Note; Rated 10+, only for the fact that the violence goes but a little further than your typical Pokemon story, and the joking form of "cursing". None of this is meant to offend, and anything graphic is attempted to be completely toned down. Most people will more than be able to handle it. Just, no five-year-olds. None.


Credit to xtrickie_nikkix on Wattpad for the cover.


Chapter One
Introduction;

HEY, YOU SNOOP! YES, YOU! What are you doing poking around in here? Shouldn't you know better than to mess around where you aren't supposed to? To play with things you oughtn't know in the first place? Well, then. Let me tell you a tale in which secret things, and the divulging of them, inflict pain and misery. Mwahaha... You want secrets? You may just get more hidden darkness than you ever bargained for...

Joy-joy

Once upon a time, there was a young trainer named Joy-Joy. She roamed Sinnoh, looking for adventures and battling whenever she could. Her most beloved Pokemon were an Infernape named Bright, a Roserade name Lotus, a Gardevoir named Twirla, a Luxray named Spark, and an ancient Empoleon named Rascal.
Powerful indeed were these Pokemon. They were known far and wide throughout Sinnoh as the Five, and Joy-Joy was notorious for never losing a battle using any of them, ever. Some said it was because of a deep psychic bond with them, others claimed it was her incredible wit and creativity with her battle maneuvers. Whatever it was, it had recently led her to battle (and eventually beat) Champion Cynthia, though not without a few scars. She-

"Joy-Joy!" Dasher interrupts me. "You tell stories slower than Rascal does! More boringly too. Just skip to the good part!" He exaggerates the word 'boring' in his facial expression, which always looks weird when a Gardevoir does it. He's also leaning his elbows on the coffee table, when he knows it's bad manners. One worded description of him; Pessimistic.
Sparkle lifts her head off of the couch pillow to give Dasher a perturbed glare. Like her brother Dasher, Sparkle is also a Gardevoir. She waves a shimmering blue hand indifferently in my direction. "Ignore him. I love it when you tell us stories." I shrug and continue the tale:
But fame did not suit Joy-Joy well. Constant interviews from the well-meaning media, and people asking for autographs made the shy new champion nervous. So, she set off on a new journey across Sinnoh in disguise.

"What did she do on this journey? If she has all the badges, there's no point in challenging the gyms again." Typical Dasher for you. Can't say he doesn't use logic, of a sort.
"She was sight-seeing and bringing back memories." I snap. "Next untimely interruption, I stop telling you the story. Agreed?" He shrugs, a neutral gesture. I take it as agreement, and proceed once more.

One day on this journey, she camped in a small clearing in Forest. Her Pokemon were hungry, so she left the campsite to search for berries. Naturally forgetful, she took her Luxray and left her bag with the rest of her Pokeballs on the ground. For one reason or the other, a couple of her empty Pokeballs fell out of the bag.

"There we go. The good part."
"Dasher..." This is Psycho. You may have not noticed him sitting on the windowsill before, so I might as well introduce you. He's a young Gallade, ironically as optimistic as Dasher is pessimistic. You would hardly believe them brothers if you weren't told it.
Dasher sighs. "I'll stop talking now. Continue..."

This seems interesting. I find it a bit unique that the narrator is the main character.

*manouvre

The end of this... Part or chapter or prologue seemed a bit vague. It wasnt very clear on what the Pokemon were planning to do with the empty Pokéballs... Or if they were planning on doing anything at all.

Overall, it seems well constructed and interesting. Can't wait for more.

While Joy-Joy was gone, two Kirlia and a shiny Ralts came out of the forest to investigate her campsite. They wanted to see what a human was doing in the forest. Of course, an old saying came to mind; "You can't judge a Mincinno by the items she hides, but you can learn where her interests lie." Thus, they decided to take a look at her bag.
But before they got into the bag, they found the Pokeballs spilled on the ground. "What's this?" The taller Kirlia asked. "It's all strange and unnaturally smooth. Doesn't look like food. Maybe it's a play-toy?"
The shorter one laughed. "I've heard about these. It's a Dokey-Ball or something of the like."
Little Ralts spoke up, staring intently at the unfamiliar objects. "What do they do?"
"Well," replied the shorter Kirlia, "I'd sort of forgotten, but it sucks you in. Once you're in, you stay in forever. Unless the person lets you out."
A shriek rose from the Ralts. She scuttled behind a nearby bush, quick as she could. "I don't wanna be trapped forever! I'm not gonna go near those, those..." Speechless, she came away at a loss for words.
Scoffing, the taller Kirlia took a tentative step towards the Pokeballs. "You're putting us on again, aren't you? Look, I'll touch it and nothing will happen! You see."
The short one sighed. "I'm not lying. Go ahead, get sucked in forever... Not gonna stop you." Still, he looked nervous.
The tall one tip-toed carefully over to a nearby Greatball. "Lookit, this one's blue. Weird humans." Another step closer. And then...
He tapped it with his foot. No reaction. "Ha! I knew you were wrong!" The Kirlia then kicked the Greatball in triumph. Hard. Right on the button. Zaaaap. Click. Wiggle... Wiggle... Wiggle... Doink! The remaining Kirlia and Ralts watched, horrified.

"Oh no, oh no, oh no! It ATE him! How do we get him out?" the Kirlia panicked. He ran over to the Pokeball, picked it up, and shook it. "Come out! Don't leave me!" The Ralts watched, unable to choose between fascination, mirth, and horror. Mirth eventually overrode her other possible reactions, and she rolled out from behind the bush, laughing raucously. The short Kirlia turned over to her. "It's not funny! It ate him, and I can't get it open! Get me a sharp rock, will you Sparky? I'm going to try and pry it open so he can escape." He began to try unsuccessfully to pull the ball in half, the way it opened.
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Don't call me Sparky, I hate that pet-name." Coyly, the Ralts held out a rock in her hand. "Stop calling me Sparky, and I'll hand this over so you can save him." An evil grin spread across her face.
The Kirlia sighed and temporarily ceased his attempts to force the Pokeball open. "Fine. I'll stop calling you Sparky. May I have the rock now?"
Smiling sweetly, the Ralts held the rock out to him.

"What I don't understand is how anyone could be dumb enough to try and pry open a Pokeball with a rock." Dasher says, perhaps a little smugly. "That's why it's my favorite part."
Psycho shifts in the windowsill uncomfortably. "They were kids," he reputes, "Kids do dumb things."
Sticking her tongue out, Sparkle pokes Dasher. She gets the satisfaction of seeing him flinch. "And annoying teenage brothers say mean things. On with the story, please."
Dasher makes a 'pfft' noise and gives Sparkle a glare, but doesn't argue. "Onward, Joy. Whatever."

I wonder really, if telling them these stories is worth the trouble. Even so, I turn the page and continue...

Imagine the young champion's surprise when she came back to find a Kirlia attacking one of her Pokeballs with a rock! Just as surprising was the shiny Ralts whom laughed at the Kirlia's attempts, and spoke rapidly to him.
"Spark!" Joy whispered. "Stop and look over there."
"How am I supposed to see carrying this sack?" her Luxray mumbled around a sack of berries in her mouth. It came out more like, "Ow 'm ah uppose ooh 'ee a'ring thith ack?" she asked. "' 'Elp with thith!" Joy-Joy obliged and took the sack from her.
Spark peered out from behind a tree and scanned the campsite. "What am I supposed to see?" she asked, tail flicking anxiously.
Joy pointed over to the shady area where she had set her bag down.
"Goodness gracious! What's going on over there?" Spark stared incredulously at the Kirlia and Ralts. Excited, Joy shrugged. "Guess we'd better find out."

The Ralts cheers on the Kirlia dryly. "Come on, Psy! You almost got it! Keeeeeeeep it up! I think it's almost open! Go-"
"Will you please stop that? You know nothings happening!" Worn out and frightened at his brother's disappearance, the poor Kirlia had no more capacity for his sister's jests. "I don't know if we'll ever get him out. What are we supposed to do?" In his frustration, he threw the Pokeball and the stone to the ground, bawling. "It's useless! He's (Sniff) trapped forever! (Snuffle) I am a failure!"
Ralts yawned. "Oh, it's not that bad. The silence without him's kinda nice, don't you think?" Movement caught her notice out of the corner of her eye. A whisper of leaves on leaves told her they were not alone. A sharp glance up confirmed it. "Psy," she began. "I've found the human..."

"Really, di-"
Sparkle shushed Dasher. "Hush! This is MY favorite part!"

Joy-Joy and Spark began to slowly make their way towards the Pokemon. Their padded footfalls went unnoticed until Joy's sleeve caught on a branch. She managed to get it unstuck quietly enough. But even so, the as the branch bent back to it's original position, it brushed up against a bush. The leaves made a small whisper as they slid up against each other.
The Ralts looked up at them in surprise.

"What happened next?" Psycho seems eager for more. Ignoring the fact that...
"Dude, she's already read this to us, like, a hundred times." Of course, Dasher. Did you expect someone else? "One day, it'll be overused and boring," he sighs. "Really boring."
Sparkle shushes both before poking Dasher again. "So? Lets hear it again. It's not boring yet."
Hmm. "I don't know... I think we should stop for tonight. It's getting awfully late..." Gosh, it is late. The mantle clock says it's already 9:00. "I think we should go to bed for tonight."
Sparkle and Psycho collectively sigh. "Come on. Pleeeeeaaaase Joy-Joy, let's finish it." Both shoot me pleading looks and put on their best puppy-dog eyes. Dasher, on the other hand, rolls his eyes.

