The world is beginning to destabilize once more…

The deeds of the heroes long past are beginning to fade in the minds of many…

However, where one's tale ends, another's begins…

And you, young one, are to be the next…

Welcome… to the world of Pokémon!

~ The Edge of Reality ~

"…Huh? Where am I?"

'Hello there!'

"What!? Who's there!? Who are you?"

'All in due time. But first, I wish to ask you a few questions before you go.'

"Go? Go where?"

'As I said, all in due time… now are you ready?'

"I… guess so?"

'Would you consider yourself a crafty person?'

"Um, sure?"

'If you had to give something up in the now to unknowingly receive something better in the future, would you do so?'

"Well, if I don't know, then I'd pass on giving things up."

'Do you prefer being busy, or are you the lazy type?'

"Being busy. Lazy ain't my thing."

'Are you discreet? Or do you like to be the center of attention?'

"Discreet. I'm a background worker."

'Everybody around you is doing the wrong thing. Do you do the right thing? Or join the crowd?'

"Erm… Honestly, I'd join in…"

'Good. Thank you for answering those questions.'

"Okay… What now?"

'You appear to be the strong-quiet type. While you don't speak very often, you have a way of doing things that most others don't have. Though, you aren't disposed to taking orders from others. A strong and quiet type like you should be…'

~ Kira University, Commons Area ~

Neltharios sat aside his friends in silence. Some feeling was gripping his mind, and he knew why. A shaking mixture of dread, uncertainty and… hunger?

'This isn't right.' The Charmander pondered, 'Why do I feel so hungry? I just ate three bowls of this stuff by myself.'

Neltharios looked about his friends. The Passimian across from him regarded him with a curious tilt of his head, signifying his confusion. To his right sat Kruler, who glared at him, suspicion boring a hole straight into his mind. Lastly, his brother in arms, Traximus, gave him a concerned look which almost made the charmander wince.

'Do I tell them about it now,' he asked himself, beginning to sweat, 'But if I tell them now, they'd turn me in… or worse! I know I should trust at least Traxy, but if I told him…'

"Hey!" Kruler's voice snapped Neltharios back to reality, "You've been silent for too long." The Totodile suddenly threw her left arm around him, throwing everybody off guard, "Come on, relax! You need another bowl? Or nah?"

"No-No thanks! Hands off!" Neltharios snapped, throwing Kruler's arm off him, "I just… just…"

The others looked on expectantly, however, the words seemed to escape Neltharios. 'Come on! Think of something, anything to keep them from prying!'

"Er-hem!" A high-pitched, yet pompous voice behind them bellowed.

'Oh thank Arceus!' Neltharios internally cheered, 'A distraction! Just what I needed!'

As everybody turned around, what greeted them was Team Pixie. The Kirlia made an attempt to command the attention of the area, capturing the attention of many. Kroto and Traximus leered at their new visitors whereas Kruler merely rolled her eyes. Neltharios's mind, however, was elsewhere. His hands were trembling, and his head began pounding.

'Wait what is this…? Why does my body feel so weird suddenly?'

The meowth strolled up beside the Kirlia, chest pumped out in presentation of his peer. "Hello again underlings! This is your boss lady! You'd do good to treat her with the respect she deserves!"

Kruler glanced at the meowth, and then back to the Kirlia. Taking one more glance at the Meowth, she chided, "You sullied yourself to her? How low are your standards?"

Kroto nearly choked on his noodles and Traximus spit out his drink trying to hold in his laughter. "Excuse me!" Ivy shouted, "I am not of low quality! I'll have you know that I'm the most graceful, beautiful, and prettiest girl on this entire campus and-"

"Okay, but I wasn't asking you," Kruler interrupted, causing the Kirlia to flush bright red. She then turned to the Meowth, "Gosh, this is the girl you call your boss? Join a different team. It'd do you some good."

"How dare you!" Ivy screeched, causing everybody nearby to cringe, "I won't have my name sullied by some lower-class barbarians!"

Neltharios's heart began lurching out of his chest. 'Why!? It hurts!' Neltharios then began to lurch over, his breathing becoming heavy, drawing the attention of his friends.

"Nel!? Nel! You okay?!" Traximus addressed, his voice ripe with concern.

Kroto cautiously moved away from the Charmander, bracing himself, "You need some water…? How about we step back, yeah?"

Unfortunately, the kind gestures gave Neltharios no peace of mind, as the pain only grew. 'No! Make it stop! Make it STOP!' His mind began to lurch, his mouth salivating, his body tingling. He fought hard to keep his own mouth from snarling, until the realization hit him too late.

