The Future's Young Fingerprint

Larousse City, Hoenn. 29th June, 2033. 2:01am.

"Hey, wait up!" Leaf hurried to catch up to Gary and Paul. She looked up with one eye closed as she bent down panting. "What are you guys, in such a hurry?" she asked.

Paul rolled his eyes. "Cause we wanna sleep," he responded dryly. Gary nodded. Leaf rolled her eyes at the boys. "Yeah, okay," she replied brusquely, folding her arms and looking the other way. Gary shrugged and followed Paul through some bushes. Leaf opened one eye. "Hey!" she ran after them, not noticing a strange creature slithering in the shadows behind her.

Leaf looked around panting. Suddenly, she saw a tuft of Gary's brown locks. "Hey!" she yelled, following it. Soon enough, she got lost. "Fuck," she cursed loudly. Suddenly, the bushes in front of her ruffled furiously. Leaf swallowed and looked around nervously. She didn't have any pokémon on her; she'd given them to Gary for safekeeping!

Previously…

"Gary," Leaf tapped Gary's shoulder. The brunet whirled around. "Leaf, hey!" he waved. Leaf looked down at her pokémon. "Could you keep my pokémon with you for safekeeping? I gave my bag to May to collect food." Gary looked surprised, but nodded. "Sure," Leaf smiled as she handed over her pokéballs. "Thanks,"

Present…

"Shit," she cursed again. "What the hell am I gonna do?" she muttered to herself. Suddenly, a large Houndoom jumped out of the bushes. Leaf gulped. She wanted to run, but there was no way she could match the speed of the large dog.

The Houndoom circled her threateningly, waiting for the perfect moment to strike its prey. She looked around nervously, hoping that one of her friends would show up. They bushes didn't move, though. She looked down sadly. "Guess this is the end of my life," she muttered. All of a sudden, she recalled how if she died today, it would affect the future: Liam wouldn't exist, neither would Aidan and she wouldn't be married to Gary (though at this point, she was contemplating on whether he was even 'husband' material).

She suddenly decided to make a move. A bold move. Instead of running into the woods with a huge ass Houndoom chasing her and killing her in a few seconds, she decided to startle it and call for help. Loudly. "HELP ME YOU IDIOTS!" she screeched. The Houndoom staggered back a few steps, startled by it's prey's actions, though regained it's senses a few seconds later and growled.

Leaf swallowed hard. "God, why'd they run off like that," she muttered as she accepted her defeat. As soon as the Houndoom pounced at her, something pushed the Houndoom out of the way. Leaf got up and breathed heavily: the Houndoom may as well have cut off her air supply. Taking in a couple breaths, she fainted from both lack of oxygen and fear. The creature approached her body slowly. Once realizing that she'd fainted, the creature quickly gripped onto a piece of fabric and dragged her toward's a nearby cave.

Meanwhile, Gary and Paul were filling up the group's water bottles. "Dude, I don't think it was a good idea to run off like that," Paul said. Gary shrugged. "She'll live," he said. "She has her pokémon-" he paused and looked through his backpack. He pulled out three capsules. "Oh wait, she doesn't,"

Paul slapped his forehead. "Man, what the fucking hell?!" he yelled in frustration. Gary stood up and folded his arms defensively. "Ayo, why're you so worried?!" he yelled back. "Because out of the three people in our group, we lost one!" Paul pulled at his hair. "In this entire forest, how the hell are we supposed to find her?!" Gary silenced and looked down.

"HELP ME YOU IDIOTS!"

Gary looked over to where the faint screech had come from. He pointed in that direction. "Like that," he said, running over. "Wait!" Paul called. Gary stopped. "Give me two pokémon. I'll take back the water. You stop being an asshole and get back Leaf, got it?" Gary sighed defeatedly and nodded. He passed on two random pokémon over to Paul before continuing on his way.

Please be okay, Leaf he prayed silently.

About ten minutes later, Paul reached the cave that his older counterpart and his family had found for them. "I'm here," he panted, putting down the pails of water. "Oh thank god, Belle was super thirsty," Older Dawn said, hurrying to reach for Belle's water bottle.

Older Paul looked behind him. "Where's Gary and Leaf?" he asked. Paul ran a hand through his hair frustratedly. "Stupid Gary, decided to run off and leave Leaf behind, so now, we lost Leaf. Thankfully, Leaf decided to scream, and Gary went to find her," he told them.

"Wait, Leaf screamed?" Older Dawn asked. Paul nodded. "What did she say?" Older Paul asked. "Something along the lines of 'Help me you idiots!'" he tapped his chin before nodding. Older Dawn and Older Paul exchanged glances. "Then Gary better find her," Older Dawn spoke seriously. "Because Leaf never screams for no reason,"