's. And Bidoof's. Manaphy suddenly paled, examining himself and finding a small device. "How did this thing even get on me without me noticing?" he cautiously whispered.

"Why would they even be after Manaphy?" Chimchar worriedly questioned.

Piplup motioned them both to remain silent as the men continued to talk. "I still wonder why we're coming all this way for one lousy Pokémon. It seems like a waste of time."

His partner frowned. "One, Manaphy possesses a lot of innate power, perhaps on par with the legendary Kyogre. That power would definitely help us get control of the seas much quicker, helping us achieve our aim even faster."

Bidoof let out a silent gasp. "Golly, whatever they're planning sounds very dangerous," he said.

The man continued. "And two, we have to find out what happened to the Explorer. All it was supposed to do was scout the area and get information on these two so-called chosen Pokémon we need in order to get Dialga."

Piplup and Chimchar turned to each other, each realizing that the mysterious group was after them as well. The scope of this project was definitely huge if they were after Dialga, possibly Palkia too. But what were they trying to accomplish exactly?

"Hey, I think I see something over there!" They all stiffened, praying that they hadn't been spotted. They were relieved to hear footsteps going away from them. "Look, there are a few Poké Balls on the ground. I think they may have belonged to that new guy, Mike." They heard him swoop down to pick them up. "That's strange, though. They seem to have been tampered with." He tossed one up into the air, and everyone saw it break apart. "What in the world do you think could have done this?"

"I don't know…" One man decided to walk around, prowling through the wreckage of the carrier. "I can't seem to find any bodies."

"Strange…where do you suppose they went?"

"I'm not sure. If they're still alive, they probably left for someplace where they could survive like…that jungle over there."

The Pokémon started sweating again, worried that they were about to be discovered at last. However, there was some rustling from somewhere that drew the attention of the men. "What was that?" They saw movement and rushed towards it, allowing the party to sigh with relief. Another set of rustling leaves was headed towards them, and a figure appeared. As light passed through to reveal his face, Piplup, Chimchar, and Manaphy sighed with relief as they recognized the Sandshrew from the previous day.

"Are you all okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," Piplup replied. "Was it you who led those men away?"

"Well, it was a Mankey who actually did the work, but I was the one who suggested it."

"Do you know what happened to this place?" Chimchar asked. "It seemed to be just fine yesterday!"

The Sandshrew smiled sadly. "A lot can change in such little time. When the craft crashed onto the beach, large parts of it impacted many of the Pokémon in the area. Some were lucky enough only to be grazed, but many were unlucky enough to have them piece our bodies." He lifted his arm, and they saw a rather large scar. "Unfortunately, that was just the start. Not long after, there was a machine just like that one over there that arrived on our beaches. On it was some woman wearing purple, but even more concerning was Darkrai standing next to her."

Piplup and Chimchar's eyes widened in alarm. "Darkrai was here?!"

"And that woman, again…" murmured Amy and Rory.

Sandshrew continued. "Whoever that woman was, she was definitely strong. She ordered Darkrai to attack us, and he obeyed like a perfect slave. The thing is, it seemed as if he used the Roar of Time to decimate us. I'm no expert on legendary Pokémon, but I thought that only Dialga could use that attack…"

Piplup considered what he had said. That did sound pretty strange, considering that Darkrai had never used that move against them. Come to think of it, they hadn't ever seen him use Spacial Rend either before he used it to destroy the Guild. How was he suddenly able to summon the incarnate powers that belong to Dialga and Palkia?

"But that's not even the worst part! After she had gathered a large amount of Pokémon, she took out some sort of device that made a purple wave surround them all. Their eyes all turned purple, and she took them all with her to who knows where…"

Amy and Rory did not like the sound of the mind control device. At least, they could probably assume it was a mind control device. Was this how this woman was planning on taking over the world? By controlling all the Pokémon in the world? It was definitely an insidious and cunning plan, but then what?