He wasn't in control of his body anymore…

~ Ultima Highlands, Road to Kira University ~

Gunka stared at the ground. His blood pumped hard against his head in nervousness. Could he do it? Could he go through with it? Surely the money is worth it, but was the risk too high this time?

'Gah! I can't focus! Why did the boss trust me to do this over Sashie?'

"Having doubts?"

The skelederge focused on his glowing connection orb. The eerie voice coming from it was enough to chill a ghost type, such as himself. Steeling himself, Gunka responded, "No sir, just needed confirmation on how I needed to do it."

"Then get on with it. I haven't the time for idle chatter after your screw up."

The connection orb dimmed and returned to its native blue color. The voice was gone, but its intent was clear to him. This wasn't what he had in mind when joining up with these pokemon. Working with Shasha was one thing, but this Fafnir individual eluded his insight. As he continued forward and the familiar view of the university came into sight, Gunka muttered a shaky prayer. He then called over his squad mates, being a Gengar and a Drapion.

"So what's the plan, boss man?" The Gengar inquired with a malicious smile on his face.

Gunka fumbled about with his connection orb, "We carry on as expected Therian…"

The Drapion huddled over the Skelederge with a sarcastic demeanor, "Oh? Is the big Notorious 'Derge getting soft on us?" she sneered.

"No Hera!" The skelederge snapped, "I just got a survival instinct!"

"Whatever," Therian snickered, "How much longer to the university?"

"We'll be there within a few more hours of walking. No clue why Fafnir couldn't just get a psychic to warp us over there."

"Perhaps it'd be too high profile?" Hera cut in.

"Or maybe they don't dealing with ghost or dark types!" The gengar chuckled.

"Now that would be something," Gunka responded, breathing deeply. While attempting to drop his anxiety, he had noticed something in the distance; a gleaming red light originating from the university, along with a primal feeling welling up from within him.

"Hey, any of you guys feel-"

"Yup, I feel it," Gunka interjected, "But what could it be? Not an Eternarift, right?"

The trio looked between themselves, not knowing what to do. After a while, Gunka decided to break out his connection orb once again and ring up Fafnir. As the orb began glowing and the connection established, the deep and sinister voice returned.

"What is the purpose of this call!? You haven't gotten to the university grounds yet, have you?!"

"Didn't mean to call ya, but we miiight have a bit of a problem," Gunka muttered, stressing himself, "We have a bright red light coming from the university along with a strange feeling that welled up from inside all of us. You know something about this, boss?"

Silence fell upon the other end, followed by some humming. Suspense lingered in the air for a while on Gunka's end before Fafnir's voice opened up again.

"If my theory is correct, then this may be your chance! Get to the western watchtower, double time! One of my contacts near your location will get you to the university faster!"

~ Kira University, Commons Area ~

A blinding flash engulfed the surrounding area, alongside an ear-piercing scream coming from somewhere in front of Traximus. However, those were far from his worst worries. This feeling - this sudden pit in his stomach that spontaneously appeared - made the Bagon fall to his stomach. Like a primal urge calling upon his fight or flight response, the small dragon attempted to will himself back to his feet and fight whatever it was that was weighing him down.

However, as he began to rise, the scream began to intensify, the voice becoming instantly recognizable to him - Neltharios. 'Nel?' Traximus pondered as he forced himself to his feet. As the light dimmed and the screaming subsided, the scene he was presented with was horrifying. A golden charmander in the center of small crater, with rocks floating all around him. Piercing red eyes in stark contrast to the usual blue it was. He had some sort of pattern of markings down his body and looked noticeably taller and leaner than he used to be.

'Nel? Is that you?' Is what Traximus wanted to say as he opened his mouth to speak, but as the Charmander glared his eyes at him, he found that no words could come out. His body was actively trembling, his mind racing to find any ounce of courage to do something, but no such thing was found. All he could do was stand there and stare back at his friend.

"I-Is that…?" Kruler's voice muttered softly to Traximus's left.

"What… is that thing?" Kroto responded quietly, "It looks like a Charmander, but bigger…"

A moment of silence passed between the four. Nobody dared to move or speak. Civilian pokemon surrounding them found themselves either taking cover behind whatever they could find, or fleeing the scene entirely. 'Neltharios', however, paid them no mind, as his gaze was solely fixated on Traximus. Just as Traximus was about to say something, a female's voice piped up from the opposite side of Neltharios.

