Layne opened his eyes. The world as Palkia had described, was indeed strange. Darkness filled the land, and the land itself seemed dead. Layne was standing next to a river. Or at least it would be called a river, had the water been moving. Layne reached his hand into the water. Upon contact, the water separated yes, but when he extracted his hand, the hole where he put his hand, still remained. It looked like Palkia wasn't kidding when he said Time had indeed stopped.

"This is trippy." Layne muttered to himself.

That's when three creatures appeared. They were shorter than Layne, but still looked deadly. Their slim purple bodies looked agile, and their claws looked sharp. And those eyes. They each had what looked like diamond eyes. One spoke. "Heh heh heh! You ever seen something like him before?"

"No!" another one said. "What do you think he is?"

Layne crossed his arms. "I could ask you three the same thing." he said annoyed. "I don't need any trouble."

"Who said anything about trouble?" One of the creatures asked, before breaking into a crazy sort of laughter.

Layne spat. "You're giving it to me. Do you need something?"

"I don't like his attitude." one of them said.

"Neither do I." the second one stated.

"So let's teach him how to have a better one!" the third said.

Layne backed up frowning, and feeling a thick branch behind him, grabbed it, but kept it behind his back. He wasn't much of a fighter, but life on the streets gave him some pretty decent lessons in self defense, and if these three creatures were planning to attack him, he wouldn't go down easily. Layne said once again, "Now now, I don't need or want any trouble."

One approached, his claws began to shroud in shadow. "You've already got it, buddy."

With that, the creature jumped at Layne with a shrill of battle. As the creature flew at Layne, Layne, whipped out the dead branch, and swung it hard against the creature's head. The creature hit the ground hard, rubbing his head. Layne held the branch, firmly. "I told you, I don't want trouble!" he said, backing away.

The three creatures looked at each other and smiled. "Try us all at once."

Layne knew when enough was enough. He turned and ran. The creatures however, were rather fast. Their creepy laughter reached his ears as they gained on him. One jumped and his claw dug into Layne's back. Layne, feeling the claw fell to the ground and skidded across the ground, before slamming into a large rock. Layne grimaced in pain, but slowly got up. The three creature's claws all were shadowed and pulsing with a dim purple light. Layne held onto the branch, his eyes locked on them. He was beginning to wonder why Palkia had bothered sending him. Layne was probably about to go meet his maker. And the creatures in front of him knew it.

One of the creatures laughed again. "You were way too easy." he said. "Probably nothing to worry about whatsoever."

Layne popped his neck. "So what are you waiting for? Finish it." Layne said.

"With pleasure," they said. Their claws pulsed again. But before they could deliver the finishing blow, another creature flew over Layne, with a glowing bladed arm, and struck one of the creatures, with blinding speed. The creatures lost their ground and focus. One of them hollered "It's Grovyle!"

Layne watched in awe, as one by one the creature easily defeated the other three creatures. Two of them went running, but one was caught by the newcomer.

The creature shook in fright, while the other spoke to it.

The newcomer asked in a sharp tone, "What are you all doing out here?"

The creature shook, "N-n-nothing serious, Grovyle! We were just on routine patrol...uh...you're not being...bad are you?

The newcomer growled and threw the attacker to the ground. "Get out of here. Go tell your master he needs better warriors."

With that the third of Layne's attackers fled. Layne, fell back into a sitting position against the boulder. His back was alive with pain, and he had several newly forming bruises, and cuts. The newcomer turned to Layne. Layne managed to look into his face and offer somewhat of a small smile.

"Thanks for that, I owe you." Layne said.

The newcomer, simply looked at Layne in strange thought. His body was green like a plant, and even his arms had leaves growing from them. Layne was again bewildered about the strange life on this world, but figured he'd get used to it. Finally the newcomer spoke. "I've never seen someone like you before. Are you perhaps, from a different place?"

Layne grabbed his branch and managed to stand. "Yeah, you can say that. It's a rather long story. And I don't know much about this place."