I consider it. "We will finish it tomorrow. Come on, we have to get some sleep." More sighs, but they don't complain. It's not often that I read them stories anymore, and they love it every time I do.
If you were observant enough, you might have figured out that the wild Pokemon in the story were Sparkle, Dasher, and Psycho. That was the day I caught them, and it's their favorite story. How does it end? You'll learn with time. Patience is a virtue you know.
But sometimes, I wonder.
If I had just finished it, maybe things would have never changed...
Then again, maybe not.

Dasher

My back is sore from slouching, and my elbows hurt from leaning them on the coffee table. I do that to annoy Joy-joy, but I think it annoys me more than her. I stretch, to get rid of the soreness. A Champion's Pokemon isn't supposed to care about pain, but I'm not one of her strong ones, the ones she battles the few and far-in-between challengers with. They say I will be someday, if I train up more, but I'm pretty sure it won't ever happen.
As I stretch, Psycho clambers up onto the windowsill and opens the window. Without a sound, he slips out into the night. He and some of the other Pokemon sleep outside. Once out, Psy closes the window behind him despite the fact that no-one would care anyway. It's a nice spring night outside, and a bit of circulating fresh air would do some good in the stuffy mansion.
Sparkle just barrels right past me, and out the back door. She gives me a dirty look as she goes past. Guess she blames me for the story's early ending tonight. I suppose it might have gotten finished if I didn't interrupt so much, but I like to give opinions. Gives the story some flavor when it gets boring.
I go past the window and up the stairs to my little room. It's small, and mostly taken up by my bed. That's the way I like it.
Normally I am a sound sleeper, but rest eludes me this night. Tossing and turning, my eyes refuse to close. In this atypical insomnia, I stare out my window. The small clock on my side table goes from 9:13, to 9:34, to 10:07. Finally, tiredness creeps up on me. One last look outside before drifting off...

I have a good view of the backyard out my window. Look, there's Rascal, that old Empoleon snoring under his tree. He never sleeps away from the tree if he can help it for some reason. Oh, there's Psycho's hammock, slung between those two trees right there, at the edge of the backyard where it meets the forest. Wait, is he awake? Even as far away as I am, I can see his eyes flutter open.
Psycho jumps off his hammock and dashes off into the woods without any visible reason. Huh, maybe he couldn't sleep either. Oh well, I think, that's his problem for now. Nothing I can do about it...
I flop limply back in bed and forget the strange happening in the darkness of dreamless sleep...
Dreamless, but not necessarily easy.

Joy-joy

Bang. Crash, Bang! A muffled voice yells out something indecipherable. Thwack, Wack.
Groaning, I sit up in bed. Thwack. The noise coming from outside my door is severely annoying. Ugh, I bet someone got up early to train. More likely than not, it is Spark, my most avid battler. I lift my head just slightly and open my eyes. To my surprise, Spark is sleeping at the edge of my bed, like most canine Pokemon might. Her tail is curled up almost around her. The star-like tip rests on my knee, and her fore-paws rest on my feet.
If she isn't the one training training, then who is?
I look over the side of my bed. Lotus slumbers on his small pile of cushions. Aww, he's even sucking on one of his petals. Cute. Well, he's certainly not the one training.
I slip my hands from under the bed sheets to pick up the two Pokeballs on my side table. Twirla and Bright, my Gardevoir and Infernape usually sleep in their Pokeballs, since they know how to let themselves out. The Greatball is heavy and warm with Twirla's presence. Bright's Pokeball is cold, and feels empty. Satisfied with the results, I place them back down carefully. So Bright must be the one training.

I wiggle and shift my way out of bed, slowly, so as not to disturb anyone. Spark notices anyways, and stirs. Her eyes crack open just enough to give me a curious glance. Darn.
"Joy-joy," she yawns out. "Why are you getting out of bed? It's not even light out." She's right, it's dark outside my window. The alarm clock says it is almost four thirty.
Voice hushed, I explain why I'm awake. "Someone is making noise in the living room. I just wanted to check it ou-" THWACK! Lotus gasps and sits up. "Joy-joy, did you hear that?" Somehow, he's wide awake and alert, even though he's just gotten up. "What's the noise out there?"
"I don't know Lotus. I think Bright must be training. His Pokeball is empty. I'm going to check just in case." Both Spark and Lotus look ready to follow me, so I tell them to go back to sleep.
Spark does a cat-stretch and stares me straight in the face. Maybe through my face. You can never tell with Luxray. "You think I'll miss the excitement? Uh-uh. I'm coming too!" Great, my blunt, semi-sarcastic Luxray, ready to lecture the early-bird on the racket they made. Lovely.
Lotus just plops back down in his cushions. I can safely assume he's back asleep. Well, I guess one Pokemon following me won't hurt. "Fine Spark," I sigh, "you can come. Just don't yell at Bright or anything, because you know it'll only wake more people up." She shrugs and leaps up to follow me.

We trod over to the door and I turn the knob to open it. We are both expecting Bright to be pounding away at one of the punching bags in the living room. Instead...
Dasher is charging through the living room, bumping into things and banging on doors. He stops at my open doorway, stands stock-still, and glances between me and Spark. "Oh. You're already up."
I huff in irritation. "Dasher! What do you think you're doing? Like we could sleep with that racket! What's gotten into you?" When I stop scolding, I notice that he's paler that even Gardevoir usually are. His breath catches in his throat, and his eyes are wide and nervously darting between me and Spark, not just glancing. He looks like he's seen a ghost.
"Dasher." My commanding tone seems to startle him a little. "What's wrong here? Is everything alright?"
He shakes his head slowly. "No," he says. His gaze adverts from mine and Spark's. "Psycho's gone."

A perplexed expression crosses Sparks face. "You say what now? Great Giratina, he's probably out on an early-morning walk or something." Her tail flicks a little to the side, showing me that she's more worried than she's letting on. "You're overreacting."
A few other doors creak open. Some of my other Pokemon, a Lopunny called Loppily, Queenie the Vespiquen, Gallant the Gallade, and a Lucario named Roku wander in confusion out into the living room. Spark nudges me with her tail. "I'll explain it to them." Calmly, she pads over to let them know the issue.
I turn back to Dasher. "What do you mean he's missing? It's not like we keep track of every Pokemon, all the time. Bright's out somewhere too."
He only looks more worried. "He's gone too?"
I nod. "Yes. Tell me why you think Psycho's absence is bad. Is there any evidence he was taken against his will? That someone captured him? Does it look like there was a battle?"
He thinks for a moment, breathing out heavily. "No... It's just, I saw him last night. I couldn't sleep for a while, and before I got to sleep, I saw him get up from his hammock, and run into the forest. As if he had a pack of Mightyana at his heels. Then, I fell asleep. When I woke, he was still gone." He hesitates before continuing on. "I have a really bad feeling. I know something's wrong Joy-Joy!"

Good grief, this gives me a headache. I've learned from experience that bad feelings are right 50% of the time, and dead-wrong the half. And really, it seems so unlikely that something happened to Psycho or Bright, especially since Bright's one of the most powerful Pokemon I know, being one of my Five. Just as well, Dasher happens to be pessimistic to the point that he assumes everything has, and will go wrong. This adds up to one viable possibility in my mind; "Spark's right, get some rest kid." I tell him gently. "You're overreacting."
I am not quite thinking things out the whole way when I say that. Dasher happens to be quick to get upset as well as pessimistic and sarcastic (Talk about a bad combination of personality traits). That doesn't make it any less surprising when he took a couple steps back, and blew his top off.

"No one ever listens to me! I'm always the wrong one, the weak Pokemon in a room of champions! Fine, I'll look for him all alone. All by myself. You get some sleep!" On top of the rant, he swings around and Teleports away, a Psychic Pokemon's special way of storming out and slamming the door in your face.
It wasn't even breakfast yet, and I was having a bad day.

Dasher

I materialize near Rascal's tree, the one he always sleeps up against. He is half awake, and mumbls something my way. "Good morning to you too." I mutter back in irritation.
Sure, I can get irrationally upset sometimes. Everyone does. So I am... upset at Joy. Well, you can't say I don't have a good reason. My brother and Uncle Bright are missing, and I am dead-set on finding them! Even if Joy-Joy and everyone else thought I am crazy, and over-emotional, and irrational. Thus, I trudge past Rascal and into the forest alone.

Something is out of place. I can feel it in the air. The forest Pokemon aren't out. No breezes stirr, but the air is too chill for even early spring. Trees seemed to cast strange shadows in the dark, but maybe that is just my imagination. Ever walk through a forest at night? You trip on roots and rocks, and the trees look like they'll come alive and snatch you any second. I walk on for a while, jumping at every sound and getting goosebumpy in the cool air.
This strikes me as rather dumb later on, but I don't really have a plan to find Psycho and Bright, except wander around looking and calling their names. Not a great plan. Where am supposed I to look in the first place? If they really are in trouble, would I find them just anywhere in the forest, strolling along? Probably not. Suddenly, I feel foolish. It seems that Joy-Joy and Aunt Spark were right. Humiliating.

And on that line of thoughts, I run into the great big tree in the center of the forest, the one everyone calls the Gaia tree.
Not figuratively but literally, I run into it. I am half-blind in the darkness, and it is been easy to just walk straight into the tree. With my head, so Sparkle would laugh and say, "No harm done." It gives me a twenty-second migraine though. Snap. A twig breaks. Someone else must be around. I hesitate, one, two, maybe three seconds before turning around. "Bright," I call, "Psycho, is that you?"

Snap.

Right next to me, and I back up into the Gaia tree again. Ow! I whirl to face the perpetrator...

