Today's was warm for a Kalosian noon this time of year. If Imposter had known better, it would have shielded its eyes from the sun overhead; but, as it lacked the rationality to do so, its eyes continued to burn pitifully in their sockets largely without it even noticing.
It was because of this that Imposter found itself constantly walking into large stone walls.
The Ditto's blindness was thus accompanied by numbness all over its body as it continued to fumble along the green Route Ten. It could hardly feel its bag's one strap slicing into its collarbone. It was, however, able to feel a large, pudgy hand placed on the other shoulder.
"Yo, I didn't know you had moves like that," came a familiar voice. "Just be careful you don't keep slammin' into these rocks. That's gotta hurt, no?"
Imposter turned around in a daze. The large shadow of a human speaker covered up the sun, and taking this opportunity, it blinked to regain bits of vision.
"Dit-it-it-" it mumbled, shaking. It recognized something about this human, somehow, but could not tell what, and was rather frustrated.
"Anyhows, long time no see. Ya look a little - dizzy, there. Wanna hand getting to town? It's not far away."
A patch cleared in Imposter's vision. A round head with little hair appeared, along with the friendly face of someone Imposter knew it had met before, but could not place.
"You look like you're gonna fall down. Hey, I gotcha, buddy," the human announced. Before it knew what was happening, it felt itself rising up - its feet no longer touching the ground. Feeling pleased about this, it made no objection. It finally closed its eyes when it realized it was being carried and did not have to see where it was walking. "Hey, you're quite a bit lighter than I expected."
It jolted to a start when, a few minutes later, its feet hit the dirt. "Here we are, uh... Ditto," the human said. "Geosenge Town."
Imposter was relieved to find out that its eyes were now once again functioning properly. To what extent, it could not tell, because most human towns it had visited lacked the large stones in the center of this one. They looked as though someone had buried the three-digit claw of a huge Dragon-Type and left it halfway uncovered to collect moss.
"Wish I could stay and learn some of those moves you were busting out back there," Imposter heard a human saying; probably the one who had brought it here. "Serena wants us to meet her in Shalour City, though, and as soon as possible. Can you believe she's already beat Korrina?"
Imposter could believe it, but mostly for lack of understanding who Korrina was. "So I gotta go. See you around."
And the boy jogged off, already panting as he did so. Slow, quiet applause redirected Imposter's attention.
"Good job, my man, you handled that one excellently," Froakie remarked from behind it. The sarcasm was lost on Imposter, however.
"Um, thanks, but what did I do that was so fantastic?"
"Nothing, that's the point," he explained. "Did you even remember that that was somebody you know?"
"Y-yes, who was it?"
Froakie blinked. "Hey, it's not my job to keep track of names, it's yours. Dunno, it was something with a 'T' and I think an 'N' in it somewhere. But you're just majorly out of it today, aren'tcha?"
Imposter spluttered. "And - where were you when I needed to be told not to bump into things?"
"Off to the side, laughing at you bumping into things," was his proud retort. "That being said, your cognizance level must be even lower than I first thought!"
Imposter would have had a better reply if it knew what the insult was. Instead, it made an observation. "You know a bunch of neat words, huh?"
"You try living with a twenty-five-year-old with a professor's degree. You pick up a few things."
"Touché."
Froakie snorted. "So at least you know a good rebuttal."
"You try living with a nineteen-year-old boy. You learn snarky comebacks."
"Touché."
Imposter hummed and Froakie laughed. "Well, better get on your way, then. Wouldn't want to keep Serena waiting. You do at least remember her, don't you?"
"Sabrina? Never heard of him." Froakie recoiled, and Imposter shrugged. "I'm just messing with you. We'll go, but not before a rest at this here Pokémon Center."
"Hey, see that over there?"
"See what?"
"What do you mean, see what? You can't miss 'im. Unless - have you been staring at the sun again?"
"...No..."
"I'm down here, bozo."
"...Yes."
Froakie pinched the bridge of his nose. "Well, it's just another one of those guys. You know, the ones with those bright outfits."
"...I don't know what you're talking about. All humans wear clothes. They seem to like them a lot."
