A/N: This chapter's a bit short, all things considered - but a few things get introduced here. And since I haven't mentioned this yet, I thought I should clarify this: This story's probably gonna progress a bit slowly, unless something happens otherwise. That's because this part is more focusing on what happens leading up to all hell breaking loose. I will say no more.

... why are you still reading the author's notes? Read the chapter, it's why you're here.

It's been a few days since Aurora... came through, I guess. In that time, I've figured out that Pokémon... are not exactly like the games. For example, that whole '4 moves' thing? That was a busted myth. Aurora's passed that mark by far - besides Aura Sphere, I've recognized what I think is ExtremeSpeed, Force Palm, Double Team... even a weird version of Bone Rush. And that's just ones I've recognized; she's shown a few that I've never even seen in the games.

That's another thing - there are variations on moves, depending on who uses it. To use Aurora's Bone Rush as an example: She makes a blue bone-shaped staff out of Aura. Then she beats the crap out of you with it. I saw what that does to a tree - a very old, very thick tree; it's now separating my house's fence.

What were we doing now? Training; specifically, I was trying to get Aurora to do something with a move other than instantly obliterate things. So, to that end, I'd grabbed my not-Master Sword and challenged her to a little sparring match. That was one of the dumbest ideas I'd ever had.

"Whoa!" I barely brought up the blade in time to block the aura-staff, narrowly avoiding getting smashed in the face. Instead I just got thrown to the dirt. "This isn't a strength match, Aurora! I know you've got me beat there." When she pulled the staff back to rest against the ground, I stood up and dusted my jeans off. "Try focusing less on how hard you hit, and more on how you hit." She gave me nothing in response but a blank look. I sighed. "Knock the sword out of my hands, without breaking it. Or me."

That time she nodded, getting back into a ready stance. I did the same, gripping the sword with both hands. "Alright then - take it from the top. Fight!" Of course, I didn't stand a chance - a trained Lucario versus a generic human? 5-on-1 and it still wouldn't be fair - and that's if the Lucario was just practicing. The blade was buried point-first in the dirt ten feet away before I could say "Wow."

I rubbed my wrist, stinging from the sword being ripped out of my hands. "Well... I think you passed that one..." I muttered redundantly. Meanwhile, Aurora was standing maybe two feet away, looking up at me with that staff leaning against her shoulder. She looked somewhat pleased with herself - and hell, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same. How many people can say they've trained with a Lucario?

"Alright, nice going." I walked over to the blade and tugged it out of the ground. "Let's do it again - this time, I'm gonna actually come at you. You ready?" I saw her nod, but for just a second I had an odd feeling - like something was changing again, like when Aurora arrived. But I shook it off; it could wait. "Let's go!"

************************************Pokémon World************************************

'Run, run, run...' I had to get away - had to keep running. Darting through low roots, bushes - anything to get away. I didn't look back; couldn't look back... I needed to keep moving. Something cracked behind me. 'I'm ahead of it, I'm getting away...' If I thought anything else... I won't think anything else.

"Stop running, little one..." Its voice alone almost made me sick - a disgusting, distorted sound that filled my head. "We just want to help you..." I almost wanted to stop; maybe it wasn't trying to trick me. Then I remembered what they did... my parents, torn apart and thrown away. Clumps of black or red or lavender fur scattered across the grass.

And now I was next - but they wouldn't get me! 'Almost there... almost away!' I was almost out of danger; I knew it, they couldn't follow me much further! The edge of the forest was just ahead - I just needed to run a bit farther...

Finally, I burst out of the bushes - I made it! Looking behind me, there was nothing; nothing followed me through. "Oh, thank Arceus..." I sighed, relaxing ever so slightly. For just a few moments, I looked around: I'd made it to a large clearing, not entirely out of the forest. Not far away from me, a lake dominated the middle of it; in fact, it was the only thing here besides the grass. Dead-center in the lake was a small island. I felt like I should know this place...

