Confusion fills Serperior's face. He relaxes his grip long enough for me to scramble away while Skitty falls to the ground. "Are you ok?" She asks, looking me over. "Never mind that, are you?" She took quite a fall, but she's shaking her head, "Don't worry about me, I'm fine."

We look back to Serperior, who I realize is looking quite intently at us. At me.

"Prove it."

"Huh?" We say together.

"If-if you are Gwen, I'll need proof to believe it."

"Well…" I say, reaching for my bag, "this is my bag, with—" "No…I mean something…more personal to prove it's really yo-her. Something only she'd know."

"She said she lost her memory! What do you expect!?"

"Well I can't go on faith alone can I? I'm wanted by the law for some reason, remember?"

"You're wanted for attacking some poor defenseless pokemon, actually!"

"Hey! I do remember one thing…if that'll be enough" I pipe in to stop their bickering. They turn to me, expectantly. I tell them about the memory of us at the train station.

His cheeks go pink, is he…embarrassed? If he wasn't before, he will be now that Skitty's lying on her side and cackling. "I-I had only just evolved! I was young and didn't understand!" he says, glaring at her, as she tries, unsuccessfully, to stifle her laughter.

He's looking at me again, searching my face. It's a little unnerving. "Gwen…?" "…the one and only." I offer while smiling awkwardly. Way to ruin a moment. I'm spared of overthinking my mood-ruining response when the air is forced out of my lungs a second time.

I panic for a moment. Am I being…attacked? Again? Have I misread the situation? Maybe he hated me…maybe Dragalge and Rotom would have eviscerated me had they known who I really was.

"Oh Gwen! I thought…in the explosion…when I woke up and-and couldn't find you I-I-" he's crying. I'm crying a little too, but more because I'm about to be crushed to death. What a way to go—you apparently survive an explosion, just to be suffocated by your old teammate. Maybe the tearful reunion wasn't the best outcome after all.

"Um hey, excuse me! Don't you think she's going a funny color?" Good ol' Skitty coming to my rescue. "Ah! Sorry!" he releases me while I catch my breath.

"I just—I can't believe—I don't know what to say…" despite seeming to be at a loss for words, he still finds a way to say quite a lot of them. "But you…you lost your memories?"

"Well it sounds like she's getting some of them back" Skitty says, "I wonder what other of your best moments are tucked away in her head?" She grins. "Look! Where we're from some pokemon spend a lot of time in these things! I just…don't care for it." he holds his head high, but is clearly getting flustered. "Take it easy! I didn't mean any offense, just messing with ya!" She says, patting him with her tail.

I realize I'm just standing there like an idiot while Skitty continues riling him up. "I guess I should introduce you…uh, Serperior, this is Skitty, she's the leader of the exploration team I joined, Team Starburst." Now if someone could reintroduce me to him, that would be great. It feels a little weird, he knows me, but so far all I have is a 30 second memory of him being difficult.

Still, hopefully it marks the start of the rest of my memories returning.

He makes a quizzical expression. "Team…Starburst? Who came up with that?" Why does he care? "It came to Gwen in a fit of inspiration!" Skitty says proudly. "Huh, it seems your memories are probably closer than you think." He says thoughtfully. "I guess it will make more sense if I fill you in" he says, noting our confused faces.

"Ok…where to begin?" "How about from the start, genius?" Skitty says slightly less playfully than I think was intended. She seems a little tense, but I guess the whole situation is kind of odd. We were meant to be arresting Serperior, but now we're sitting down for him to introduce both of us to…myself.

"…right," he squirms, "well, Gwen was—is—my trainer, Dragalge and Rotom's too." Their…trainer? The word carries weight, but I'm not wholly sure what it means. He must sense my confusion, "It's…it's like the team leader, but where we're from, it's a role reserved for humans." So those three…they were my team? But…how did we get here? And, if it's true, how are Audino and Phantump involved? It's still not adding up.