And see Bright, his head fire dimmed, sitting next to me. I wondered how I had missed the gentle light his flames gave off. His eyes are unfocused, and he seems confused. "Uncle Bright, I was looking for you!" No reaction. "Uncle Bright?" Almost like he is still fast asleep, standing-up.
He shudders, and his eyes refocus a little. "Dasher, I have to tell you something." Oh-kay. Creepy. I have no idea what is with him. Then, as I am about to tell him that we need to find Psycho, since he had been missing too, Bright grabs my hand and hisses something into my ear;
"Tell them Dasher, that the night has rung, the lady has sung, five days of searching have just begun. On the twenty-fifth year after that fated third twenty-first, the dark one cries, he is once more cursed!"

And he lopes back into the gloom without a trace.

Sparkle

"And you just let him run off into the woods?" Incredulous does not nearly describe how I feel about Joy-Joy riling up Dasher like that. It's one thing to let Dasher go off and yell at you when he is upset, and quite another to allow him to run off into the woods alone. Unlike some of us, he doesn't know them very well, and is liable to get lost within minutes.
Joy-Joy avoids my gaze. She does it when she is embarrassed or uncertain, and that tells me that my needling has gotten to her. The sun has risen, but just barely, and the light is weak and pale. It make Joy look pale too, and gives Spark's coat a silver sheen. Joy sighs and finally looks up. "First off, I can't really stop someone from Teleporting away, Sparkle. Next, I wasn't really thinking when I said he was overreacting. Really, it's not like its so uncommon for-"
"Pokemon to disappear in the night and not return at day?" Interrupting happens to be Dasher's thing, but hey, it's an easy way to make a point. "Don't you think if they took a night walk they'd be back by now?"
Spark snorts and shakes her head dismissively. "We're a weird bunch. You may forget, but we are several of very few Pokemon who can actually talk to their trainer, though a psychonic connection. So what, some of us may have developed an idiosyncrasy or two? I find it most unlikely that something's happened to any of us great strong Grand World Champion Pokemon."
I sigh in agreement. "Alright. You do have a point there, but Dasher is probably lost. We should at least look for him, and make sure he hasn't gotten himself in trouble again."
Both give each other unreadable looks and consider my proposition for a moment. Slowly, each of them nod. "Wake up Roku again, and let everyone else sleep. He'll be able to track Dasher's aura, and we can finally get back to bed," Joy states.
I sigh in relief. Maybe I wasn't overly concerned about this whole "disappearance" thing, but neither was I comfortable with Dasher getting lost.


---


Joy-Joy

Half an hour later, Roku, me, Spark, and Sparkle were walking through the forest. Roku assured us we were well on Dasher's trail, and that it led up to the Gaia Tree. The Gaia Tree is this giant tree about in the center of the forest, and lots of forest Pokemon usually hang near there. Of course, Dasher probably had been stumbling blindly and didn't head there on purpose, according to Roku. Roku doesn't say much, so I knew that he thought it was important since he did say it. Just to recap, Roku is a Lucario, and Lucario can sense the aura of beings. Aura is emotions and life energy in a pure form, only able to be sensed by Lucario, Riolu, and select Psychic Pokemon trained specifically to track it.

The forest seems empty of the usual busy Pokemon. It is a strange occurrence, but I put it off as it being early in the morning, and everyone with sense being asleep. Dasher, on the other hand, lacks their common sense.
A few paces from the Gaia Tree, Roku halts and breathes deeply. He makes a funny growl in the back of his throat. "Bright has been here. Dasher's over there."
Sure enough, Dasher is slumped over a huge tree root, out cold. I run up and inspect him for injury, but there's nothing physical. At first, I wonder if he had ticked off Bright, and Bright knocked him out. Except that Bright really is not an easy Pokemon to tick off, even for Dasher. "He must have scared himself to the point where he knocked himself clean out, I guess," I announce.
Sparkle is over in a flash, double-checking to make sure he's not injured. "Yeah, he seems fine," she confirms.
Low chuckles escape Spark. "Idiot kid. I knew he was over-reacting. Now, since he obviously can't walk when knocked out, I'll carry him to the mansion. Just lay him on my back, and we can revive him at home." Sparkle and I oblige, and we team-lift him into Spark. Dasher looks funny, lying on her back like that. He certainly look more peaceful than usual, which is a good change for him.

Just then, Roku perks up. He glaces up nervously. "Psycho's here. In the tree."
We all glance up. In one of the low branches of the Gaia Tree, Psycho crouches. He seems... out of it. His eyes are unfocused and while he's looking in our direction, he seems almost to be looking right through us.
"Hey, Psycho!" Sparkle calls. "Dasher thought you were lost. Come on, let's go back to the mansion and have breakfast." There's no response but a tilt of his head, cocked at a strange angle as if he can't understand us.

Then he leaps out of the tree... and onto Roku. From nowhere, he launches a Drain Punch. Roku panics and ducks the blow, bending over backwards to escape the hit. Blow after blow rains from Psycho, Low Sweep and Drain Punch, super-effective fighting type moves. Roku nips and dodges the vicious blows like Arceus himself was behind the attacks. He is too shocked at Psycho's queer misbehavior to retaliate. It's lucky he's one of the most evasive Pokemon in the Mansion.
Spark stands stock-still under Dasher's minimal weight, wanting to help Roku, but unable to without risking Dasher. Sparkle and I rush over to defend Roku, who still isn't throwing a punch in self-defense. Sparkle shouts something, but I don't quite catch what it is. Before Psycho manages to get a hit on Roku, she flings herself in front of him and Protects Roku. I try to tackle Psycho, but poorly miss, ending up face-first on the ground behind him. "Psycho!" I shout.

The Protect surprises Psycho, and stops his Drain Punch cold. A bad habit of his kicks in. When he startles greatly, his elbow swords shoot out, even if he doesn't want them out in the first place. Due to the surprise Protect, his punching arm's elbow extends and hits his other arm, which is crossed over his chest. Pain causes him to recoil from the self-inflicted blow. With a furtive glance back at us, Psycho dashes off into the bracken and disappears from sight. The rest of us stand there, stunned.

"Guys?" Spark's voice shakes just barely as she pads uncertainly over. "What in Mew's name just happened?"
I pick myself up off the ground and dust myself off, staring deeply into the patch of woods that Psycho had ran off into. "Something very wrong, Spark. Something very wrong."

Psycho

I drift lazily out of a strange dream that I am certain I have had before. The world spins, gray and black. It feels like I am at the axis of a whirling merry-go-round. I am not entirely sure how I got here in the first place. The feeling of motion and whirling and twisting should be frightening, but I'm just relaxed and enjoying the ride. Wow, I realize that I feel rather insubstantial too. Am I a ghost? Where is my body? Huh, what an interesting sentence. Where's my body, where's my body, where oh where oh where's me body... I giggle convulsively. I sound like Sparkle! Giggle, giggle, goofy sister.
Wait, where's Sparkle? Or Rascal for that matter? I just fell asleep, is this a dream? They should be around because we all sleep outside, me in my hammock, and I don't normally spin around and around in gray, possibly imaginary realms. My conscious clears a little. It comes to me that I should not be spinning like this, as it is probably very out of the ordinary.
Pain shoots up my arm, and I understand it even though I'm not connected to it. Or, I don't feel connected to it. With a rush, I realize someone else is there, in this realm. I recognize this place as my unconscious mind. I also manage to connect together that this other consciousness was the one who was making me spin around. That the other consciousness is the one attached to, controlling my body right now. I'm not sure how I know this stuff, but I just... do. The other consciousness is a shadow creeping in my mind, making my body is moving without me.

Panic slips in. This isn't right. I need to get this shadow away and out of me, by Mew. No intruders in me today or any other day! My arm's throbbing in pain now, and it clears my thoughts further more. I chase at the shadow, leaping off of the sphere I was spinning on, and my physical self lurches and lands on something hard as the shadow whirls to face me. The launch off of the sphere quickly, but then just drift around. This place has no gravity. Still, I manage to make into the shadow before it reacts. I bash into it with my insubstantial... conscious part of my mind or something, I guess. Shoo shadow! Get out! It hisses furtively when I bump into it, and slips away from my mind without much struggle, relinquishing control. My body goes limp, and my limited conscious fades into complete blackness.

I'm not sure what happened next, but I wake up in a cave. By Mew, my arm hurts! The rest of me feels fine. I decide to use my fine eyes to take a gander about. Light shines feebly from the entrance of the cave, and beyond the entrance is the forest. The cave itself is normal rocks and stalactites and a Leavanny...
Wait, a Leavanny?
She sits delicately on a gently sloped shelf of rock and gazes at me. Great Giratina, she is cute. A tiny leaf tiara rests on her head between her antennae, and she smiles as I sit up. I take great care not to bend my left arm, but it still hurts. I notice a couple of Sewaddle behind her and guarding the front of the cave.

"Good morning Sir," she says courteously to me. Wow, even her voice is cute! "My name is Matrifol, Leafen Queen of Bugs. May I have the pleasure of knowing yours?"
"Uh..." I guess it's not the most charming start to a sentence. "I'm Psycho, one of the Champion's loyal Gallade." Stupid, stupid, stupid! Sure, it was nice and... fancy-sounding, but I forgot that most of the forest Pokemon in these parts scorn us "Tamed Ones", as they say. I might have just ruined any good feelings she had for me in the first place... Dasher would laugh, me the social Butterfree, fooling myself in front of a pretty girl.

Maybe I should have let that shadow stay and control me after all...

