A/N - First off, this one takes place purely in the real world. No dimension hopping here, folks. Second... my brain decided there will be no 'Second' in this list, so just read on, I guess? I dunno. I'm rambling!

Edit: Apparently my ***** breaks don't work anymore, so now... horizontal lines. Yeah - not sure what that's about. This chapter probably changed about 5 times since I uploaded it... 5 minutes ago. As of the time I type this. WHICH YOU WILL NEVER KNOW! MUAHAHAHAHA!

'This place... is actually very nice.' The rather large yard behind David's house - at least, during a day when the sun was uncovered - was a good place to focus. And an excellent place to simply think. With David gone to a friend of his for the afternoon, I was left here with his parents, who - while polite - seemed content to leave me alone, and I had plenty of time to think. In the few days - from what I understood - since I had arrived here, it seemed that David and his family had done... quite a bit in order to allow me to stay with them.

I had heard him talking with somebody over a telephone - like what my trainer owned, except for the lack of a screen. Later, his mother had questioned why he 'quit his job'; his response was that everything was 'going to crash down anyway, and somebody needs to be here who knows Pokémon.' For somebody who is, from my understanding, just barely considered an adult, he shows quite a lot of forethought.

More interesting was the... 'aura' he had about him. Not his true Aura as I would see it, but rather a sense he had around him, one of... loyalty? No, it was something else. Something like what my trainer had; confidence and loyalty were there, yes - but also a sense of caring. He deserved the same, if he could extend that to a stranger.

"AURORA!" My eyes snapped open; that was David, but there was the universal tinge of fear in his voice... along with something else. Faster than I could've moved before - I had realized I was definitely stronger and faster here, for some strange reason - I ran towards his shout. It took almost no time at all to find him; the sound of metal striking rock in the same general direction helped with that. 'But he left that blade of his at the house...'

When I did find him, he was backed into an alley. As I was forced to stick to the rooftops to avoid being seen, I could see that this alley was a dead end - and between him and the only exit, a Scyther was slowly stalking towards him, scraping its scythe-like arms along the alley walls. I saw him holding his side, and a glint of red on the Pokémon's scythes. That was all I needed - without another thought, I dropped off of the roof into the alley.

Now, I don't know if you've ever seen a real life Scyther. If you have, get medical help. If you haven't, they're scary like you would not believe. A 5-foot tall mantis, covered in jagged green plates, or chitin, or whatever it's called. Arms almost as long as it was tall - and just so happened to be scythe blades. Combine that with the fact that, unlike a Pokémon, I am entirely defenseless, and you get one hell of a situation.

That cut on my side wasn't helping matters - those blades are sharp. My only question was how the hell I missed a giant green scythe-armed mantis in the alleyway, but that wasn't particularly important compared to said mantis getting ready to kill me. This is probably one of the more ironic ways to die, killed by a creature you've always thought about being real.

Then the Scyther got drop-kicked by a royally pissed Lucario, maybe ten feet away from me. It dropped right to the ground, and I swear I heard a muffled crack. The Lucario glanced back at me, and I could tell just from the concerned look that it was Aurora. The fact that there were no other Lucario I knew about probably helped with that. After a second of shock, I said - quite briefly - "Thanks..." She just nodded once before turning back to the Scyther, who was already getting up. Then she rushed it, one paw covered in what looked like blue fire - and the fight was on.

Once you've seen a Pokémon battle in reality, you realize that neither the games or the anime do them justice. It's not a series of 'turns', each one waiting for the other to go - it's a brawl that goes by faster than you could imagine. With particularly fast Pokémon, it's even harder to keep track of, but somehow I managed to get some of it: Aurora slamming her aura-covered paw into the Scyther's face; the other returning the favor with a quick slash at her arm, which she barely dodged.

I don't know what tipped me off, but something was wrong. The Scyther stopped dodging, stopped fighting back - the concept made me think of something... 'That's Substitute!' I looked up out of instinct, and saw the Bug-type dropping down towards Aurora, both scythe-arms glowing green. "Aurora, above you!" She looked up, but a second too late - the real Scyther slashed both arms in an X-shape, and Aurora went skidding backwards.

For just a moment she looked hurt - slumped, holding one paw over where she got hit. Then she seemed to flash orange for a second before rushing back up to the Scyther, and delivering a wince-inducing punch to the Pokémon's chest. A few seconds passed where the Bug-type just stood there, shaking slightly. Then it just... collapsed, unconscious or dead I didn't know. 'And that... must be what a Counter looks like.' At first, I was just glad the thing was down - then I saw what was past the two Pokémon.

Now, the fight had been blocking my view of the alley's entrance. In hindsight, I really shouldn't have been surprised, considering that fight probably made a bit of noise. Despite that, I was understandably about to freak out when I saw, staring in disbelief at the two, somebody that wasn't myself, or my family. In fact, it was one of the town's police officers, and he was reaching for his gun. "Hold on, let me explain-"

The officer cut me off, already aiming the handgun at Aurora. "Get away from those... things, kid." Kid? Really, I'm taller than he is - not as filled out, but still.