"Ok, that's nice, but how did you all get here?" Skitty says, reading my mind. "I don't know the exact physics per se…" he starts, "but there was an accident." "The explosion" Skitty offers. "Right. So Gwen worked in a lab for an ambitious scientist, Dr. Laurel, studying ultra wormholes." "What…what are those?" I ask awkwardly. I was a scientist? "Um…" he's looking a little embarrassed and glances away, "well you were the scientist…but…I understood them as portals to other worlds." "So what, you guys all hopped in a wormhole and ended up here?" Skitty coaxed. "Not quite. Gwen and the professor had an argument. He discovered this world, and had plans to…to kind of take it over."

"Huh?"

"Well, they had opened small wormholes before…just enough to make observations, but his ambitions were greater than that. He started talking about entering this world, making it something he could profit from. Because there were no humans, but the pokemon had their own 'society,' he thought it would make a good…tourist destination, of sorts." Skitty and I share a worried glance. "He thought it could make him a lot of money, and I guess it probably would; a one-of-a-kind tourist resort where people can watch and interact with pokemon that live like humans."

So my life has been turned upside down, my memories lost and family scattered in a strange world…because my old boss wanted to create a tourist attraction?

"Anyway, they had an argument as they were studying a larger wormhole. He wanted to send test subjects to check it's stability and start making a move on his plans, but she felt we shouldn't actually enter this world, only observe." Serperior continues. How ironic that I ended up here anyway. "The argument escalated, there was a battle, right there in the lab, and with the various moves…in the confusion the wormhole became unstable. It sort of…well it exploded and pulled us in. I suppose its instability was somehow responsible Gwen's transformation and memory loss."

It's…a lot to take in, and I don't say that lightly. They were my team. I was a scientist. Working on ultra wormholes? I hope I eventually regain my memory of whatever education that entailed too!

And…I knew about this world before we came here. I'd been watching it…for research. It sounds kind of creepy, what exactly were we observing? And the professor…he wanted to take over this place? What kind of crazy plan was that?

"Gwen?" "Are you alright?" They say together. I'm breathing fast. My mind is racing and there's a slight buzzing in my ears. Learning all of this stuff about myself…I'm starting to realize the full extent of what I've lost. A whole world…a whole identity and family and career that I don't know anything about…it's…it's…

Skitty presses up against my side, wrapping her tail around me. "Shhh…it's ok Gwen…we'll figure it all out." Serperior stands there awkwardly, unsure how to help. I should know him, I should know all three of them…we're supposed to be a team! But I hunted them down, Rotom and Dragalge are who knows where in the Center, and—

"Hello? Skitty? Gwen? Are you in here?" Noibat's voice calls out. "I heard what happened! Did you catch—" he appears, stopping when he sees Serperior behind us.

"Oh-oh no…" he glances nervously behind him. "Noibat! We can explain, it's about Gwen!" Skitty says excitedly. Voices emerge behind Noibat, and out come Phantump and Audino. Serperior is suddenly in front of us. "YOU!" He shouts furiously.

"Well well, this is quite a situation…" Phantump floats in, sounding rather more adult than he had before. "I'm assuming you've been reacquainted?" His voice softens, "That's a shame…it makes this next part so much harder." Suddenly Audino let's out a shrill cry, "No! Please, stop!"

More clambering from behind them as other teams from the Exploration Center come crashing in. "It came from there!" "Hurry, they're in trouble!" "Gwen? Skitty? What's happening?"

Phantump rushes over to them, eyes wet. "T-thank goodness you're here! W-we heard voices over here, and-and—" he collapses into a puddle of tears, clutching at Clobbupus' front. "They attacked us without warning!" Audino starts, "Gwen and Skitty, they teamed up with Serperior!"

"It can't be!" Flittle says, "team Starburst…they've been working to catch the outlaws!" "But…" Ariados interjects "what were they doing in this secluded place together? It's almost like-" "a secret base!" Enter Lurantis. Great, just what was missing.

Let me paint you a picture. All our friends, colleagues, mentors, have just entered this…'secret base,' Phantump and Audino are crying and raving about being attacked, Noibat is hovering around them looking sheepish, and Serperior looming over everyone, fury in his eyes, while blocking them from Skitty and I.

I'm calling it; we're going to be arrested.