Dasher

Perhaps the creepy-Bright episode was too much for me and I blacked out, because the next thing I know is that I've woken up on the living room couch. Joy-Joy, Roku, Sparkle and Spark are sitting around me expectantly. Though, Sparkle and Joy are staring off into space and lost in their thoughts moreso, while Roku's just kind of shaking. Poor guy. One might label him more as the shy, strong-and-silent type, and I've know him to have sympathetic tendacies. Probably, he's worried about me or something. On the other hand, Spark gives a fierce glare right my way. She seems more ready to torture and interrogate me than anything else.

Sparkle rouses from her thoughts as I stir. Her skirts whisper slightly as she shifts in her seat. Sighing, she gives me a small forced smile. "Good morning Sleeping Beauty. How are you feeling?"
I groan. "Not so hot. You probably won't believe me, but I was right about something being wrong. Take that, Joy."
Spark gives a demonic laugh and tosses her mane. "Oh, we know kid. What happened to you? Did Bright try to kill you or something? It didn't look like it, but we have to check."

Didn't expect that. I blink in confusion a moment before giving the Luxray a skeptical glare right back. "Do I look dead? If Bright wanted me dead, I would be a pulp smashed against a tree."

Spark smiles at the thought. Have I mentioned I think she's a complete lunatic? Actually, a lot of Pokemon I know seem like nutcases. Maybe it comes with Joy-Joy being Champion or something.
Anyways, Spark casually comments, " Oh, I suppose you would be," as she drums a paw against the carpet.
Roku shrugs. "Maybe he would live. I know I wouldn't last two seconds against the guy, and I'm Lvl 73 myself." His two cents put in, Roku then falls silent. His ears are twitching still, as if something's bothering him.
I continue to glare. "Why, thank you for that vote of confidence, good friends." Sarcasm. Best way to deal with shock. It deals eloquently with annoying people too.

Naturally, Sparkle changes topic before I get to use more lovely sarcasm. "Ok, if Bright didn't try to kill you, what happened to you?"
So I explain to everybody the whole story, with Bright acting funny and saying weird stuff before running away. In turn, they explain that Roku got attacked by Psycho during my retrieval, which better explains why he's so jittery.
I could gloat about being right for once, but there are more important things to discuss. No one has any idea why Psycho of all Pokemon would attack anyone, and Bright isn't the sort to hand out riddles like that for fun. They certainly weren't in their right minds at the time. The best bet we have to figuring this out is to solve that riddle.
Joy-Joy takes out a piece of paper and a pencil. "What was that riddle again Dasher?"
"I think it went something like this,
The night has rung,
the lady has sung,
five day of searching have just begun.
On the twenty-fifth year after that fated third twenty-first,
the dark one cries, he is once more cursed." Getting it word for word takes a moment of careful thought.

Joy jots it down and sets the paper on the coffee table for all of us to see. We all puzzle over it. "Does it make sense to any of you?" Joy asks. We all shake our heads.

"Clear as Muk," Spark groans.
The light fixture up above the table makes a funny noise, like it's swinging or something. Then a noise that is definitely not the fixture goes, "Whoa, whoa, WHAAA-!" and Lotus lands with a spectacular SPLAT on the table. Those of us gathered around the table startle a little, and Roku jumps six feet in the air. Ok, not six feet, but you get the point.
Amidst the stares, Lotus peels himself off of the table and dusts himself off. "Oh, hullo everyone. I heard your conversation!"

Now, Lotus is a weird guy, so I'll describe him to you. He's a Roserade, and the only word to effectively sum up his nature is Quirky. His eyes, his most striking feature, stare at us in their usual fashion, wide open as if someone just told him something most surprising. Most annoyingly oblivious to sarcasm, and not particularly observant. At times though, it's eerie what wisedom he works out of even really stupid things... so it didn't surprise me one bit when he next mentioned that he might be able to work out the riddle.

Psycho
You recall how I thought any chance of romance was done for when I said that I was one of the mansion Pokemon, because most forest Pokemon don't particularly like us? Sorry to give you a scare, but lucky me this Queen-Leavanny was one of the fewer the forest Pokemon who don't mind us much. Phew!

I expect her face to fall in a scornful expression, but instead the corners of her mouth pick up and she gives a tinkling laugh. "Oh, so you're one of those funny house Pokemon! That might explain why you were acting so strangely."
For a monarch, she seemed young. My age, I hope? I scratch my head ruefully with my uninjured hand. "Wait, how was I acting weird?" I ask her, puzzled.
Her face puckers a little. "You mean you do not remember? 'Twas dreadful, how you were running about making a racket. I do not know how you hurt your arm. I suppose you were running from something and banged your arm and head up. How funny that you have forgotten it." She slips off of the rock she was perched on, and walks over to me. With an airy sigh, she plops down on the stone at my side. Elegantly, of course.

I quickly consider what I'm supposed to say back to her, when she picks the conversation back up for me. "After a while, you just knocked yourself out I suppose. 'Tisn't a good time to be out, this day in particular, but I couldn't just leave you there, could I? Even though Chancellor Peaseblossom would work himself into a lovely state if he learned I came all the way out here to merely to aid a commoner, though I presume you house Pokemon are none too common yourself." The last bit is added rather hastily, as if she doesn't want to offend me. "The Chancellor doesn't even approve of me going out of the- erm, my home, for my Dialgia-be-darned safety. I wonder if he approves breathing nowadays." She pauses for breath herself.
I didn't understand half of what she said, but I assume it has something to do with politics the forest Pokemon have, I guess. I don't really understand politics, not that I encounter them often. Again, she goes straight on with her talk without letting me comment, but I don't mind to much. By Mew, she's much too nice about it for me to mind. And cute.

"I'm not much more than a figurehead anyways. 'Tis to keep the Bug and Grass types from feuding again. No one even knows how it started, but 'tis only in this little forest and 'tis a silly feud. Don't you think?" No idea what this feud-stuff is about, but I nod anyways. "The only solution to the feud is a reasonable Bug and Grass type Queen (as bugs follow queens, not kings), just to keep both sides content. I did say that I was only a figurehead, did I not? 'Tis the Chancellors Peaseblossom and Beetle that do most of the important work. I suppose I have talked enough about myself though, what of you, loyal Gallade?"
It's quite cute when she just rambles on, I note dreamily to myself. I doubt she'd ever mind if I did the same thing...

Sparkle
I gave a sigh of relief when Lotus said he might be able to solve the riddle. I never admit it straight to their faces, partially because Dasher and Psycho never do either, but I actually care for my brothers. Uncle Bright too, but he actually knows the fact. Plus, he isn't usually a person I of all people would need to protect or help.

"Hmm. Ho-hum. Da-da-dee-dum." Lotus hums random tunes as he inspects the riddle, his wide eyes seeming to take in all of the page Joy scribbled it on at once. Spark has her tail around his shoulders. I swear, Spark care for only five other beings in the universe; Bright, Lotus, Joy-Joy, Twirla, and Rascal. An old rumor has it that dear, elderly Rascal once had a heart attack. Spark refused to believe that he was dying, and shocked him back to life with a good strong Thunder. Dasher writes it off as common urban legend, but with the Five, you can never tell. Except for perhaps Twirla, who adopted me and my brothers, they all seem peculiar in some way or another.
It takes time, but Lotus finally looks up from the riddle. "What a funny rhyme," he notes absently, handing the paper back to Joy. "It goes by no rules, not iambic pentimeter, just rhymes reasonably. Not haiku, or poetic form, or rules of any sort. Why-"
"Lotus!" I wondered when Dasher would get impatient with this. He glares ruefully at Lotus, arms crossed in boredom. His one talent is making himself and everybody else irritable. Funnily enough, it never works on Lotus, and this time is no exception.
"Don't worry Dasher," Lotus says with an off smile. "I got it. Lets start with the first line;

The night has come.
This bit's obvious enough. It means a time of peril and strife. Perhaps it even is a reference to the night itself. Wasn't that what happened with Bright and Psycho, disappearing at night? Wow, this won't help us sleep easy, will it?

The lady has sung.
This is more elusive. I know that it refers to a love interest, but how and why? Did she die? Betray someone? Leave her lover in favor of another? I can't tell. I bet she died, just because that tends to happen in tragic love stories.

Five days of searching have just begun.
I can assume it means we'll be searching for Bright and Psycho a while, and that this problem won't go away for five or so days, but it could mean that someone else is searching for something as well. Again, why?

On the twenty-fifth year after that fated third twenty-first.
You could have figured it out yourselves here, it's not that hard, really. It talks about dates. The third month is March, and it's the twenty-first of March twenty-five years ago. Huh, today's the twenty first of March, isn't it Joy?

The dark one cries, he is once more cursed.
I have nothing to go on here. It could refer to a notorious ghost or dark type by 'the Dark one'. I doubt 'cursed' is talking about the move Curse." After this surprisingly logical processing, Lotus leaps onto the couch and curls up there, waiting for us to respond. I give him a slow nod as I mull the information over.

It's not much more to go on than we had before, but it's something. Something bad happened because of a lady some dark or ghost type liked twenty-five years ago, and that dark or ghost type Pokemon... got cursed with the same bad luck again, I suppose? Remembered what happened twenty-five years ago, and is taking it out on us? At the least, it indicates that Psycho wasn't under his own will when he attacked Roku, since a lot of Ghost and Dark types can take hold of their victim's mind in some way.

Problem is, who's will was he and Bright under, and why did that Pokemon take them over?

Joy-Joy

It's just me and Lotus in the living room now. Everyone else went off in the forest to look for Psycho and Bright. If they find either of them, and if either of them attack... well, the plan is to knock them out and bring them home. We'd have to wing it from there.