"You've come to a cursed world, here the day never comes, and the-"

"I did get that bit of information. And to be perfectly honest, I've been sent here to help out somehow, as hard as that may be to believe." Layne said with a bit of or irony in his last performance with the attackers.

The newcomer sighed. "You'd need to be a bit more careful then," he said, eyes closed. "Those are agents, known as Sabeleye, to a pokémon called Dusknoir, a very powerful agent among Dialga."

"Uh, Pokémon, am I saying that right?" Layne asked.

"We call ourselves that, here. You don't look like any pokémon I've ever heard of before, however."

"That's because I'm not a pokémon at all. I'm a person. A human. But I guess you've never heard of us."

"Actually, we've heard many rumors of being like yourselves. I never thought I'd meet one."

"Well," Layne said, taking a limping step towards his rescuer, "I'm not much of one. There are plenty of humans who have changed the way we live, and I was just a guy living in the streets. None the less, I owe you a great deal, for what you just did with those...Sabelee-eye things?"

"Don't think anything of it. My name is Grovyle, I am trying to undo what has happened to our world."

Layne extended a hand, while keeping himself balanced on the branch. His legs were cut and the attack had left his left leg, numb. "Layne." he said to his hew acquaintance. Grovyle did not embrace the hand as Layne expected, instead looking at it, as if in woodier of what Layne was doing. Layne, noticing this, put the hand back at his side.

"Well, Layne," Grovyle said, one of my many hideouts is close by, you may stay the night there. To be honest, I don't know how to take your story. Why would you be sent here, if you doubt yourself so much?"

Layne didn't know how to answer that question. But after giving it some thought, he gave the answer, "I hope to find that out myself, by any means necessary."

Grovyle gazed at him, then nodded. "The hideout is in this direction. It's a small cave in the forest. Try to keep up, agents of Dialga or simply enraged pokémon could be anywhere."

"Well," Layne said taking a few limp steps, "I'll do my best."

With that they started walking fast with a purpose. Layne indeed struggled to keep up, but managed to follow.

Upon reaching the cave, Layne sat. The temperature was dropping. The darkness was endless, and he could barely make out trees and the entrance itself. "How are you used to this?" Layne asked as he exited the cave looking for twigs, and other flammable objects.

"None of us are used to this." Grovyle said leaning against the cavern wall. "I just see well in the dark."

"I guess you would," Layne said feeling around for more flammable objects.

Grovyle finally saw what Layne was doing. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I'm sure you…pokermans or whatever it is you called yourselves again are used to this cold, however, humans still have need for clothing to heat themselves, and my clothing just isn't that protective anymore. I'm going to build a fire."

"Don't stress yourself, the only pokémon capable of even producing a fire in this time would be…well fire types. There aren't any around this area, and we can't produce it any other way. We've tried friction of sticks, but the time paralysis prevents it."

"Well, when you live in the streets, you learn quick to survive. Even if you have to break a few rules."

"What do you mean?"

"You ever hear of flint, my friend?"

Grovyle stared at Layne, and shook his head. "I can't say I have."

Layne brought the wood into the cave, it wasn't much but it would be enough for now. "Well, even if time is stopped, it's worth a try. You see, if you're homeless in my world, it's survival of the fittest. I've had to steal from stores just to stay alive."

Grovyle stood up, "So you're a criminal!"

Layne held his hands up in defense, "Hey I'm not proud of it either, but if you lived in my world you'd probably do the same thing."

From what I've heard of you humans, you're beings of great wisdom, and hope. You don't make these beliefs that believable."

Layne began digging a small pit and looked at Grovyle. "If you knew half of the things about humans, your beliefs of us would be changed dramatically."

Grovyle sat back down. "Tell me."

Layne began to arrange the wood in the pit. "Yes, there are humans who's hands I am not worthy to shake-"

"Shaking hands?"

"It was a gesture I tried to use with you earlier. A gesture of greeting, or of pleasure to meet with someone. I guess, you're not that familiar with it here."