"LOOK OUT!" Sandshrew's eyes widened as he saw a Wood Hammer attack headed straight towards Manaphy. He quickly pushed him out of the way, only to take it himself.

"SANDSHREW!" they all cried out. Bidoof quickly carried the injured Pokémon while the others looked for the aggressor. They soon located the attacker, a giant turtle-like Pokémon that seemed to carry a tree, some rocks, and a little bit of shrubbery on its back. It was a Torterra that had launched the damaging attack, but it had to rest after releasing so much power. Amy, Rory, and Chimchar all used Flamethrower on the assailant, causing the foe to faint.

"Torterra, return!" A red light engulfed Torterra, and it disappeared into the Poké Ball in the hand of one of the men. "We've finally got you, Manaphy. We're not letting you get away. Magnezone, go!" The man threw out a similar looking Poké Ball, releasing the Pokémon that was a strange metallic being.

His accomplice took out a Poké Ball of his own. "Tyranitar, go!" A large dinosaur-like Pokémon appeared at the same time as a sandstorm swept the area. Everyone ducked to try and get out of the damaging sands.

"How is there even a sandstorm?" Rory yelled. "We're nowhere near a desert!"

"It's his Sand Stream ability," Manaphy said. "It summons a sandstorm wherever Tyranitars appear. I'm going to try to get rid of it." Manaphy used Rain Dance, summoning enough water to completely put down the sandstorm. Hoping to use the rain as an opportunity to land a strong attack, Piplup leaped up and aimed a Hydro Pump directly at the Tyranitar. It unfortunately missed, and Piplup left himself exposed to the enemy.

"Quick, Magnezone!" the one man bellowed. "Use Thunder!"

He tried to get out of the way, but the rainstorm effectively made it impossible for him to dodge the super effective hit. "PIPLUP!" Chimchar shouted. In a hasty rage, he used Flamethrower against the attacker. Despite the rain powering it down, it still managed to deal considerable damage to the Magnezone, but the men were able to spot him.

"Tyranitar, use Stone Edge!"

Chimchar swiftly dodged the attack, but Amy, directly behind him, couldn't make it out of the way in time. Rory quickly noticed this and tried to shield her from the attack. However, being both a Fire and a Flying type, the powerful Rock type attack instantly drained him of all of his strength, rendering him nearly unconscious.

"RORY!" That Tyranitar definitely should not have done that. She reached deep into herself and managed to find the power to summon an Energy Ball attack. Drawing power from her raw fury, the attack dealt a critical hit on the Tyranitar, causing it to faint immediately. She turned to Manaphy. "Can you help him in any way?"

"I'm sorry. I don't know any healing moves, just Rain Dance, Hydro Pump…"

She quickly cut him off. "Hit him with a Hydro Pump, then!"

"What?! Wouldn't that just hurt him even more?"

"Trust me, it'll help him. Now, do it!"

Manaphy quickly obeyed, hoping that he wouldn't hurt him too much. He was surprised to see that, just like Amy had said, the attack had managed to actually give him some of his strength back, though likely not enough to help fight back. "It worked…but how?" It was then that he noticed the Flame Bangle. "Oh! Of course! The Flame Bangle takes Water type attacks and uses the power to heal Charizards! But, how did you even come across one? They're really rare!"

"Let's just say a friend knew we would need it." She silently thanked the TARDIS for being able to get something extremely helpful for that specific moment and perhaps more in the future.

"Tyranitar, return!" The man was definitely not pleased with his Pokémon's performance. "My last Pokémon…go!" He threw out a ball, releasing a Flygon. "Flygon, use Dragonbreath!"

Though it was meant to hit Manaphy, Amy resolved to protect him, not wanting them to be able to take him away. Unfortunately, the Dragonbreath was a critical hit and managed to paralyze Amy, knocking her back right into Rory. Piplup managed to get up and shoot an Ice Beam at the Flygon while Chimchar took out a Cheri Berry from the team's Treasure Bag and threw it towards Amy. Amy recovered from the paralysis as the Flygon fell, but the hit still managed to sap her of most of her strength.