Tap... Tap... Tap-tap... Tap...
Ugh, Lotus is driving me insane. We all decided that we should look up the date on a search engine in the living room's computer and see if we find any results. Of course, both Lotus and Dasher love messing around on the computer, so they both wanted to use it. Yes, just to type in a singular sentence on the search engine. Honestly, I'll never completely understand those two, even though I know Lotus like the back of my hand and can read his feelings like a book.
Naturally, Lotus claimed the right to do it because he figured out the riddle partway in the first place. Dasher had no real argument to that, so I let Lotus use the computer. It probably has sent Dasher into a bad mood though.

You might recall that Roserade have no hands, but roses in their place. Because of this biological oddity, Lotus ends up using vines that shoot out of the center-points of his roses - normally used for the attack Vine Whip - to do most things. Pick up objects, turn book pages, and rather laboriously, type. Typing goes very slowly for him. Thus, every two seconds he taps a key. It grates on your nerves after a while, especially if you're already on-edge.

Tap... Tap... Tap-tap... Tap...

" 'K Joy, I have the results," he calls out over his shoulder before returning to the screen.
I let out my held breath and flop over on the couch. "Finally! What you have you got?" He inspects the screen a moment, holding silent as he flips through the results. "Lotus?"
"Nothing," he chatters, "No unusual events happe- Oh wait, they held a Kanto League Tournament March 21 twenty-five years ago!"
Leave it to Lotus to focus on the useless facts. I get up off of the couch and walk over, looking at the screen from over his shoulder. "Let me look, Lo."
He scoffs and crosses his arms. "Uh-uh. I'm the one who-"
Regardless of Lotus's riddle-solving skills, I pick the squirming Roserade up out of the chair and set him firmly on the couch. "No fair Joy-Joy, it was my turn!" he protests with a pout.
Sitting down in the desk's chair, I start flipping through the results myself, It makes me wonder if I should have actually let Das- no, wait, he'd give me just as much trouble with his attitude. "For Mew's sake Lotus, I need to double-check this. Protest later, when I care." He sighs and brushes lint off of the sofa cushions. I suspect it's an attempt to make me feel guilty about foisting him off of the computer, of which I ignore.
Lotus was right, nothing came up on the date. Nothing but that Tournament. I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, since the mansion is a bit secluded, somewhere off of Nimbasa and near the Entralink, that mysterious center to Unova. If anything strange happened here, no one would have been around to see it except the former mansion's owners.
How are we supposed to find the answers then? It's not like the mansion owners kept a record of this stuff.

Wait a minute...

Psycho

When you last left me off, they pretty Leavanny (Matrifol she said her name was) asked me about myself. Take a wild guess on what I did;

If you figured that I told the Leavanny all about myself, you win a free... well, nothing I guess. I don't have anything to give you. But that's not the point, the point is that I pretty my told my entire life story to a stranger. Growing up with just me, Sparkle and Dasher, getting caught by Joy-Joy, even the part later on in life where Joy was intending to evolve me and Dasher. See, Dasher was intended to become Gallade, and I wanted to be a Gardevior, but that is this whole other story. Dasher would blow his top if he knew I told that part. Don't say anything, please?

I seem to be wandering away from what happened after I told her all that stuff. Well, it took until about lunchtime. Matrifol was wrapping up my arm with leaves and a sticky silk as I finished the last of that story. It amused her, and she occasionally giggled. The guard Sewaddle liked the story as well, I think, because I heard a few snickers from their direction.

Sadly, it ended all too soon. Someone outside began yelling quite a bit. The owner of the voice got closer to the little cave, until I was able to hear what it was saying.
"YOUR MAJESTY, I KNOW YOU'RE OUT THERE! COME AT ONCE YOUR MAJESTY!"
Matrifol visibly flinches as she gives a worried glance at the cave entrance. "My goodness it is nearly afternoon," she notes as she looks at the light streaming in. "Oh I have been gone too long, and Chancellor Peaseblossom must have noted my absence!"
Oh, that political powerhouse she was talking about earlier. If I remember correctly, she said that he had the real power in the forest Pokemon's government, and that he didn't approve of much. I doubt that he would approve of the Queen fixing up "one of those funny house Pokemon".
Queen Matrifol breathes deeply and scrambles to her feet. "I have to leave now. You're not in splendid condition, and I fear Peaseblossom would give you a hard time. You can rest here a while, until you have your strength back. Good bye, loyal Psycho of the House Pokemon."
She sweeps out of the cave without another word, just a bare glance back at me. The Sewaddle follow after her loyally.
Aw, what bad luck I am having today, getting taken over by some weird shadow and beating myself up. Then, the first good thing that happens to me, Matrifol, leaves. Great Giratina, I can see why Dasher's so gloomy all the time, since he tends to get luck like this. Or, at the least, the way he complains makes his luck seem like this.

On the brighter side of things, at least my arm stopped hurting so much.

Sparkle

While we had Joy and Lotus were left to figure out the riddle, the rest of our strange mishmash headed off to find Psycho and Bright. Let me tell you, I wasn't in pleasant company. Roku spoke little, if at all. Aunt Spark had a funny look on her face, probably brooding and worried about Uncle Bright. I suppose you might wonder why I, a Gardevoir, would call a Luxray my aunt and a Roserade and Infernape my uncles. It happens that my (adopted) mother Twirla considers them her siblings from all the travels they had together, which by extention make them MY relatives. This can be akward sometimes. Especially when your mother also considers an ancient Empoleon her Grandfather, which gives me fishy-smelling GREAT grandfather.
I didn't even try to talk to Dasher. It's bad enough that my extended family is totally nuts, and even worse that my real flesh-and-blood older brother will say nothing but sarcasm and insults to me. To be honest, if I wasn't so worried I would almost not want to find the other one. Constant cheerfulness is just as bad.

Thus, we walked through the dappled forest shade in relative silence. The plan was to hike to the tree and let Roku lead us to one or the other using their auras. Once we found them, we would check if they were sane, and knock them out and drag them home if they weren't.
The only left problem is what to do with them if they weren't sane and we managed to get them home. Then again, there is another problem; Bright is one of the Five, Joy-Joy's elite group of Pokemon. He's as strong than Cynthia's Garchomp, and that could pose a problem for the weaker three of us. Spark was also one of the Five though, so she might be able to knock him out, putting aside the equal chance that he knocks her out first.

But that isn't relevant yet. We arrive at the Gaia Tree within fifteen stark-silent minutes, and nothing seemed to be wrong. Roku was sniffing around the area, trying to catch the fading scent of Bright and Psycho's aura. Finally, he spoke. The first time someone had since we had gone outside.
"I can't track Psycho. His aura just, fades away after a few steps into the grass. It happens sometimes if someone has an abrupt inner-turmoil and is unsure of who, what, or where they are. They go invisible for all purposes. Bright I can track. Yet, there is one other thing..." Roku shivers in the cool morning air.
"What is it no-o-o-ow?" Dasher whines. "It can't get any worse than it is alre-e-e-a-a-ady..."
Roku turns to stare at us with a pensive look on his face. "I don't know about worse, but it's not right anyhow. There's a taint on their aura. I don't know what it is or why it is there, but it doesn't feel good. It is a sign that something has external control over them, and it fluctuates in Bright. See, as Bright approached the spot where Dasher was," Roku pauses to point to the root that Dasher has fainted on earlier, "it was strong and obviously in control. Where it meets Dasher's aura and interacts with him, the taint spikes, as if Bright and the invader grappled for control in Bright's mind. Then, the taint is suppressed for a few minutes. As Bright ran away, the taint starts fluctuating again. I have little idea if we'll meet Bright as himself or possessed." Taking a rattling breath, Roku shudders. "Your brother's taint is strong, and it is obvious the invader had complete control over him."

Dasher sighs loudly into the oppressive quiet. "Great. Doesn't this get better and better." He then sidles up to me and leans in to whisper, "I think that was the longest we've ever gotten Roku to talk. That must not be a good indication for our survival chances."
"If Roku is willing to talk for that long, it drastically reduces our chances of living. I would say, from 80%-90% to around 20%-30%," I whisper back. Dasher has got a little real humor I suppose. Too bad it's too close to the truth.

Joy-Joy

"Lotus, I believe it's time for a trip into the basement." The Roserade perks up from his slump instantly. The basement is a place I have forbidden him to go, because it is filled with all sorts of possessions and breakables the various previous owners had. Trust me, on of the last things I want is a basement filled up with smashed and useless objects. We might just have that if I ever let Lotus go down there unsupervised.
I wag a finger in half-hearted sterness at him. "You can't touch anything Lotus."
He gives me a sweet smile and holds his roses/hands behind his back in an image of pure innocence. " 'K Joy-Joy. I'll be good and not destroy anything." One can practically see the halo floating above his head.

His charm has little effect on me, and I manage to shake my head. "I mean NOTHING Lotus. You so as much pick up a photoframe and I'll send you right back up."

He loses the innocent expression and huffs. "You act as if I'll blow up the house."
I bend down closer to his height. "You almost have a couple of times," I rebuke gently. "Look, I love you little Lotus, but I also understand that you're not to be trusted with anything that will cause mischief. Now come along."

Right at that moment, Twirla ascends the stairs. Great Giratina, I'd forgotten that she and Rascal and some of the other's where still sleeping! Considering that if Dasher were Twirla's REAL kid he'd get his ability to worry and overreact from her, Twirla's one of the less desirable candidates for dumping shocking information onto.
Twirla stretches and yawns when she reaches the base of the stairs. "Why, good morning Joy. I do believe that your bedroom has been abandoned this morning." She gazes around the room. "Where is everybody?"