Grovyle said nothing, Layne continued. "Anyway there are those who I would have loved to meet, but as far as their greatness is concerned, I am but dust to them. The rest of humans are a danger to themselves and everything else on Earth, where I come from. Humans, are the most territorial of beings, a race dedicated to years of sin, dishonesty, and war. The sad thing is, we know it, and no matter how hard we try to learn from our mistakes, we always fall and go back to all the horrible things we do."

"By war, do you mean what we are at right now?"

"Well, what's going on here?"

"Well, myself, and a group of pokemon, have been conflicting with Dialga and his agents for years now. Constant battles, and-"

"No no, that's nothing to what humanity has seen. I'm talking huge masses of humans, battling against one another. Humans die. These can last years as well."

Grovyle listened intently, eyes closed. "What's worse is that we keep inventing worser ways to just kill ourselves. Did you know, that we have made several varieties of devices, that with a simple drop from the sky, or a touch of a button, you can destroy miles upon miles of life and land with fires as hot as the sun?"

"What?" Grovyle asked. "How could you humans be so savage?"

Layne shrugged as he put some dried grass in the pit. "The truth hurts. We humans are lucky we only used it twice in war. Yet we keep making them. We're smart enough not to use them for fear of world destruction, yet if one fool is to use one, each country will start using them as soon as possible. And it's only minutes, Grovyle. Minutes until the destruction comes. And there's slim to no chance of survival."

"Why wouldn't you be back home, trying to save your own world from such destruction."

"Why do you think I'm here? Earth is already dead to me. It goes beyond war. Humans can be abusive, raging, maniacs who care about nothing, but themselves. My parents were like that."

Layne didn't realize he was clenching a stick, hard in his hand, until a thorn pierced his hand. Layne sighed and put the stick in the fire pit. "I was offered a new life here, and anything seems better than going back to Earth."

"I can understand your feelings," Grovyle said. "But how did you even come here?"

"Well-" before Layne could answer that, the cave laminated with a bright light for a few seconds. Layne shielded his eyes, for the light was rather bright. But upon fading, Layne saw a smaller pokémon floating. This was was pink in color, and somewhat looked like some fairy you'd see in a fairy tale. Grovyle looked hopeful and pleased at it's sight, "Any luck, Celebi?"

The pink pokémon shook her head. "No," she said.

Grovyle looked down, and sighed. "We've been looking for the locations of these things for three years, Celebi, we have no lead. Some of the places we've looked probably did hold them at one point. How would we know?"

Celebi giggled. "So stubborn. Grovyle, we can't lose faith. We have to keep looking."

"If you say so, Celebi." Grovyle said, not looking at all reassured. "Just wish we had the support of the Union in our actions."

"Patience, Grovyle." It was then that the new pokémon noticed Layne. "Who's this pokémon?" she asked, hovering over to Layne for a closer examination. Layne chuckled embarrassingly as she hovered closer, but managed to say, "I'm- I'm not a pokémon."

Grovyle then said, "He claims to be a human, though from what he's told me he doesn't sound at all like the humans we've heard about."

Layne didn't know if Grovyle believed him or not anymore, but didn't press the issue. The pink pokémon hovered even closer. "Don't mind Grovyle. He can be somewhat stubborn sometimes. But if you really are a human, how'd you get here?" she asked in a giggling voice.

"Well, I was about to actually talk about that." Layne said. "But before I go into that, let's see if all this flint I have was worth the trouble of making this pit."

He took out his flint, and a pocket knife that had gone dull, but still worked to an extent. He began shaving some of the flammable bits into his pit, when he knew he had enough, a few sharp brushes with his tools, made sparks, and fire began to ignite. Layne, sighed in relief and began to feed the small flames. Grovyle was speechless, and Celebi was somewhat joyful. "Look, Grovyle! He made fire!"

"I don't believe it…" Grovyle said.

Layne looked up as the flame grew into a desirable size. "Well, it's not that big a deal, just a few crumbs of flint and it'll ignite."

"I will say, Layne," Grovyle said, "You are a man of small surprises."

Layne chuckled at that, "Please. I'm just a guy who wants to stay warm tonight."

Grovyle finally looked at the pink pokémon. "This is Layne. He was attacked by Sableye earlier. How are your wounds, Layne?"