Looking at the lake, I realized just how thirsty I was; after running away for... how long had it been? Hours? After this long I could barely keep myself standing, but I made my way to the edge of the lake. The water was still, like it was frozen in place, and reflected the moonlit sky well enough that it looked like I could just... fall into it. But when I saw my own reflection, I froze.

That wasn't me looking up from the lake, it couldn't be; my fur was white and brown, and if you looked at it right, shot through with streaks of black or lavender. But this... thing's coatwas stained red. There were splatters of it everywhere, but its paws and around its mouth - the fur there was dripping. Dripping red into the lake, sending ripples out through the water. I shook my head violently. 'No, no - I didn't hurt anybody... I couldn't hurt anybody!'

I collapsed on the grass, whimpering to myself. "I didn't..." Everything else didn't matter - I didn't understand anything anymore. 'Did I... no, it HAD to be them... they're trying to trick me again!' Faintly, like it was far away, I heard a sort of humming sound; but I didn't care. 'They have to be lying... they did it, I saw them!' Even with my vision blurry from tears I didn't even notice, I could see something that got my attention.

Maybe a few feet into the lake, there was a weird, purple light shining through the water. I blinked a few times to clear my eyes, and crawled closer to the lake's edge to get a closer look. "Go on." I yelped in fear and surprise - but that voice sounded different. More like... more like mother's voice. Calmer, soothing even now... and I wanted to listen. "You'll be safe, just go on."

I wanted to be safe... wanted to be away from here. So I pulled myself into the water. And I just kept pulling myself along the ground, towards that light. When I felt something pulling me towards it, I stopped moving; I closed my eyes, and let myself drift. 'So tired... just going to... sleep.'

************************************Real World************************************

'This is pointless.' The truck shook hard again; this was not the best of roads. You'd think that they would keep it maintained, since it was the only way to find this middle-of-nowhere town, but no. With a glance over at my assistant, I voiced my thoughts. "This is pointless, you know that. Really, Justin, what do they expect us to find?"

He sighed - to be fair, I'd been saying the same thing over and over for the past hour and a half. "Honestly Keith, I don't know. Probably some drugged-up idiots spreading rumors. But we get paid for looking into it, no matter what the result - so just shut up about it." Justin was a good assistant - quickly annoyed, but a good one.

I glanced back at the road, then at the driver - some raffle-chosen grunt, from what I could tell. "How far to the town?"

Without looking back, he replied in a flat tone, "Not soon enough. Now shut up so I can- SHIT!" He wrenched the steering wheel around, bringing the truck into a sharper turn than it was ever meant to make. For a second, things slowed down; I felt the vehicle skid and start to tilt, but - and don't ask me how, I still don't know - just as it seemed like the entire thing was going to start rolling over, it just... stopped. The truck simply stopped tilting, and fell back hard on its wheels.

We took a few seconds to make sure nothing was broken - on us or the equipment. The driver popped open the truck's hood, and immediately stepped back. A cloud of thick smoke poured out of the engine - I probably don't need to say it, but the thing was dead. After taking stock of everything, I whirled on the guy. "The hell was that!?"

He just pointed at the road, in front of the now-functionless truck. The cracked surface was wet, I could tell from here - the puddles of water probably helped with that. But that wasn't what made my jaw drop; lying limp in the middle of the water-covered road was a small, brown and white furred... creature. Or, to say it better, it was probably brown and white once - I could see patches of that, but right now it was... well, covered in blood, from the looks of it.

Justin glanced at me, then at the creature. Then back at me. "Keith?" I just looked over at him silently, waiting for him to continue. After a moment, he did. "Was it raining earlier?" I shook my head - he knew damn well it hadn't been. "You ever hear of a thing like that?" I almost shook my head again - then I remembered something from a video game I'd played... oh, years ago. I nodded. "Yeah... me too. I don't think those were just rumors."

I looked back to the thing, still unmoving on the road. After a few seconds, I only had one thing to say. "Get it in the truck - and call it in. Call it a new species, whatever you need to; we've got something here." I smoothed out my jacket and sighed. "Question is... what have we got?"