"I, uh..." I'm not sure what to tell her, 'Good morning Twirla, Bright and Psycho have been possessed by something evil, ran off into the forest, and are potentially in or causing danger?'
Which is when Rascal waddles in. "Hullo Joy-Joy. Lotus. Twirla. Now, by Mew, why are Spark, Roku, one of those blasted Gardevoir kids - excluding you, dear Twirla - Bright, and either Psycho or Gallant wandering willy-nilly into the forest for? Don't tell me there's nothing going on, I saw the foot prints." Stroking his beard, the Empoleon draws himself up into a huff and glares righteously at me.

Lotus, to his credit, tries his best to explain. In exactly the way I was trying to avoid explaining or course.
"Oh, don't worry," he starts off his ramble, "Bright and Psycho have been possessed by something evil, ran off into the forest, and are potentially in or causing danger to someone else. The others are out looking for them, and we're trying to solve a riddle Bright gave Dasher, but I don't know why Bright would give Dasher a riddle if he was possessed." He blinks up at Rascal. "Do you know why?"

What did I tell you? Exactly what I didn't want to say.

I expect Twirla to faint on the spot. Rascal might be mildly surprised and ask more questions.
Instead, Rascal is silently amused and Twirla crosses her arms and gives Lotus an annoyed sigh. "Ha, ha ha har, you are very funny Lotus. Next time, try a more amusing and believable prank. Did you really think I was going to fall for that?"
She starts to tap her foot and look at me for the real answer.

I bite my lip and advert my gaze. "Actually Twirla... Lotus isn't joking."

Then she faints.

Psycho

I'm left all alone in a cave, injured. The cute Leavanny Queen and her guards left me to keep some puffed-up political tycoon from the forest from "giving me a hard time". Obviously, I'm going to do as the Queen says and sit around waiting to heal?

Of course not! I do wait a few minutes, but I get bored REALLY quickly. I'm also hungry. Being taken over must take a toll on one's stomach, because I really need something to eat. So, I slowly get up, heeding my hurt arm, and walk to the entrance. I hadn't noticed from the inside, but the cave is hard to see and mostly hidden behind a boulder from the outside.
I don't recognize this part forest, just that the cave is set at the base of some small cliffs on the outskirts of the Mansion's property. Sometimes one of the Five goes off to train at the cliffs, but that's about all I know of them. If I have any idea where I'm at what so ever, I bet the mansion is... Somewhere south of the cliffs?
It's the only idea I have of where to go and where I am, so I just set off south. The walk itself is long and slow, because I feel weak and woozy, and might fall over at any minute. Not to mention my arm. It starts to throb again, to my annoyance. If I were Dasher, I'd comment sarcastically on that, but I have no idea how to comment sarcastically on it, so I shall refrain from doing so.
Lucky for me, I eventually stumble upon a Pecha berry bush I recognize. It means two things; FOOD and that I know the way home from here. Unfortunately, the mansion is far away from this particular bush, and so I rest a while beside it. The berries were quite good. According to Joy-Joy, my nature is Bashful, which leads to the fact that I will eat anything, but Sweet food happens to be my favorite. Pecha berries taste like someone filled them with sugar and turned the inside into a honeyed mush, so of course I like them. What I don't understand is how Dasher likes Bitter stuff and Sparkle likes Dry food. They don't know what they're missing.
I take a few berries to go and pick my way between to trees. Who I should happen upon other than my siblings themselves? And Roku, and Spark. Yay, I'm not alone anymore! Well, I don't see them exactly, but I hear them jabbering to each other.
"...and even without Roku, I'm certain that Bright's been here. Unless you have some ideas as to why a tree would be scorched?" Oh, that's Dasher. Wait, Bright scorched a tree? He likes plants, it's Rascal who tries to kill them sometimes. Uh, forget I said that Rascal likes killing plants, he tries to be secret about it.
"What a genius. I never would have guessed." That's Spark. She's much better at sarcasm than me, but not as good as Dasher.
"I just hope Bright doesn't do that to us when we find him. He could have set the forest on fire," Sparkle says. Now I'm really confused. Bright doesn't randomly attack people either. Maybe I'm hallucinating, imagining these voices.
I hear a twig crack, and can almost feel someone tense up as I walk towards the sound of my relative's voices.
Roku totally freaks out. "PSYCHO'S BACK, I CAN FEEL IT!" I hear branches shift as I guess he jumps into a tree. "KEEP HIM AWAY FROM ME!"

Uh, I never recall getting that reaction. Ever. Especially from Roku. I walk hastily towards the sound, determined to find out what's been going on. Before I get to do anything, Spark leaps out from a bush in front of me and tackles me to the ground. It kind of hurts my my arm. "I got him Roku! Don't worry!"
I have no idea what's going on here. I'm no criminal, I barely like battling because it hurts people, which I don't like! Why is everyone thinking I'm about to attack them?!?

"Um... you can get off my chest Aunt Spark. My arm hurts."
Her eyes widen in surprise. "Oh. You mean, you're NOT going to try and kill us?"
"Uh... no. Is there any particular reason I would do that?"
Spark jumps off me. "It's OK, he's... UN-possessed I think.
Possessed?
Dasher and Sparkle emerge from behind the bush and Roku jumps into a tree so I can see him as well. This is really weird, because everyone looks nervous. I pick myself up the ground and dust myself off.
"What's going on guys?"

Dasher

So we walk through the forest following Roku. Eventually, I come across a scorched tree.
Time to give you some pleasant Deja-Vu.
"Look at this, you guys. This is obviously Bright's scorch mark, and even without Roku, I'm certain that Bright's been here. Unless you have some ideas as to why a tree would be scorched?"
"What a genius. I never would have guessed." Why does Spark steal my thunder and use scarcasm? Sarcasm's MINE.
"I just hope Bright doesn't do that to us when we find him. He could have set the forest on fire." Too true. A firey forest = horrible death.
I hear a twig crack somewhere to the side of us.
Roku goes nuts. "PSYCHO'S BACK, I CAN FEEL IT! KEEP HIM AWAY FROM ME!"
He jumps into a low branch on the scorched tree, and covers his head. Poor dude, this is too much for him. Spark glares in the direction of the noise. I suspect she uses her X-ray ablities, because she jumps right through a bush and... I assume right onto Psycho, from the muffled "Oof!". Psycho mustn't be having a very good day today.
Me, Roku, and Sparkle stand there like spooked Skitty while Spark calls out, "I got him Roku! Don't worry!"
Psycho begins to speak in low tones, and Spark answers him. This goes on for a minute untill Spark says that Psycho's sound of mind, probably.
The rest of us cautiously head over to Psycho and Spark. Psycho's looking pretty lost, as per se usual. It doesn't seem that he remembers attacking anybody, because he asks us what's going on.
The rest of us shift around, not sure what to say. I mean, how are you supposed to tell someone they attacked someone else, without remembering a thing?
"Kid," Spark begins, "you and Bright were possessed, and you attacked Roku. What do you remember about this?" Bluntly works, I suppose.
Psycho looks a little shocked for a second. "Well. That might explain some things."
He bites his lip. "I don't remember what happened exactly. I remember... spinning and a shadow. The shadow was in my mind, I figured out that it wasn't good, and that I ought to get it out. So, I drove it out of my mind. I guess. Next thing, I wake up and..."
Psycho blushes so deep his face looks like a tomato. "And what?" I press.
"Someone was there... She, I mean they, fixed my arm up they had to leave, and I've been trying to find my way home since."

Spark gives another Classic Demonic Laugh. "Sounds like you have a girlfriend."
Psycho blushes deeper if possible.

Joy-Joy

Rascal and me drag Twirla onto the couch, (Yes, the very same one Dasher had been on not half an hour ago) and... well, leave her there. It would avoid immediate trouble and a year's worth of questions, but she will not be pleased when she comes to.
Rascal agrees to follow us into the basement, if only to keep an eye on Lotus.

We decend the stairs and I head over to a book-shelf on the far wall. You see, what I'm looking for is a set of journals one of the previous owners made. He wrote them about twenty five years ago, to record great events in his life. If something stange happened, it might have been written in one of them.

Lotus interests himself in an old Props box, probably used long ago in Musicals or Contests. He doesn't seem to be harming them or anything, so I let it be. Rascal keeps an eye on him, though I notice him compare a beard from the box to his own. Yes, my Empoleon has beard, a white one too. Moving on, I skim the old shelves for the journals. Pokemon Care manuals, Dictionaries, tomes full of battle strategies and Unovan history books... There's a lot of books there.
Finally, I find a collection of four journals, all by Paul Ector, the mansion's owner twenty-five years ago. The third one is the one dated twenty-five years back exactly, so I pull it out and dust it off. I sneeze from the dust and drop the book. Ach-CHOO!

Lotus looks up from the Chimcar mask he had been examining. Oh dear, he's wearing a Turtwig mask, that looks really weird. "Bless you. Did you find it?"

I sniffle and pick the book up. "Yes Lotus." Hey, look at that! It fell open to March eighteenth, close to the twenty first. Lotus shrugs and goes back to the Props. I look closely at the text. A lot of it has smudged and faded, but I can barely make out some letters;

M rch Eig tee th

As I w nt on my us al walk in the F rest, I had the mo t ext ordi ary ncount r!
A stra ge da k Po emon f om anot er regi n was un er the Gai Tre ! More su rising, it spo e to e. He to d me to ple se l ave this plac . He as lo king for oon S ad w, a fr end of his. e h ped to te l her his tr e f eli gs about her. If

It left off at "If", dues to some dark stain on the page. A pokemon from another region, described as dark nontheless! You don't usually see such pokemon in Unova. Perhaps this is 'the dark one' from the riddle? I flipped a couple pages forward. Who was Moon Shadow, if I pieced that word together right? This Pokemon loved her and wanted to tell her so? Did she reject him? Perhaps it would say on the Twenty first.