Travis looked at Grovyle with a small smile. "It'll hurt in the morning, but other than that, I'll be fine."

Grovyle nodded. "This is Celebi, my partner."

Layne nodded at Celebi. "A pleasure."

Grovyle looked at Layne. "Anyway, you're were going to talk about how you came here."

"Right." Layne said, rubbing his head, trying to remember exactly how it all came to be.

"I was sent here, as I said, to try and help this world's time crisis thing. This thing, this pokémon, I guess, called itself Palkia-"

"Palkia?" Grovyle said, "You met Palkia?"

"I guess. He told me about the world and one thing led to another I guess. We had a heated debate and stuff about why I should go, but in the long run I agreed to come. Honestly however, I got no idea how I can at all help out this situation. Palkia said he gave me gifts, and..." Layne trailed off.

Celebi floated over to him, "Well? And what? Keep going."

Layne followed her, still somewhat creeped out by how she floated around him, "Well, I mean I got no idea how to use them or how they even work whatsoever."

Celebi giggled, "You're stubborn, too. I like you!"

Layne was a little creeped by this, but, said, "Uhhhh thanks."

"Celebi can lift anyone's spirits, no matter how down things seem." Grovyle said watching Celebi and Layne. "What did Palkia exactly, 'give' you?"

Layne rubbed his hands against the warmth of the fire. "Well, one gift was simply to understand what you all would say. I mean I guess, things would be difficult, if I didn't understand what you all would say."

Grovyle nodded, arms crossed. "Makes sense."

"And the second was this thing he called the Dimensional Scream which I have-"

At the words, 'Dimensional Scream,' Grovyle's eyes widened. "Say that again."

Layne was confused. "Say what again?"

"The second gift. What is it called?"

Layne shrugged. "Palkia called it the Dimensional Scream. But I-"

Grovyle looked to Celebi in shock. Celebi let forth a shout of joy. "Grovyle, I told you not to lose hope!"

Grovyle looked back to Layne, who sat looking at them in absolute shock. "Guys settle, down, I mean I got no idea how it even works or what it even does, and you're looking at me like I just came from the sky in a chariot of fire to lead you to victory."

"What you have, can very much be of help to us. The Dimensional Scream," Grovyle said, "Is an ability to see past or future events with simple contact of almost anything."

"Past and future?" Layne said, feeling very uncomfortable. "I don't know if I like this. The future is unseen for a reason."

Grovyle then said, "Yet knowing how some things could happen could be of huge benefit to us."

"Point taken," Layne said, "But even so, Palkia said something about restrictions. The Dimensional Scream only works in specific areas, areas he didn't mention or even hint at."

"The Dimensional Scream only works in areas related to where the Time Gears are kept." Grovyle said.

"Time Gears? What are those, some mythical artifacts, or something?"

Grovyle nodded. "Yes. At one point in time, they helped maintain the world's balance of time. However, at one point, time started to become abnormal. The Time Gears vanished, after a place called Temporal Tower collapsed. We've learned that if the Time Gears were placed in Temporal Tower, before the collapse, the abnormalities in time would be repaired, thus preventing the world's paralysis from ever happening."

Layne gave a small chuckle. "Kinda risky, isn't it? I mean doing something like that. Change the past, you kill off one future, and risk destroying yourself."

Grovyle nodded, "It is extremely risky. But if it means making a better future..."

Layne listened to Grovyle. "Well? Better future, means what to you?"

"I don't think you'd understand." Grovyle said, closing his eyes and crossing his arms. But he opened them looking at Layne. "But perhaps you can help us after all. That ability you have could help us in big ways. Simply knowing the general area of the time gears would greatly aid us."

Layne said nothing but stared into the fire he had made, which had gotten smaller. Grovyle continued to look at Layne. "Layne, I am going to ask you this once. I understand you are new here, and don't know what to trust or what to really do. But I would very much like you to help us in search of the Time Gears."

Layne looked up. He threw on some dry grass and more twigs. "I guess that question was coming sooner or later, and to tell you the truth, I don't have anywhere else to go. I will do what I can."

