I felt a paw land on my shoulder.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm so sorry for what you had to hear. I don't want to hurt you… You are the human, right?" I wasn't sure how to respond, but I did manage to look up at him.

I was clear that Tony knew that I would still be cautious about answering the question, so he took my silence as a yes.

"I'm not going to tell anyone, and I don't think any of them are going to figure it out on their own either. I only figured it out because I have a… 'certain advantage'." I wiped away my tears as Tony lowered himself to face me, and forced a smile.

"What do you mean?" I croaked and sat up expectantly. Tony checked the door to make sure that it was closed all the way, before starting;

"Keep an ear up for anyone coming in. I think we have enough time for me to tell you a story, one I've never told anyone else before…"


"I was just a young Eevee making my way through my life. I lived with my parents, and my only concern was that I made it to school. There wasn't much to look forward to, but also not much to dread. To be honest, it was really boring. So, when I heard about how there was a rare event happening soon, I wasn't even concerned about what it was, I just wanted to see it. My parents, however, didn't want me to, and that just made it even cooler.

I heard that it could happen anywhere on the island, I knew that much, but I didn't know that the "rare event" was actually the summoning of a human. I heard a rumor that this "event" would be happening in the forest. So when the day came, like the idiot that I was, I ran off into it against my parent's wishes. It was directly after school, so I had some time before I was expected to be home.

I found a good large clearing, a place where I could get a good 360 view of the area around me. In hindsight, judging by the pile of ashes and conspicuous lack of leaves, people clearly slept there. Being an oblivious child though, I didn't realize that and thought it really was just a random clearing.

I waited, and waited, and waited for something to happen. As the sun was setting, I finally realized that I may have chosen the wrong area, so I started my trek back home for dinner, and to ask my mom if she had heard anything- AND BOOM! Haha.

Just like that, I was knocked out. It wasn't like I was hit over the head or anything, it was as if I just fell asleep on the spot.

Later that evening when I woke up, it was already too dark to see, and the moon only illuminated enough to make out the shadowy figures of the plants around me. I couldn't tell where I was exactly, only that this wasn't the clearing where I first fell asleep. I started to cry, and it wasn't because I thought I was going to die, but because I knew I would be in trouble when I got home.

That's when I heard a voice telling me to turn left and walk into the forest. I looked around for the source of the voice, but couldn't find anyone. I refused the order, and sat down, because I didn't want to leave the area and go off into the pitch-black night, but then my legs forcibly stood on their own. When I tried to push them back down with my chest, my chest disobeyed me as well and allowed my legs to continue.

With nothing left to help me, all I could do was scream in terror. I marched forward with no say in the matter.

Mere meters beyond the darkness, my screaming stopped as well-

I sat up and gasped. I looked around and saw that I was back where I was in the clearing, and it was like what I had been through had never happened at all, like a dream. So that's what I dismissed it as. It was still night, but I could eventually navigate my way back to the path leading out of the forest. I made my way back to my house. As I was expecting, my mom was angry at me and told me to go to bed without dinner. I didn't want to make her angrier, so I did as told and went to sleep.

That night, I dreamt that I was in a white void. There was nothing around, except for a weird-looking pokemon.

He stood on two legs, but unlike the pokemon I knew, there were no ears or tails. It also had 5, much longer digits than usual, and lacked any fur beyond some gray bits on the top and in front of its head. The legs were long and straight, nothing like anything I had ever seen before, and the face was flat with small eyes. Without the fur, it revealed the skin, it being a similar tone to the chest of a Lucario. On top of it all, he was also wearing black pants and a red shirt.

Well, I'm sure you already get the point of what I'm trying to describe here. It was a human. Anyways…

'Who are you?' I asked, nervous to talk to a stranger.

"My name is Mike. Do you know why I'm here?" He turned his neck to face me and adjusted his posture to stand up taller. He moved one of his hands up to his face and began scanning me up and down.

"I- I don't know, but I'm Tony." I took a step backward as I introduced myself. I finally noticed that being in a white void is not normal, and realized I was in a dream. I paused for a moment, and then made the baffling decision to conjure up an imaginary classroom and then expect him to sit down. I have no idea what my reasoning for this was, and my only explanation was that I was a child. To my surprise, he did not, and it looked like he didn't care at all.

"Looks like I'm going to be here for a while then. I've been searching for a long time now, and I can't seem to find an exit." Mike said, and a door appeared from the nearby wall.

He opened it, and almost walked through, but was stopped when he saw it only led to more of the same white void as was there beforehand. He slammed the door shut, prompting it to disappear, and turned back to me.

"Yep. As expected," Mike took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth to let out a sigh. "...Say, you look familiar. Do I know you from somewhere?" he stared at me with a puzzled expression, as if he was searching for clues. "...Wait, let me see your arm!"

I reluctantly moved up to him and placed my arm on a desk. He grabbed it and rotated it to see the underside.

"Wait, you're the anim- guy I woke up as in that forest!"

"That was you?!" I exclaimed and stepped backward. It would definitely take a while for what he just said to process in my mind.

"Yep." He laughed about it, but stopped once he saw how upset I looked. "Sorry… Sorry! I didn't want to hurt you." He sounded guilty, but I still turned away from him.

I don't remember much between then and waking up. What I do remember is hearing that voice in my head again. It was the same voice that I heard in the forest.

"Can you hear me?" it asked, and it took me a moment to realize who I was talking to.

"Yes Mike, yes I can."