Marc T en y- irst

To ay ha be n fri h ting an di turb ng! F ll Mo n was te ring the Fo est ap rt ear y th s mor ing lo king for Moon Sha ow, w om we t mis ing th t nig t. He...
It continues onward, describing how Full Moon, the dark foreign pokemon was crashing through the forest looking and calling for Moon Shadow, his lover. Apearently, she hadn't rejected him when he told her he had liked her a couple days back. Full Moon is anguished at her sudden disapearance. This sounds spookily like the riddle Bright spouted out...
...the lady has sung,
five day of searching have just begun.
On the twenty-fifth year after that fated third twenty-first,
the dark one cries, he is once more cursed.

I flip through the next four pages. Full Moon has no luck. But on the fifth day, he finds her... cornered at the edge of the forest, by strange men with pokemon also from another region. Full Moon fights against the men and their pokemon, who have bound up Moon Shadow. Paul also uses his pokemon to fight the men, but his get knocked out. In the end, it's down to two foe pokemon, and Full Moon. Full Moon tries to put them asleep, like he did the other pokemon, but one of the pokemon has Worry Seed and uses it on the other... a Fighting and Steel type. It doesn't metion the name, but I know it's a Lucario they have, because Lucario are the only Fighting/Steel Types I know. So the Lucario has Insommnia and can't fall asleep. Full Moon is usesless against it, and the Lucario knocks him out with Aura Sphere. The strange men drive away in their truck, with Moon Shadow, uselessly trying to wiggle free of her bonds, trying to imitate a smaller pokemon so she can escape...
It makes little sense to me.

Psycho

We all establish that I am fine and non-possessed. Roku says he should have known in the first place, since my aura had no taint on it. So, they let me accompany them to find Bright, who may or may not be a maniac when we find him. This should be interesting.

Dasher cheers up considerably since he has amunition to tease me with. "How cute was she, what type was she? Does she have any idea you like her?"
"No comment."
"Come on. Was she short, like a Deerling or something? That would be awkward."
I roll a Pecha berry around in my palm. "My height."
He claps his hands together. "Oh GOODIE. That really narrows it down... was she a Seedot?"
"Ha ha ha, very funny. Just because I'm abnormally short doesn't mean I'm THAT short. Plus, Seedot's not Unovan."
"Mmm. Must have been a Garbodor since your so cagey about it."
"NOT GARBODOR." I can't help but give a slight sigh. "It's not like it matters. I doubt I will see her again anyways."

Spark gives us a dirty look. "Hush kids, Bright's near."
"And you know this... how?" Dasher inquires. Spark twitches her tail. "Trust me. We are CONNECTED. Really deeply. Like, in our SOULS."
"Which it why you believed me right away when I said something was wrong with him and Psycho disappearing."
She grunts and turns away. "Well, Roku said he's close, so HUSH."

Roku twitches and stops where he is. "He's near alright. Beyond that tree. The taint's still on his aura, but I can not tell if it is controlling him or not."
Yikes. I hope he's sane.

We edge slowly around the tree. Bright is in the middle of an expansive clearing I like to train in sometimes. There are lots of rocks to hit in that place. Bright himself is crouched over in the middle of them, and breathing heavily. He twiches a few times and looks up at us. His eyes are unfocused. Certainly, he doesn't LOOK sane.
Bright stands up haltingly. With no warning, he turns around and spits out a burst of flame in our direction! He doesn't ACT sane either!
Howling, Bright gallops toward us on all four limbs. Spark howls back and rushes towards him in a crackle of electricity. Her Thunder Fang misses Bright by inches as he scrambles to dodge, but gives her enough time to swing back, lit up in the brilliance of an Iron Tail. Bright staggers back from the impact, and manages to slug her with a swift Close Combat. Spark winces, curling up to protect her head and critical areas from the flailing blows raining down on her. As Bright winds down and steps back, she uncurls and takes advantage of his lowered guard by snapping viciously at him with frighteningly electrified jaws. Bright slips to the right to avoid her onslaught and blasts a thick stream of flames from his mouth. It hits him too, but he doesn't seem feel it.
Spark yelps like a Lillipup and cringes as they engulf her. When she is able to pull away, her body bursts in bright orange flames for a second as a resulting Burn takes effect. Roku yelps too, and runs out to help. I'm wondering what he is thinking, because none of the rest of us are strong enough to take one hit from Bright, and Roku happens to be at a type disadvantage for both Fire and Fighting moves.

The rest of us begin to unfreeze too. Spark shakily stands up and Thunders Bright, blinding me for a second with the radiance of the bolt of electricity. He twitches, taking it with almost no reaction! Ignoring Spark for a minute, Bright raises his arm to form a orbular cloud of energy, which I recognize as a Focus Blast. He gives it a swift aim at Roku from eight feet away. It would never hit if Dasher had been the one aiming, but finds the intended target effortlessly for Bright. Roku gasps, tumbles back from the impact of the energy sphere, and crumples in an unconscious heap.
Sparkle chooses this moment to take action by running out from behind the safe little tree. Bright turns to glare at her the instant before she shoots a muted Hypnosis that does... nothing. Growling, Bright aims an intense Flamethrower that should have reduced her to crispy ashes, but she throws up a wall of light around herself. Flames hiss and batter angrily at the shield. The Protect doen't last long against his Flamethrower, and breaks into disintigrating shards as soon as Bright ceases blasting her. Me and Dash finally gather the wits to go out there at Sparkle's near-miss with what Dasher would verify as "certain death", and we run like a pack of Mightyeana is chasing us.

Spark meanwhile has been determinedly been crawling over to help the rest of us, getting pained by her Burn all the way. By the time us two join the battle, she has maneuvered herself behind Bright and hits him hard with an Iron Tail once more. Only, Bright acts no more harmed than if she had used Splash. It does seem to irritate him though, and he spits out a gout of flame behind him, singing the grass. Spark ducks the Fire Blast and it misses horribly, but her Burn flares in brilliance once more. In dead-faint, Spark becomes limp and splays out on what remains of the grass. I guess it was just too much damage for even her to take. Now, it's just the three of us amateurs against a fired-up, psychotic, scary Possessed-Bright who is obviously very, very angry. Even my commonly optimistic psyche says that we'll die.

Without skipping a beat, Bright whirls to blast flames at us again. Sparkle scrambles to fling up another Protect, stopping the waves of fire cold in their tracks and all three of us from being severely charred. I can feel the heat, even shielded as I am and know that as weak as this one is, Sparkle probably can't summon another Protect in time to block the next hit. With all haste, I nip out of the Protect and swing my leg out in a low arch. This had better work, I wish feverishly, or Sparkle and Dasher are sitting ducks. My hope shatters immediately as Bright jumps up to dodge the Low Sweep. Sheer brutality etches his face as he zeros in predatorily on my bad arm. Shock and pain hold me in place as he slams and batters my injury in every way possible. This is the closest I have ever been to a Close Combat attack. It's the last thing I remember of this horrible battle; Bright leering over me as I slump onto the dirt. Horrible pain in my arm. Then, darkness.

Dasher

Did Psycho scare you half to death with that one? I bet you thought we lost.
SUCKER!

Psycho went down as soon as Bright hit him with that Close Combat. Normally, a Close Combat wouldn't be a 1-Hit-KO if this was a normal battle with normal pokemon. Unless you consider that Bright is Lvl 100 practically (How did a nervous scatterbrained klutz like Joy-Joy raise insane pokemon like the Five, and become World Champion?), and Psycho's Lvl 30. INSTANT KO.

Sparkle and me, Joy's weakest pokemon with little real skill against... that. We SHOULD have lost. I was panicing, and according to Sparkle, clinging to her like it was Doomsday, and we were the last to be massacured. The only thing that I could think of was to Focus Blast Bright. If I was in my right mind, I would have used Psychic.
But I couldn't summon a Focus blast bigger than a golf ball. My whole body shook, and it wouldn't appear for longer than two seconds.

The only thing that saved us two was that Sparkle was panicing too. If she was in HER right mind, she would have... I dunno, I'm not sure what she thinks when she's not half-paralyzed by fear. But she wasn't in her right mind either, so instead of using any common sense what so ever, she paused while Bright lumbered over to us, taking his time with finishing us off. And then, she used Dream Eater.

I know what you're thinking. Dream Eater when he is obviously AWAKE?!?
Yet... Bright just shuddered and fell over, snoring.

Sparkle's eyes rolled up into her head as a wave of strangely darkened glitter swirled from Bright to her, and she fell over too.
I must have stood there for two minutes, staring at everyone's limp forms. I was the only one still standing. This had been a serious battle. Once I gather my thoughts back into coeherent sentences, it occured to me that a serious battle tends to make people seriously hurt. Psycho had been injured already. How much worse could he had gotten after that Close Combat?
Sparkle was worrying me too. She twitched every so often, and muttered weird stuff. I think I may have heard her say "wait!" a couple of times!

One thing was for certain, that I had to get them back to the mansion. Joy has lots of healing items stored up for battles and such, so she could fix them up. Alas, if they stayed here, they could get worse.

I'm not a very strong pokemon in the first place. I relearned that after I tried to drag Spark by her tail. She couldn't be budged an inch. The only one I could drag was short Psycho. Being a few inches smaller than the species expectation came in handy for him after all. Whereas, my added inches give me no extra strength. Just my luck.
How would I move five unconcious pokemon home if I could only drag one?

Wow, that really got me there. All the sarcasm in the world couldn't save me now!