"I-I'm not afraid of you!"

The golden Charmander's gaze lifted off Traximus and into the direction of a certain Kirlia, who looked as if she was readying a moonblast. Only, when it launched, she very quickly learned of her fatal mistake. Like the wind, Neltharios swiftly moved to his left, evading the moonblast entirely. Igniting both of his hands with fire, he lunged at Ivy nearly instantaneously. Fortunately, she managed to put up a protect in time and breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, her protect shattered wide open when a fire punch collided directly into it, sending shards of green energy in different directions. Every witness at the scene was in disbelief, how could a protect barrier be shattered by a mere fire punch?

This wasn't the end of the Charmander's onslaught, however. Right hook after left hook, fire punches landed on Ivy, and being unable to react, she had no choice but to endure. After the onslaught ended, the Kirlia was left on the ground, attempting to catch her breath. All the while, the rest of his friends watched in utter disbelief at the events unfolding.

"Guys! We have to do something!" Traximus shouted, regaining his courage.

The Totodile glanced over at Traximus, fear written all over her face, "You crazy?! I ain't going anywhere near that!"

"And what could we do anyway?! He can smash through protect! What other crazy things does this guy have in store?!" Kroto added, snarling at the Bagon.

"I don't know! But I know we just can't stand here and let him torture her like this!"

Traximus glanced about, hoping, praying that there was somebody who knew what to do in this situation. The situation was getting worse every moment they stood still. Just when the Kirlia was had by the head crest…

"Bravo team! Escort the civilians out of here! We have an alpha that spawned on university grounds! Execute protocol black!"

Looking behind them, they sight a Nidoking sporting a blue jacket with a golden badge that shined like the sun. Accompanying him was a strange looking Typhlosion with purple-red flames spouting from her back and a Roserade with black and purple flowers instead of the usual red and blue ones.

As the nidoking approached, he ordered, "You three, move out of the way, NOW!"

Seeing no reason to protest, the three pokemon stepped out of the way to allow the Nidoking and his crew to confront the alpha. However, as Traximus stepped aside, he got a closer look at the badge that the Nidoking was wearing and instantly recognized it. 'He's a part of the Gullverian Central Intelligence Bureau! Are they here because of what happened with the Eternarifts?'

"Toss the cross eye seed, I'm going in hot!" The Nidoking shouted at the Typhlosion. In agreeance, the Typhlosion spat a bit of fire on the seed and launched it at Neltharios, causing a smokescreen of gas to upend around him. Sliding on a mask, the Nidoking made a dash for Neltharios, managing to grab him from behind. While the tail flame singed a bit of his jacket, the Nidoking continued to hold on.

"Stun spore, NOW!" The nidoking commanded, leading the roserade to toss some spores onto Neltharios, stalling his movements and resistance. Finally, the Nidoking took out a sleep seed and cracked it open into Neltharios's mouth, leading the Charmander to fall into a deep slumber after a brief bout of lurching.

The Nidoking clicked something in his badge and began speaking, "Bravo, this is Echo 1 reporting in. Protocol black was a success. Threat neutralized, moving to bring into captivity."

Traximus then watched as the larger, purple pokemon effortlessly lifted the Charmander onto his shoulder and began to haul him off. The others, standing to his sides, looked on in awe.

"Who was that!?" Kruler asked, "And how did they work together so well?"

"The Feds," Kroto answered, "Specifically the GCIB. They work directly for the government."

"How do you know?"

"Nel!" Traximus shouted, causing the others to snap their attention to him. The bagon ran towards the nidoking, obviously concerned about the fate of his friend. When he got into arms reach of the nidoking, he was stopped by the other two operatives.

"Keep out kid," The typhlosion scolded, "This is official business."

"But that's my friend he's taking away!"

"Your 'Friend' is a dangerous individual. He's not just feral, he's an alpha. If your friend cannot be contained, he will be put down." The roserade coldly stated.

Traximus's eyes widened in horror. "P-Put down?! You're not serious!"

"We are. And you will face punishment for obstructing if you don't stand down now." The Typhlosion leered at the Bagon.

Seeing no other option, Traximus turned around, and in a panic, sprinted towards his friends. Noting the obvious distress on Traximus's face, they both gave concerned looks.

"What's up?" Kroto asked, "You look like you've seen a gastly."

"Guys… they're taking Nel away," Traximus huffed between breaths, "...And they might kill him if they think he's a threat!"