"How many of these blasted things are there?" one man snarled as he sent back the Flygon. "It shouldn't be this tough just to get that Manaphy!"

"And since when could one Piplup take down a Flygon with one hit? Even with Ice Beam, it's just a Piplup! Magnezone, Thunder!"

The Magnezone obeyed, but it targeted Manaphy this time. Both Piplup and Chimchar tried to shield him, but the attack struck him too quickly. Piplup unleashed a Hydro Pump while Chimchar used Flamethrower. Despite the powerful, motivated blows from the two, the Magnezone still held firm.

"Magnezone, Discharge!"

The attack landed damaging hits on both Piplup and Chimchar, leaving Manaphy weakened and unprotected. The men approached them. "Finally, we've got you Manaphy." He took out a device similar to the one the woman had and aimed it at Manaphy. As he activated it, Chimchar summoned the last of his strength to push Manaphy out of the way and use Flamethrower in hopes of destroying the machine. He managed to do so but not before the purple waves overtook him. They saw his eyes flash purple before he fainted.

"Great, the machine is busted, and all we have to show for it is one Chimchar?"

"One Chimchar is better than nothing at all. Let's bail."

The man grunted and sent the Magnezone back into the Poké Ball. His accomplish snatched Chimchar and dashed to the helicopter. Before anyone could stop it, it took off and disappeared in the distance. "Chimchar…" Piplup and Manaphy murmured before losing all of their strength. There in the rain lay the battered and exhausted Pokémon, worried for the safety of their friend and family.


"We're sorry, Boss," one of the men stammered. "The machine was broken, and we failed to take Manaphy."

As expected, the woman scowled. "I thought it would be a simple task to find and capture one Pokémon, but clearly it wasn't. What happened?"

"There were several Pokémon defending Manaphy, and each one of them proved to be nuisances," his colleague replied. "We managed to subdue them and were about to get Manaphy, but one of them busted the machine."

Instead of the blistering rage he expected to face, he was surprised to see that the Boss had a guarded reaction, as if wondering if the mission had been salvaged after all. "Did you manage to at least get that Pokémon?"

"Yes, ma'am," he affirmed. "The Chimchar is ours and is in the third level as we speak."

He caught the woman actually wearing a smirk of victory before resuming a neutral appearance. "Show me, now."

Both men stood up and led her to the elevator of the facility. As it went up, they saw the many different Pokémon now under their control, each with the identical purple glow in their eyes. The elevator stopped, and they went to open the door. The woman passed through first, noting the increase in the amount of Pokémon in the room. They soon found the Pokémon they were looking for. At first glance, they would see nothing out of the ordinary with the Chimchar, except for the purple eyes. The woman, however, knew that they had unknowingly managed to advance her plans even more than she had hoped for.

"This one is one of the chosen ones," she stated. "Good job, you two…we're one step closer to taking Dialga…"


Piplup awoke to a strange environment, trying to make sense of the dream. Clearly, it had happened again. The Dimensional Scream was not making its way into his dreams, but how was that even possible? That problem would have to wait, though, as he noticed that they were no longer in the jungle near the beach. The light was restricted to what came from a hole in the ceiling. They seemed to be in a cave of some sort, perhaps the one Chimchar had explored in before this thing had even started. He had no idea how long he had been out, but he didn't feel very hungry at all. He stood up and saw that Manaphy, Amy, and Rory were with him, too. All of them seemed to be asleep, so, with nothing better to do, he let his mind think about what had happened to Chimchar.