Celebi smiled and floated over to Layne, once again making him wary of her movements. "Welcome to the team!" she said happily.

Layne chuckled, "Uhhh glad to be on board, I guess."

Grovyle closed his eyes and looked down. "We'll resume our search tomorrow. We should get some sleep. We wake up in 8 hours."

Celebi nodded and floated up on a rock and fell asleep. Layne did not fall asleep however. He watched as the others did. he continued to stir his dying fire around, and then went outside the cave.

Dusknoir stood overlooking the land. The numerous rebellions he had put down in the past had grown. Very few opposed Dialga now. But a couple pokémon did dare oppose them, and they were giving Dusknoir plenty of trouble. Grovyle and Celebi. But there was something else that tugged at his mind. Dialga had raged earlier, about something. Dusknoir had seen Dialga rage before, but not like that in some time. Dialga's speech to Dialga was stuttered and all he got were the words, "PALKIA...TRANSPORT...INTRUDER." Dusknoir didn't know what Palkia was up to, but Palkia himself was no match to his master. So it didn't worry him that much that something involving Palkia was happening. As he pondered this, one of his Sabeleye came running up. He looked battered.

"Master Dusknoir!"

Dusknoir crossed his arms, in disappointment. "You look like you've had a rough time. What happened?"

"Our group was attacked and defeated by Grovyle."

Dusknoir sighed. Can I ever count on you guys to take him down?" He sighed. He was just thankful Grovyle didn't have any leads on preventing the Time Paralysis. He had no lead to the location of the Time Gears.

"That's not all!" his Sabeleye said. "There's something here! A being, that is not from around here! We attacked and nearly took it down to bring it in for questioning, but it resisted, and Grovyle came in at that time."

Dusknoir looked at the Sabeleye. "Being? What pokémon did it look like?"

Sabeleye shook his head fast. "It didn't look like any pokémon I've ever seen before, in fact it looked completely alien!"

"Alien?" Dusknoir asked. The words repeated in his head. "PALKIA...TRANSPORT...INTRUDER..."

So that was what Dialga had meant. "So Palkia's transported a being from another world to ours. And that being has already met Grovyle..." he said to himself.

The Sabeleye looked at Dusknoir. "Orders?"

Dusknoir looked at Sabeleye. "I want to see this being for myself. We'll look for him tomorrow. Resume your patrol."

Layne sat on a cliff, not too far away from the cliff. An ocean frozen in time lay below him. He was thinking about all that had happened today. All Palkia had said, all the events that had happened here, the new allies he now had in Celebi and Grovyle.

Grovyle, who had secretly watched Layne leave the cave walked up behind him. "It's not safe out here during these hours, Layne."

Layne nearly lost his balance but managed not to lose his head, and looked at Grovyle. "Sorry." Grovyle said. "I did not mean to startle you."

"Don't worry about it." Layne said, as Grovyle walked over and sat with him. "I've just been thinking about how crazy this day has been and all."

Grovyle nodded and closed his eyes. Layne couldn't help but notice how Grovyle seemed to always do that. "The day for you would seem rather abnormal."

"Palkia said I'd find friends when I came here." Layne said looking out over the sea. "I don't know what to think of it now."

Grovyle looked at Layne. "Do you consider Celebi and I friends?"

Layne looked at Grovyle. "You saved my life, Grovyle. I don't know about here, but where I come from, if you do that you're a friend in anybody's book. And Celebi, she certainly has spirit and lots of hope. I don't wish to disappoint her by saying I wouldn't help."

Grovyle listened as Layne spoke this, then closed his eyes. "We should get back to the cave. Time for rest is getting lower. We're going to need all the energy we can muster."

Layne nodded, but said, "I'm gonna have to get used to it being so dang dark." He then looked at Grovyle, and asked, "Have you ever seen how beautiful an ocean can be?"

Grovyle shook his head. "All I'm familiar with in the ocean is darkness, and stillness."

Layne stood up. "I hope you get to see it someday. It's a sight that never ceases to calm me."

With that, he walked with Grovyle back to the cave. He had a long day ahead of him tomorrow.