"Yeah, guess they do," Froakie decided. "Just thought you'd like to know, but seems like it doesn't even matter. Say, there's a cave up ahead; it'd be a good chance to get you out of the sun for a while, eh?"
"Yeah, alright."
So in they went, expecting all to be well as the journey continued.
Imposter had handled caves before, and considered itself an expert on navigating the dark, humid dwellings of Rock-Types and lost trainers. As it soon found out, it was wrong.
Two trainers in, and Imposter was down three Ditto and was missing medicine to preserve the other two. A third battle quickly defeated them, and Imposter was forced to retreat back to Geosenge. It returned to Reflection Cave shortly, and then again to Geosenge not long after that.
Imposter's third attempt must have been the proverbial charm. After wandering for longer than it was comfortable with, avoiding trainers and a Wobbuffet that it was halfway positive was stalking it, it came upon an empty chamber.
Light came in from cracks in the ceiling, passing through a sheet of stained glass-like material that the Pokédex said was created by Carbink. Hues of pink, orange, blue, and white fell to the ground, illuminating the center.
Captivated by this phenomenon, Imposter continued to step forward, despite knowing it was a dead end. It massaged its eyes, having to again adjust to a change in brightness.
"Wow, that sure is pretty," Froakie noted. He faced upwards. "Hey, look at you! You look exhausted. D'you even know how late it is?"
"We've been in this dang cave practically all day," it explained. "I'm not a Hoothoot - well, not currently - so I have no idea. Usually just go by how dark it is, but there's no sky here."
"Well, I'm beat too. Plus, there are no humans or creepy Psychic-Types in here to worry about. Let's camp out here, whaddya say? I mean, if Serena was expecting us soon, she's already disappointed as she's gonna get."
Imposter sighed and deformed. "I guess you're right," it decided, hoisting its bag off. "Let's find a cozier place in here and stay the night."
Froakie hopped along to the corner where Imposter was dragging its bag. "Don't need to tell me twice."
Suddenly, Imposter was sprinting.
No - it was flying.
"That's it. We're almost back to Vaniville. Right this way!"
The speaker was a Pidgey, which it presumed to be wild. It figured also that it had been Transformed into this one, as no other bird Pokémon were in sight. "Good," it responded. "I'll get to see how Grace is doing. You think Calem's home for a visit too?"
"Why not?"
The two birds perched on a branch of a neighborhood tree, overlooking a building not dissimilar to Grace's house. "Look - is that him?"
"That's him!"
"Of course, who else would it be?"
Imposter smiled as best it could with a beak. "Calem! Over here, it's your friend!" Imposter cooed, but he did not seem to hear. "Pidgey, he can't hea-"
Imposter stopped when it saw that next to it was no longer a Pidgey but its buddy Limber. "Hey, what kind of trick is this?"
Limber opened its mouth in response, but said no words. Its mouth, it figured soon enough, was not a mouth at all but a growing black spot in its vision.
Imposter backed away slowly. Like a black hole, the surroundings appeared to become sucked into the growing sphere. Limber was nowhere to be found. Neither was the tree. Or Grace's house. Or much of anything else. Imposter itself was being pulled in at an alarming speed.
Everything was black for a long time. Imposter could feel only itself panting heavily, but could hear nothing.
After a minute more of terrified confusion, a voice reached Imposter's otic cavities: "Gard... ...you eating... ...reams again..?"
A majestic and feminine cry followed and Imposter regained its senses. The shock of this finally startled it awake.
"Come here. The dreams of wild Pokémon aren't your business, you know."
There was a human here! Imposter peeked out from behind the rock outcropping where it had been sleeping. Right, it was still in this dang cave.
So was a human trainer and her Gardevoir, it seemed. Imposter studied the pair. If not for her unique haircut and style of dress, it never would have recognized the woman that it met in Lumiose City days ago.
She was sitting up straight, cross-legged, on the cold ground where colored light animated her white dress.
"Now, breathe in, breathe out. Gardevoir... use Calm Mind."
The Pokémon and trainer were breathing in sync with each other. Both had their eyes closed, heads bowed at nothing.
There was easily enough room overhead, Imposter decided, and Transformed. Cautiously, it stepped up to the pair.
What would it say? Well, no matter what it said, only one of them would be able to understand; it was a better idea to stay mute.