Walrein had told of the worst of humanity, not caring about who got injured as long as they got their needs. Those two men had used the Pokémon in their possession as if they were merely tools, not caring for their health once they sustained enough damage. He didn't even think he had seen the worst from them, yet he wondered about the good in humanity. He knew that he had once been human and had been willing to risk everything with Grovyle to save the world, but how many people were like that? Did the good outweigh the evil in the end? Darkrai had been the core of two attempts to bring darkness to the world, and now he being used for some definitely despicable plot. Each time, he and Chimchar had somehow been able to triumph, but now he had been taken as well. He had Manaphy on his side, and the Guild would hopefully be able to help again. Yet, he still didn't know who Amy and Rory really were. It seemed too convenient that they showed up at the same time as the woman. He knew that he couldn't blame them for anything, especially after they had tried to help them fend off the men. However, their eyes seemed to be hiding something. Guildmaster Wigglytuff knew they had more information about the mysterious Doctor, but what were they hiding and why? Where was this Doctor, if he was even still alive? Why, truly, was he so trustworthy in their eyes?

He didn't know how long he had been pondering these things. When he drew himself out of his reverie, he saw that Manaphy had been trying to get his attention for a while.

"I said, 'Look over there, Piplup!'"

Piplup drew his attention to the few figures that were approaching them. He was relieved to see Bidoof but wondered who the one next to him was. It appeared to be a Clefairy, but this didn't seem to be somewhere there were many Clefairy would live. He could be wrong, though, and he was curious to know who the Clefairy was.

"Hey!" Bidoof said. "You two are awake! Thank goodness!"

"It's nice to see you too, Bidoof," Piplup said. "How long were we out?"

"You guys were out for about a day. This friendly Clefairy, after taking Sandshrew somewhere to help him recover, was kind enough to accompany me to where you guys were knocked out. She's been helping me take care of you guys. What happened?"

"Those two people were trying to take Manaphy away. They almost did…but they got Chimchar instead…"

"Gosh! Poor Chimchar! What do you think happened to him?"

"I don't know exactly, but I think right now he's become a part of their plan."

"Huh? How come?"

"I think I saw him in a dream."

Manaphy spoke up. "Dream? Is it that Dimensional Scream thing again?"

"Maybe…"

The Clefairy spoke up for the first time. "Dimensional Scream? Sorry, what's that?"

"Oh, well sometimes I can see the past or the future."

"That's interesting…how long have you been able to do that?"

"I'm not sure, but it's definitely been for a very long time. All I know is that Chimchar's definitely in danger…we have to find him."

The Clefairy smiled. "You seem to be very resolute about this. I admire that. It reminds me of…" She stopped her train of thought as she saw Amy and Rory beginning to stir. "Oh, they're finally waking up! Well, whatever you plan on doing, I'll leave you to it."

Piplup nodded. "Thanks for taking care of us then. By the way, how's Sandshrew doing? He was hurt pretty bad by that Torterra."

"Oh, you won't have to worry about him. He's doing better already. I should go check on him, though."

She turned around and exited just as Amy got up. "My head…" She got up and looked around. "Hey, where are we?"

"We're in a cave nearby the beach," Bidoof answered. "I've been taking care of you guys with the help of a Clefairy. She's been very helpful."

"Really? Where is she?"

"Oh, you just missed her. She had to go tend to Sandshrew."

"Ah, that explains it then. Say, where's Chimchar?"

Piplup seemed to darken. "He was taken away by those two men."

A look of deep concern seemed to take over her face. "Oh…I'm so sorry…I really am, but we will get him back."

"How? The unpunctual Doctor, who still hasn't showed up?"

Her face seemed to turn into stubbornness. "The Doctor will come, and he will do whatever he can to help."

"Then why wasn't he there? If he's so great, where is he? WHERE?!"

She didn't respond to those questions because she didn't need to. Just as Piplup had finished speaking a strange sound filled the cave. A light flashed from out of nowhere, and a blue box appeared out of thin air. When it finished materializing, the doors opened, and a man staggered out of it. Aside from the charred appearance of his skin and clothes, he looked exactly like the man he had seen after touching that Poké Ball.

The man collapsed and looked up at Amy with a smile. She didn't return it, at least not immediately. "You're late. And no, you may not have an apple."

"Good. Apples are rubbish. I hate apples."