I took a few steps forward. "Look, it's fine - she's with me, alright?" That was probably not the best thing to say, under the circumstances.

"You see what they do to each other-" He gestured with the gun at the downed Scyther. "- what they could do to anyone, and you're alright with that?! You'll keep one of those monsters around?" I wasn't going to respond - this guy had his mind made up. They were on the same level as rabid animals to him, so there was no point.

So instead, I walked up to Aurora. "Alright, let's get out of here." I saw the officer bring his gun right back up, aiming somewhere between the both of us.

He had a look that told me he didn't want to shoot me, but I was about to side with 'them' - in his mind, anyway. Like I've said before, I can get a lot out of how someone looks at me. I glanced at him for a moment, one hand on Aurora's shoulder. With a rare, serious tone I said, "I'm not alright with it - but you can't hate 'em for what they are."

Not waiting to see what the response was, I looked down to Aurora and just nodded. She gave me an unsure look, which really should have tipped me off to what was about to happen. Then I'm sure all the officer saw was a blur, and we were gone.

Of course, what I experienced was a lot more spectacular... and painful. In case you didn't know, humans are not designed for being yanked through the air at incredibly high speeds. The move ExtremeSpeed happens to fall right in that bracket of speed where it's not going to rip your arm off or kill you, but it will probably dislocate it - and it will hurt like hell. So when we stopped in my backyard after what felt like just a few seconds, and I was kneeling on the ground holding my freshly dislocated arm, I really only had one thing to say.

"FUCK, that hurts!"

"Hold still!"

David was being treated for the few injuries he'd taken - one of which was partly my fault. His mother seemed accepting of that, not appearing particularly angry or defensive. On the contrary, she thanked me for saving him, once he explained what had happened. Her mate, his father, however, was not as accepting. Oh, he thanked me as well, out of genuine gratitude. But I could tell I still needed to prove I was not a danger; I could understand that.

"I'm fine - no, the bandage isn't too tight!" I turned in time to see David walking out of the back room, an overlapping set of cloth strips wrapped around where his ribs would be. He tested his arm for a moment, and didn't even wince - it must have been put back into place. He shot a glare back into the room, presumably at his mother, before looking over at me. "Thanks again for the save, Aurora. And for the show - never seen a real Pokémon battle before."

I gave him a small smile; I was glad he was alright. But my smile quickly faded - something didn't feel right. And from the way David's face fell, he felt it too. Then I heard something strange, a wavering humming sound layered many times over. David glanced at the glass door leading to the yard, frowning. "Why does that sound familiar..." With the sound getting closer, he walked over to the door and pulled it open, with me following right next to him.

He stepped out of the house and looked up, scanning the sky for whatever was making the sound. I don't know if he saw it, but I noticed a small black... thing dart around the side of the house. Pausing just long enough to tap his arm and grab his attention, I ran to the corner and looked where the thing had gone.

Floating in a small cluster was not one, but at least fifty strange symbol-like creatures. Each looked almost like a letter from the human language, but with a single white eye at varying positions on each. And they were all simply... floating there, all looking at me.

David nearly skidded across the grass behind me when he saw what I was looking at. "Those are... Unown... but what are they doing here?" The Unown seemed to focus on him when he started speaking, orbiting around an invisible center almost excitedly. He stood silent for a moment, just looking at the symbol-like Pokémon. Then, seeming to react to... something, the Unown scattered. In the span of a few seconds, the entire group was gone.

In their place was a translucent blue tablet, made of what seemed to be crystal. But something prompted me to take a... different look at it. Most objects either have no Aura at all, or only carry leftovers from beings that may have touched them. This tablet, however, seemed to have an Aura of its own; a glow of the same color as itself, almost bright enough to 'blind' me. As it was, I shifted back to normal sight, and took a step towards the object.

David beat me to it. He picked up the tablet and looked closely at it. For a full minute, he said nothing - only turning the thing over, running his fingers over its surface, and muttering quietly to himself. Then he turned to me and smirked. "Gotta hand it to them - Unown sure know how to start a mystery." Gesturing for me to follow, he headed back into the house.

I never saw the Scyther coming. Silent as a Haunter, it had me on the ground before I knew it was even there, and I never had a chance to react. With one bladed arm pressed against my throat, it glared down at me. "You defeated me, but did not kill me. Left me as dead, with that human. You are a coward, without the guts to kill your opponent. I will-"

A metal blade slammed flat into the Scyther's head, loosening his grip enough for me to throw him aside. David, standing the blade's length away, settled into the stance he had used when fighting me. "I don't know what you were talking about, but bug off. You do not drop into MY yard, attack one of MY guests, and expect to get away with it." He glanced at me for just a moment, but I saw his expression harden.

He quickly turned his gaze back to the Scyther, already back on its feet. Swinging the blade to bring its point aimed at the Pokémon, he used his other hand to make a 'bring it' gesture. "Unless you're the sort who's afraid of a straight-up fight, let's finish what you started. Bring it on."