The young woman ahead of it was rather easy on the eyes, Imposter would admit, but so were all humans as far as it was concerned. It made a few strides forward in curiosity.
Her brown hair, cut short in a cornrow braid around her head, was the only part of her appearance not colored by the circle of light in which she sat.
Imposter only noticed her necklace when the stone embedded within it began to glow. The Gardevoir beside her was wearing a matching one; different stone, same glow.
It reached out, wanting to touch this peculiar human. It placed a hand on her head, just to feel her hair. It was sleek.
The human opened one eye, then two. "Wah! W-What are you doing here?"
She scrambled backwards. The stones stopped glowing. "How'd you find out about this place?"
Imposter took back its hand and looked at her with confusion. She stood. "And while we're meditating, too. Being Champion is a stressful job, you know."
She giggled, smugly. "Well, I guess you wouldn't. But honestly, what brought you here? Especially this early in the morning. Thought you never got up before noon?"
Imposter hiccuped. Wanting to explain itself, it remembered how bad its people skills were. It stepped backwards.
"Oh, wait, I'm sorry. You're the brother, aren't you? Gosh, this is embarrassing. Imposter, right?"
The Ditto's heart skipped a beat; as far as it remembered, it never told her its name. "Relax, Augustine told me all about you. Pity, what you've gone through. I wouldn't wish that upon my greatest enemy."
Augustine? The Fletchinder story. It was remembering now.
"Regardless of that, my question still holds." She wrinkled her brow, and changed her tone from accusatory to curious: "What are you doing here?"
It looked around and shrugged. It was just here on its adventure, like any trainer that might pass through Reflection Cave. It only stayed the night because this part of the cave was pretty, and that was it.
"Are-Are you lost?"
That it was. It nodded.
"...I see. Well, I'd gladly escort you out. Are you headed for Geosenge or Shalour?"
It nodded again at the second one, the lady confirmed it, and Imposter agreed. "Alright. Follow us, then."
Imposter held up a finger while it ran back - tripping on the way, of course - to grab its bag and Froakie. (The latter was still snoozing, mumbling something along the lines of "Uh, it's not my Furret!")
"It's really not that far to Shalour. If only you'd kept going you would have made it in a jiff," the human insisted.
Various trainers turned when they saw her walking through the cave, but no one dared speak to her. Imposter eventually realized that it still lacked her name.
It dug around in its bag for its Trainer Card and tapped its companion's shoulder.
It pointed questioningly to the space where its own name was, then to her. "Oh, you want to know my name," she inferred after a few seconds. "My mistake. It's Diantha."
"Where's my lava cookie..." Froakie subconsciously wondered, nestled in Imposter's arms.
"Here we are," Diantha exclaimed after a trek. "Big Shalour City. Home of the Tower of Mastery and of course, an official Kalos League Pokémon Gym. You ought to check them both out. I know Korrina would be thrilled."
Today was overcast, but even yesterday's sunshine could not amount to the brightness on Imposter's face. "I take it you'd be happy too?" Diantha remarked. "Verily, then, I have done my job. Good day, and if you'll please excuse Gardevoir and myself, we must be leaving."
Imposter understood and shook its hand in her face. This was called waving, it had once learned. You do that to people when you say goodbye.
"Um-" she used a finger to push down its whole hand. "So long to you as well."
Then she turned and went back into that dang cave. Imposter hardly looked back.
It was finally in Shalour City; Serena would be waiting no longer.
Imposter Fact of the Day: The dream sequence involving a Pidgey is no coincidence. At first, there was going to be one traveling with Imposter and Froakie, to use the HM Fly. Unlike Froakie, though, he added nothing, and failed to make the final cut.
Ugh, chapter six. Wanna hear the story of how his chapter once ruined my day? Well, the short version is that it once accidentally got replaced by all of chapter seven. A few hours of agony (thinking I'd have to rewrite the whole thing) later, and I realized that Google Docs saves all versions of the document since its creation. A copy and a paste later, and I had my chapter back!
Moral of the story is, use Google Docs, kids!
(Oh yeah, and the special colorful light chamber is an actual place in Reflection Cave, sorta hidden in the back somewhere. Anyone know what it's for? Because I've never actually - figured that out.)