Joy-Joy

To my irritance, I never think things through unless I'm pokemon battling. Go figure that while the journal contains important knowledge, I can't quite grasp how it works in with what is going on right now. Go figure that Lotus and Rascal aren't sure how Full Moon and Moon Shadow and everything tie in to our situation either. Go figure that when we walk back us the basement stairs, puzzling over the journal, Loppily woke up, and then woke up Twirla, who is not pleased with us abandoning her on the couch.
We find her sitting on the couch next to Loppily. Twirla has her arms crossed, and her eyes make me think of the sentiment, "If looks could kill". Loppily looks close to bursting into tears. That miiiiiiight because she and Bright have been very close friends ever since I caught her. Bright's disappearance must have upset her more than a little...

"You haven't bothered to wake up anyone else for this... problem?" I suppose Twirla might be miffed that I didn't seek her help in solving this mess... "You did not consider that some of us who were asleep might be mildly conserned about the Pokemon whom have been... affected? Psycho and Bright?" Uh-oh. She's mad.

"Joy-Joy! You should know by now that every Pokemon in this mansion is willing to help you, no matter the time nor emergency!" She's... not mad?
Dissenting that thought, she gives me a hard look. "You ought to remember that I like to be woken up for emergencies, particularly concerning Psycho or Dasher. Not that most emergencies don't concern them. Or Lotus..." Ok, she's a little mad, but willing to help. PHEW.

I explain the entire thing to Twirla and Loppily, and Lotus adds unhelpful, but well-meaning commentary to the tale. I show them the journal, and tell them about Moon Shadow and Full Moon's tale. It happened at the date given in Bright's riddle, but how is this important? Moresoever, what exactly are Moon Shadow and Full Moon?
"You say this Full-Moon pokemon specializes in sleeping attacks? And he's not from around Unova?"
"Yep."
"And he's Dark Type, or darkly-colored, or both?"
"Uh-huh."
Twirla picks the journal. "Have you bothered to look for foreign sleep-inducing Dark Types/dark colored pokemon in the computer's Pokedex program? Or read the rest of the journal, for that matter?"
"Ye- uh, no."

Twirla sets down the journal and walks over to the computer. Loppily follows close behind, unusually mute. "Lets get started then," Twirla says. Of course, Queenie flies into the room. She's the Vespiquen I mentioned earlier. She speaks in kind of a sing-song buzz, which makes her almost as hard to understand as Lotus at times.
"Heaaard I did that Pzzzycho mizzzing and Briiiiight mizzzing. Heaaard I did that otherrrzzz look for them?"
What is with my Grass and Bug types and listening in on conversations? "You heard right, Queenie. Can you help us figure out how Moon Shadow and Full Moon are important to the problem? I was just about to read the rest of the journal." I gesture slightly towards the journal.

Indecively, Queenie flitts between the computer and the journal for a minute. Twirla is searching the pokedex on the computer for Dark pokemon that specialize in sleeping moves, from regions other than Unova. Queenie flutters over to the journal. "Leeetterzzz mizzing? Haaard to read?" She picks it up. "Nooo zzzenzzze it makezzz to you?" Peering closely at it, she clacks her mandibles together, deep in thought. For some reason or other, she runs a finger down one of the pages. "Mooon Zzzhadow transform? What zzzhe beee, Ditto?"
Wait, it says that Moon Shadow transforms? I remember it mentions that she tries to imitate a smaller pokemon. What could that even mean?
" Nooot Dittooo though. Daaark zzzhe be, Dark as Full Moon. Dark type."
"Where does it say this Queenie? I don't remember it saying that Moon Shadow is a dark too."
"Ooobviouzzz. Full Mooon be unlucky luuunar phazzze, dark in luck, light in reeeality. Weeerewolvezzz and zzzuch legendzzz. The Moon's Zzzhadow be dark part of Moon, no? Zzzo zzztandzzz to reazzzon that Moon Zzzhadow be dark too."
Where'd she pull that out of? The logic is sound, one supposes, but what does that indicate? I can't think of any transforming Dark Types... all I can think of is Ditto.
"Mmm... Zzzhe not tranzzzform after all. If zzzhe transform, zzzhe would be able to zzzlip free of boondzzz. Nooo, not tranzzzform."
We all look up from what are doing when the back door knocks three times. Whn I look up, I realize that Rascal and Lotus have managed to slip off when I distracted myself with Queenie. Queenie shuts the journal and buzzes, "I get dooor." She absent-mindedly drops it on the coffee table from the five feet she hovers above it. It lands on the fragile binding, of which the glue is old and disintigrating. With a a flutter of pages, the journal's binding disadheres to the pages, and they scatter all over the table as Queenie exits the room for the hallway to the backyard. Twirla is preocupied with the computer, but Loppily turns and gasps. A sharp intake of breath from me, and I walk hesitantly over to the ruined journal.
Bang goes any help from THAT source.

Dasher

Why didn't I think of this before? As I pick my way down a path back to the mansion, I use a weak Psychic on everyone but Psycho, whom I drag by his uninjured arm. He's sort of getting dragged through mud and dead leaves, so he's aquiring quite a bit of dirt. Oh well.
It's strange to watch the others float along in front of me, supported by my own Psychic attack. The Psychic is draining, but much less so than carrying them back by hand woud be. What do you know, Aunt Spark has a somewhat gentle look on her face when she's unconcious. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she was a nice pokemon.
I'm still worried about Sparkle. She stopped muttering and twitching a bit ago, which I suppose must be good, but now she tosses and turns like she's sleeping and having a nightmare. Or at least, she's trying to, being suspend above the ground and all. I can feel her shudders wrak my Psychic.

Eeriely, the forest still feels empty. I wonder if all the forest pokemon hid or something, because they knew something bad was going to happen.
The house isn't too far from the clearing, and I make it there in a few minutes. I set everyone down gently in the grass, Psycho too, and I walk up to the back door. To my surprise, It's locked. Now who did that?
I knock accerbicaly on the door. Thud, Thud, Thud. People are talking inside, so no-one might have heard me. I'm about to knock again when someone calls through the door;
"It izzz whooo outzzzide?"
It's Queenie, I can tell by the characteristic buzz to her voice.
"Queenie! It's me, Dasher! You got to let me in!"
"Dazzzher? Youuu looocked out pooor Queenie oncezzz, did you not?"
"Geez, a year ago, by accident. This is important Queenie!"
"You muzzzt zzzay pazzzword, or I azzzume you are pozzzezzzed. And crazzzy."
"POSSESSED POKEMON DON'T TALK! I HAVE OTHERS OUT HERE, KNOCKED OUT! They need help Queenie! So, LET ME IN!"
"I zzzay pazzzword wazzz uh, 'Pokemon'. You in, come now, I get help for otherzzz."
The door clicks as she undoes the lock, and then it opens.
Queenie peeks from behind the door. She gaze travels from me, to Sparkle and Psycho, to Roku, Bright and Spark.
"Why you not knocked out? You weakezzzt one there," she quips right before the flies inside the house. Why is it no one has any confidence in me?

Sparkle

I drift along, in a neutral world of gray. Nothing but empty gray space and drifting amorphous black objects. One floats by me. When I look at it, it ripples, and I find that it smells like the forest after a spring rain. I touch it, and snatches of memories flash briefly before my eyes.

"You can't catch me! Slowpoke, Slowbro, Slowking you are! You're the Queen of slow!"
"Dasher!" I giggle breathlessly as I chase him. "No fair! You have longer legs!" He only laughs and
runs on... Psycho runs too. It's a game of tag.

I remember that. Me, Psy and Dasher liked to chase each other back when I was an uncaptured Ralts. We ran through the forest without a care.
The black objects seem to contain memories and sensations. The one by me drifts away.
As it drifts, a bit of movement catches my eye. It's quick, unlike the floating objects, and it speeds from object to object. It's a shadow.
The shadow touches and explores the various objects, looking at my memories. I'm a little fuzzy in my thought processes, and I watch it for a minute. At one point, I sense that it shifts to look at me, even though I can't see it's eyes. The shadow startles a little, and we stare at each other for a while.
The shadow sends a wave of energy towards me, something black. Since I am unable to do anything but drift, it hits me.

The energy wave engulfs me, and I find myself deep in the forest. I am alone, as far as I can tell, and near the small cliffs. Unsure of what to make of this, I take a step forwards, and look all around. Cool forest air fills my lungs, and I feel lightheaded. I have the strange idea that I am looking for someone...
Psycho runs in front of me, then past me. Confused, I pursue. Is he who I am looking for?
Psycho looks back at me, mentally measuring my chase. He runs faster, to one of the cliff sides, and swiftly scales the sheer sides. From rocky crag to rocky crag, he climbs. I follow him, teleporting from ledge to ledge until we both reach the top. I feel glad he never bothered to keep Teleport. I can hold him at the top, and ask him why I'm looking. Psycho glances back at me, and run straight off the other side of the cliffs. I never knew they were this narrow and flat at the top. He jumps down, and I run over to see what happened to him, alarmed. But he has vanished without a trace.
This scenario repeats several times with various Pokemon I know. I wander around the forest, looking for someone, but I don't remember who. Spark or Lotus or even Loppily run out from nowhere. I chase them down, sure they are who I'm looking for, but they disappear somehow. I get increasingly frustrated and frightened as this goes on. Just as Rascal dives into a river and vanishes, the wind whispers to me, Sparkle, it's only a dream, wake up. Wake up now! I gasp, and it feels like I just dove into an icy lake. Closing my eyes, the dream world fractures around me. As the world cracks, the pieces break away into a black void, and I tear my eyes away from the frightful darkness...